Luke,

In square dance there is a figure called grand sashay. It is essentially a grand R&L, or weave the ring, with dosidos and seesaw. You might look that figure up as the weave is a dodge, and the dosido//seesaw would allow for twirling.

I have included the definition below. Grand Sashay is fun to dance, and the hands can be eliminated if desired. If it is done inside a square or mescolanza it should bring the four dancers back to where they started it, and it would be 32 steps/beats.

That is a long time to keep the men inactive. However if all eight dancers danced it in a mescolanza, they would end up on opposite ends and in opposite lines. This could be a useful call that results in progression just as in a R&L Grande. Dancers could balance & swing and then face original direction when they meet.

Definition:

From a Right And Left Grand Formation (e.g., after Allemande Left).

Dosado, right pull by;
Seesaw, left pull by;
Dosado, right pull by;
Seesaw, left pull by.

Ends in a Right And Left Grand Formation.

Comments and Examples:

Same as Right And Left Grand except that a
Dosado or Seesaw (left-shoulder Dosado)
is inserted before each pull by.

The Burleson's definition says to bow before each pull by.

Rickey Holden 1949

On Tue, Dec 1, 2015 at 4:03 PM, Luke Donforth via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Thanks all for the feedback. I appreciate having this list to kick ideas around.

While it would be possible for the do-si-dos to happen in two groups of 2; in my opinion that would make this a particularly non-interacting 4x4; as the only whole group of 8 interaction at that point is the circle half way; and thus not worth getting into 4x4 formation for just that.

As for my comment about the ladies after the chain.

After the give&take - swing, the lines are:
w3 m1 w4 m2
m3 w1 m4 w2

When the women chain to the partner, if they went straight up and down, they're ending up back at:
w1 m1 w2 m2
m3 w3 m4 w4
after being courtesy turned through 180 degrees.

Except the next move is happening in the center, so as w2 and w3 are being courtesy turned, they'll be facing into the center after maybe 140 degrees of rotation; whereas w1 and w4 have to turn about 220 degrees to face into center.

As for language, I think I may have muddied the issue; so thank you for demonstrating all the ways that my instructions could be interpreted. Always a learning experience. A handless star/promenade inside/4 person gypsy is not quite what I had in mind, although they're all basically the same path on the floor and certainly what I described. I'd envisioned folks getting to do-si-do with as little or as much twirling as the wanted; but as folks pointed out, the DSD twirl is the opposite direction of the big picture rotation.

If I can get dancers to test it, I might describe it as "all four women, do-si-do your opposite woman while dodging the other two"

Given that's how I'm thinking of it; the fact that my description involves "dodging" might be a sign it's not such a great idea. The promenade inside or star options might be more timing resilient; although I like the idea of letting folks safely twirl when they want.

I'll keep turning it over in my head, and try to get guinea pigs to dance it (there's something that would go viral on youtube...)

Thanks for being a community to talk about dancing with :-)
Luke

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