Your first call — Circle Left
You can do this one right now. To dance it alone you need to imagine seven other people, so if you can, stand in a circle with friends.
Circle Left
You need: eight dancers standing in a circle, holding hands. You finish: the same circle, rotated left.
What you do
- Join hands with the dancers on either side of you. An ordinary couple handhold: your palms up, your neighbours' palms down if you are alternating, or everyone right-palm-up if you are not.
- Face slightly left as you join up — not straight at your partner, but turned along the circle.
- Walk forwards. Everyone walks, at the same pace, in the same direction. The circle turns to the left — clockwise if you are looking down at the square from above.
- Keep the circle round. Your elbows stay comfortably bent, hands a little above the elbow. Nobody pushes, nobody lags.
Stop when the caller says so, or after the stated amount of turn.
How far?
The manual gives the fractions and their timing:
| Command | Turn | Beats |
|---|---|---|
| Circle Left 1/4 | a quarter of the way round | 4 |
| Circle Left 1/2 | half way round | 8 |
| Circle Left 3/4 | three quarters | 12 |
| Circle Left (full) | all the way round | 16 |
If the caller just says "Circle Left" and nothing else, you circle until told to stop or to reverse. "Circle" on its own means Circle Left.
"Reverse" or "Go the other way" means stop and go the other direction — usually followed immediately by "Circle Right".
Styling
"As dancers join hands (Couple handhold) to form a circle, they face slightly left or right as
directed. All dancers walk forward with joined hands, elbows bent comfortably so that hands are
above the elbow."
— CALLERLAB, Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026.
Two regional habits exist for the eight-dancer circle: a plain walking step, or a grapevine step where the body and arms turn left and right in time with the feet, letting you catch eyes with your corner and partner in turn. Both are accepted. The grapevine is not recommended in four-dancer circles.
Common faults
| What happens | Why | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| The circle goes oval and speeds up on the turns | Some dancers are taking longer steps than others | Everyone takes the same size step. The dancers on the outside of the drift take shorter ones |
| Your arms ache | Elbows locked | Keep them bent, hands above elbow height, weight in your feet not your arms |
| You creep towards the middle | People are pulling inward | Circle around a fixed centre; there is a clear space in the middle and it should stay clear |
A note on the middle
The centre of the square has a name: the flagpole centre. When the eight of you are circling, everyone faces it. See Directions for facing in and facing out.
The other two circles
Circle Left exists in three sizes, and the difference matters because you finish in a different shape each time:
| Size | Starts from | You finish as |
|---|---|---|
| Circle Left (8 dancers) | a squared set, a circle, or facing lines | the same circle |
| Circle Four Left (4 dancers) | facing couples — two couples | the same facing couples, rotated |
| Single Circle Left (2 dancers) | facing dancers — one pair | the same facing pair |
All three are in teaching unit M1, and the call page has the figures.
Where to go next
- how the caller tells you what is coming → How a call works
- counting the music → Timing and music