Re: History of "Walk Around"

I've found a couple more variations on "all around your left hand lady,"though I think the ones Tom has cited cover what I have most often read. Watch the sequence that starts at about 0:31 in this 1951 film produced by Bob Osgood: https://squaredancehistory.com/items/show/654 It seems to me that both gents and ladies face pretty much toward the center of the square the whole time. The gents may be doing most of the traveling to get around the ladies while the ladies move more nearly straight forward and back, but the ladies seem to be doing a least a little sideways movement to give the gents a shorter path. The ladies' sideways movement is most evident after the cut to a different camera angle at 0:35. In _American Square Dances of the West and Southwest_ (1949), Lee Owens writes: "All around your Left Hand Lady" is the fourth variety of the Sashay. In this movement the gentlemen only encircle their Corner Ladies, passing back to back with them, then facing center and dancing in front of them back to place, keeping their backs to the ladies as they encircle them. As the gentlemen dance around the ladies, the ladies dance two steps forward and pause until the gentlemen have "cleared" them and then dance two steps backward to place as the gentlemen complete their encircling movement around the ladies. The figure requires eight beats of music and is danced between Corners. It is usually followed by the same movement danced between Partners to the call of "See-saw your pretty little Taw," or, "Sashay 'round your pretty Baby," ... Owens's description of the See-Saw/Sashay part similarly says, "The gentlemen keep their backs to the ladies throughout ..." I can't recall seeing this styling recommended anywhere else besides Owens's books. --Jim