M27 — California Twirl
Teaching unit M27 of the CALLERLAB (New) Mainstream Suggested Teaching Order, effective
1 September 2026. Prerequisites: Normal Couple,
California Twirl
At a glance
| Starting formation | A Normal Couple only |
| Ending formation | Couple — the same two dancers, facing the other way |
| Timing | 4 beats |
| Unit | M27 of 50 |
Animation
▶ Play this call — pause, step and scrub it: Watching the animations.
Dance action
"Dancers raise joined hands to form an arch and exchange places with each other by having the Woman
walk forward and under the arch along a tight left-turning semicircle. The Man walks a slightly
wider right-turning semicircle."
— CALLERLAB, Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026.
What you do
You are standing beside your partner in an ordinary couple handhold, both facing the same way.
- Join the inside hands and lift them to make an arch. Keep hold of your partner's hand.
- Both walk forward.
- The Girl walks forward and turns left a half circle, going under the arch on a tight curve.
- The Boy walks a slightly wider right-turning half circle round the outside of her.
You finish standing beside your partner again, but now facing the opposite way — the couple has swapped ends. The two of you pass right shoulders as you go, and you never let go of the arch. In the manual's words, the dancers "have exchanged places, passing right shoulders, and are both facing in the opposite direction from which they started".
The Girl does the tight turn and the Boy walks the wide arc, so the two paths are the different halves of the same circle.
Timing
4 beats — two bars of music, the same as Star Thru. Enough time to walk round each other comfortably, not enough time to think about it. The animation runs in 3 beats, so if you are practising from the tracks, do not be surprised that it looks a shade quicker than the caller's figure.
Styling
"Man and Woman use a loose hand grip. Outside hands are in natural dance position. For smoothness,
the joined hands should move backward slightly while being raised to form the arch; this will give
the dancers an initial turning motion toward each other."
— CALLERLAB, Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026.
The manual is unusually blunt about the most common bad habit: "It is important that the Man does not "wind" or "crank" the Woman. The Man's hand should be used to aid the Woman's stability as she provides her own momentum." Adjust back to an ordinary couple handhold when you have finished. If the Girl is not comfortable raising her arm, or the Boy's arms are not long enough, the manual says to slide out of the handhold and "gesture with fingertips at an imaginary arch" — the shape is the point, not the grip.
Restrictions
The manual gives the starting formation as "Normal Couple only". A Normal Couple is one with the Boy on the left and the Girl on the right, both facing the same way. A Sashayed couple — Girl on the left — is not a legal start; if you find yourself sashayed, the caller must fix it first. This is one of the few calls in the programme with a hard start formation, and it is the reason Dive Thru insists the arch-making couple is Normal. See Mainstream restrictions.
Common faults
| What happens | Why | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| The Girl is pulled round instead of walking round | The Boy is steering | The arch is for stability only. The Girl turns herself |
| You finish facing the same way you started | The turn stopped short of a half circle | Keep going until you are facing exactly the other way |
| Your arms collide with your partner | The arch was raised too late, or too low | Lift the joined hands while you step forward, not after |
| You end up in a heap | The Boy took the tight turn and the Girl the wide one | The Girl's path is the tight left semicircle; the Boy's is the wider right one |
Where you meet it
California Twirl is taught in Class 7. You will meet it inside other calls as much as on its own — Dive Thru ends with the arch-making couple doing a California Twirl — and it is the standard way to turn a couple round when a figure needs them facing the other way.
Related calls
- Star Thru — the arch and the turn, but it converts a facing pair into a couple. See M18.
- Dive Thru — the California Twirl used as the second half of a bigger call. See M29.
- Slide Thru — another way to change a facing pair into a couple facing the same way. See M28.
- Box the Gnat — the same exchange done from facing dancers with a different hand action. See M30.
Also called / formerly
California Twirl has always been called California Twirl. When the manual was written it said Man and Woman; the 2026 programme says Boys and Girls, and older callers will say Gents and Ladies. It is the same two roles.
Manual source: Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026, page 21. Reproduced under the permission in sources and attribution.