M10 — Right and Left Thru
Teaching unit M10 of the CALLERLAB (New) Mainstream Suggested Teaching Order, effective
1 September 2026. Prerequisites: Facing Couples,
Right and Left Thru
At a glance
| Starting formation | Facing Couples |
| Ending formation | Facing Couples — the same two couples, swapped over |
| Timing | 6 beats |
| Unit | M10 of 50 |
Animation
▶ Play this call — pause, step and scrub it: Watching the animations.
Dance action
"Right Pull By; Courtesy Turn"
— CALLERLAB, Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026.
What you do
Two couples are facing each other. You are going to walk past the facing dancer and then turn your own partner round.
- Take right hands with the dancer facing you and pass them, letting go as you go by. It is a Right Pull By — a light touch, not a tug. The manual says a literal pull "is neither required nor desired".
- Slide past and find your own partner on the far side. You and your partner are now side by side, facing out, away from the couple you just passed.
- Courtesy Turn with your partner. Join left hands and turn as a unit until you are facing the middle again — see M9 for the full hold.
- Finish as Facing Couples: the two couples are facing each other again, but each dancer has swapped to the other side of the set.
The whole call is one smooth movement: pass, meet your partner, turn, face in. Six beats.
Timing
6 beats — about four beats of walking through the middle and two beats of turning. If you find yourself waiting for your partner, you passed too fast; if you collide, you passed too close.
Styling
"Dancers extend right hands to each other, and perform a Pass Thru action, releasing handholds as
they pass each other. A literal "pull" is neither required nor desired."
Everything about the second half is Courtesy Turn styling: left hands joined, palm down on palm up, right hands light and free.
Restrictions
At Mainstream the Courtesy Turn in this call is a Boy turning a Girl, so Right and Left Thru needs Normal Couples. From Facing Lines where only the centre dancers form a Normal Couple, the manual is explicit: the caller must not say "Right and Left Thru" hoping that only the centres will do it — the proper call is "Centers Right and Left Thru".
Common faults
| What happens | Why | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| You end up facing the wrong couple | Turning before you reach your partner | Pass the facing dancer first, then find your own partner and turn |
| The pull becomes a wrestling match | Gripping the hand and hauling | Touch and release. The momentum comes from your feet |
| You finish beside your partner instead of facing in | Skipping the Courtesy Turn | Right Pull By then Courtesy Turn. Both halves are required |
| The two couples end up too close | Passing down the middle too slowly | Walk through at a steady pace and finish a comfortable distance apart |
Where you meet it
Class 3. Right and Left Thru is the standard way to send two facing couples past each other, and it appears in almost every tip from here on — often as a caller's favourite way to fill eight beats without moving anybody far.
Related calls
- Courtesy Turn — the second half of this call, taught on its own. See M9.
- Pass Thru — the straight-through move without hands or turn. See M7.
- Square Thru — four pull-bys instead of one. See M21.
- Ladies Chain — the Ladies cross instead of the partners swapping. See M12.
Also called / formerly
You will hear "Right and Left Through" and, in some clubs, "Right and Left" on its own. A "Right and Left Thru and a Quarter More" adds another quarter turn and ends in a Right-Hand Two-Faced Line — that is the same call with a stated extra amount.
Manual source: Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026, page 50. Reproduced under the permission in sources and attribution.