I grew up with the no-hands Right & Left Thru (R&L-T), too. Our main local caller in Santa Barbara, CA (my home town) was New England transplant, David Woodsfellow. He taught, and we danced, the no hands version.

And, I've noticed, as Sylvia M. points out, as with many things in the dance, from the woman's side, the with hands R&L-T is more of a challenge, since the pull-by for the person on the right tends to turn them away from the person next to them. Actually, I'm sure most, if not all, of us know this. (Many things, because I've noticed other places where the woman's part is more challenging than the man's part.)

When I started dancing, in 1980, I was told/taught that the no-hands/with-hands R&L-T was regional. But I have a different theory, which, perhaps, Dudley--or others with greater historical knowledge--can shed light on.

Back then David W. called a lot of the old traditional dances with same-sex R&L-Ts. When doing a R&L-T with someone of the same sex, we never did a courtesy turn, we'd do a "wheel-around" something akin to the Butterfly Whirl. Thus the R&L-T was a pass through, put your arm around the same-sex neighbor's back, and spin around half way (or one-and-a-half, or two-and-a-half...). When doing this sort of wheel-around, it's not a "right-then-left" figure, so it helped a lot not holding a hand. Still a pull by, let go, wheel-around worked, but it was a bit easier without the hands.

Even though I love the modern contras, I loved and now miss those dances.

~erik hoffman
    oakland, ca

 

I grew up with the NO HANDS for RLT.  I've experimented with hands a few times and find that if I give a right hand, my path changes slightly and I'm pulled to the right.  If I don't give a hand my path stays straight and I easily turn left for the courtesy turn.

Sylvia Miskoe, concord, NH

 

On Sat, Nov 28, 2015 at 11:43 AM, Tony Parkes tony@hands4.com [trad-dance-callers] <trad-dance-callers@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

 

I second the mention of Gene Hubert’s The Turning Point; it’s one of my favorite modern contras.

 

How about Ted Sannella’s Yankee Reel? I use it as a first exposure to Right and Left Thru (RLT). It ends with Half Promenade and RLT; I explain Half Promenade and then tell the dancers that RLT is a lot like it, except that they’ll “melt” through the opposite couple instead of steering completely around them. They seem to get the courtesy turn better if they’ve just done the same thing at the end of the promenade.

 

Of the 20 or 30 basic moves that occur in most traditional squares and contras, I think RLT is the hardest one for new dancers to comprehend. It’s a compound move: you go straight and then you turn, and you turn in a way you couldn’t have predicted. The most common error, in my experience, is for dancers to do a right-face solo turn after the cross. This is true whether or not they give right hands on the cross. In areas where giving right hands is the norm, it’s important to tell them to let go quickly and not let the handhold force them into turning alone.

 

After 50+ years of teaching, I still haven’t decided whether it’s better to introduce RLT before or after Ladies Chain.

 

Tony Parkes

Billerica, Mass.