[Callers] Re: The Spiral Dance

I’ve done this often as part of the Grand March, I do it as the first “dance” of the evening. The only people who really need to know what will happen is the first few people - I typically lead the group, and either prompt the next couple of people as necessary or give them a heads up before the dance. I don’t often do it as a partner dance just so that everyone of all ages can join in, and let everyone know it’s a “follow the leader” dance. I turn on the music, start walking around and have people join onto the end of the line as I weave around room. Once everyone interested has joined, I lead the line in a circle around the edge of the room. Gradually I tighten the circle in a spiral formation until there’s just a small space in the middle - you do have to slow down as the spiral tightens to avoid too much pulling on arms. Once there’s just a bit of space in the middle, it’s a sharp u-turn for the leader, then spiral out. It is everyone’s favorite moment when it happens, especially if they didn’t realize it was coming! From there, as the spiral unwinds I lead around in a circle again until the next set of figures. I will weave in and out of the line without dropping hands as one move. Another is making arches - the first two make an arch, the line travels under and the next two make an arch and so on everyone has travelled under the arches and then formed one. At the point the arches “collapse” - the lead two people drop their arch and then travel under the arch themselves. Once out on the other side, can either transition to a move with everyone paired up or form up the line/ring of joined hands. When done with live music, once I’ve completed all the figures I drop hands and everyone gathers around where the band is and claps along until the music stops. Hopefully that makes sense! I can’t remember which book, but either Sashay the Donut or Listen to the Mockingbird describes some of the different possible moves. Google may bring up some different ideas and videos as well. 🙂 -Jessica