Unlike most modern Petronella-style dances, Petronella calls for a twirl into place and then a balance in a diamond, rather than a balance followed by a twirl in a group of four dancers oriented square to the set. In the old version of Petronella that I enjoy, the active couple begins, and the gent has to twirl a greater distance down the set before hands are joined for the balance, a movement and a momentum that encourages a right-to-left balance to get reoriented. At the end of the twirl-and-balance sequence, the inactive couple has to get out of the way so that the active couple may proceed down the hall, and again the physics of a right-and-left movement helps them as they exit from the path of the active couple. The minor sets of modern Petronella-style dances are square to the larger sets, are more stable, require less energy and creativity for couples to get into and out of them, and thus permit, or even encourage, balancing forward-and-back. … Bob On Nov 24, 2012, at 12:43 PM, Chrissy Fowler <ktaadn_me(a)hotmail.com> wrote: