M33 — Swing Thru / Left Swing Thru

Teaching unit M33 of the CALLERLAB (New) Mainstream Suggested Teaching Order, effective

1 September 2026. Prerequisites: Ocean Wave,

Alamo Ring, Ocean Wave Rule.

Swing Thru / Left Swing Thru

At a glance

Animation

▶ Play this call — pause, step and scrub it: Watching the animations.

Dance action

"Swing Thru: Those who can turn 1/2 (180 degrees) by the right; then those who can turn 1/2

(180 degrees) by the left."

"Left Swing Thru: Those who can turn 1/2 (180 degrees) by the left; then those who can turn 1/2

(180 degrees) by the right."

— CALLERLAB, Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026.

What you do

1. Look at the dancers next to you. In the wave, one of your two neighbours is holding your right hand and the other is holding your left hand.
2. Those who can turn by the right — that is, dancers with a right hand joined to somebody — Arm Turn half way (180 degrees) with that neighbour.
3. Then those who can turn by the left — dancers who now have a left hand joined — Arm Turn half way with that neighbour.

The "those who can" wording is the whole trick: you only ever turn with a hand you are actually holding. In a wave of four, the two dancers on the ends do one turn each and the two in the middle do the other one. Everyone moves once.

For Left Swing Thru, swap the hands: the left-hand turn comes first, then the right.

You finish in a wave, but with everybody's facing direction reversed.

Timing

6 beats — three beats for each half turn. The two halves run straight into each other with no pause, so it feels like one flowing movement.

Styling

"Use Hands Up throughout the call. The first part of the call blends smoothly into the second

part."

— CALLERLAB, Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026.

Do not drop your arms between the two turns. The end of the first arm turn is the start of the second, and the wave handhold stays up the whole time.

Restrictions

The manual is explicit about where this call may begin. After applying the Facing Couples Rule, the starting formation of Swing Thru must be a Wave or an Alamo Ring; it is improper, for example, to call "Swing Thru" from an Inverted Line.

The Plus program manual records the same limit in a slightly different way: at Mainstream, Swing Thru and Left Swing Thru may start only from a Wave of at least three dancers, or from an Alamo Ring. A two-dancer Mini-Wave on its own is not enough; you need at least a wave of three.

There is one extended application. Dancers may work in other groups provided that, after the Facing Couples Rule is applied, they are in a Wave of three or more dancers — and the caller must clearly say which dancers are working together, as in "In the Wave of 6, Swing Thru". Eight dancers working as one group is very unusual and reserved for programs where Grand Swing Thru exists.

Common faults

Where you meet it

Swing Thru is one of the most used calls in the whole Mainstream program. It follows Pass the Ocean, Step to a Wave and almost any call that ends in a wave, and it is everywhere in singing calls. If you can dance Swing Thru without thinking, you can follow a caller through most of an evening. See the course overview for where this unit sits.

Related calls

• Pass the Ocean — the common call that builds the wave first. See M35.
• Extend — walks a wave forward one step. See M36.
• (Named Dancers) Trade — often called right after a Swing Thru. See M32.
• Run / Cross Run — the other common wave call. See M34.
• Ocean Wave Rule — the rule that lets waves stand in for other formations. See Ocean Wave Rule.

Also called / formerly

The reverse-handed version is always called in full as "Left Swing Thru". The manual also notes that from a Tidal Wave, Swing Thru is danced in the wave on each half — no dancer crosses the center of the Tidal Wave.

Manual source: Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026, page 59. Reproduced under the permission in sources and attribution.