From a MWSD perspective, Half Sashayed means that the
dancers are in 
opposite rolls.  The call rollaway with/to a half sachay is now
discouraged, but it most often put the ladies on the man's left, thus they
were half sashayed.  Today, as all position dance and dance by definition,
are commom MWSD terms the rollaway to a half sashay no longer works, but
 that is the root of the confusion.
Acommon break sequence is
A1  Four ladies chain (8), Rollaway(4) and circle left (4)
A2  Four ladies rollaway (4) Circle left (4),  Allemande Left
B1  R&L Grande (10), Dosiso (6)
B2  Promenade (16)
At the end of A1, the men have rotated 1/4 around the square, at the end of
A2, men have rotated 1/2.  The R&L Grande brings them back to home for a
full promenade.  The men are essentially stationary during the rollaway,
and move on the two circle left commands.
Half Sashay (4) is usually called to accomplish the role switch when it is
not a circle formation to begin.  The sequence of Heads, R&L thru, Heads
Half Sashay, Heads Star Thru leaves the heads in the center of the square
facing their corner.  This "half sashay"  call requires the men to slide to
the right as the lady moves forward, slides left, and backs up.
The call "rollaway with a half sashay' is redundant effectively restoring
dancers to their original position.  That is the reason it's use is
discouraged and being discontinued.
Rich
Stafford Springs, CT
On Sat, Aug 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Don Veino via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
  I have to respectively disagree here.
 In my experience, a "roll away" (RA) call has been conflated with a "roll
 away with a half sashay" (RAHS) for many dancers (and callers) - but the
 moves are distinct and can have choreographic significance. What I think
 has happened is that callers are using abbreviated calls of something like
 "roll" for the RAHS situation (which is more common) and that has colored
 the interpretation.
 In my understanding, the two calls are like this (the "|" symbol denoting
 the boundary between adjacent hands-four):
 "Gents Roll (Away) the Ladies" (Ladies only change position):
 Starting position G0 L1|G1 L2|G2 L3
 Ending position G0 L2|G1 L3|G2 L4
 "Gents Roll (Away) the Ladies with a Half Sashay" (Ladies and Gents swap
 position):
 Starting position G0 L1|G1 L2|G2 L3
 Ending position L1 G0|L2 G1|L3 G2
 Of course, this can be also done in other configurations like circles and
 boxes.
 I ran into this a short while ago while calling a new (to me) dance and
 having the walk-through fail. I knew the dance was right and my instruction
 was correct. Rather than try to figure it out on the fly I bailed to a
 fall-back dance. As I video most of my gigs, I was able to go back to that
 and see what happened.
 In this instance the difference between the calls was very significant. I
 called a RA but the dancers (mostly) did a RAHS. This was in a box
 configuration, meaning the dancer pairing became opposite to what was
 intended. The next time I call this dance I will be sure to say "Roll Away
 BUT NO Half Sashay, Gents stay put".
 -Don
 On Sat, Aug 22, 2015 at 11:38 AM, Tom Hinds via Callers <
 callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
  I don't think there is a difference.
 On Aug 21, 2015, at 5:19 PM, Claire Takemori via Callers wrote:
 In Contra dancing, what is the difference between "Roll your ___
  Across/along"  and "Roll away with a
half sashay"?
 What are your favorite words to teach this move?
 thanks!!
 claire takemori (Bay Area, CA)
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