M45 — Cast Off Three-Quarters

Teaching unit M45 of the CALLERLAB (New) Mainstream Suggested Teaching Order, effective
1 September 2026. Prerequisites: Mini-Wave,
Centers and Ends, Centers In.

Cast Off Three-Quarters

At a glance


Starting formation	Mini-Wave, or a General Line made of a Mini-Wave and a Couple
Ending formation	A Mini-Wave from a Mini-Wave; Facing Couples from a One-Faced or Two-Faced Line; a General Box from a General Line
Timing	6 beats
Unit	M45 of 50

Animation

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

Dance action

"From a Mini-Wave, Turn 3/4.
From a General Line, each half of the line works together: those in a Mini-Wave Turn 3/4 while
those in a Couple turn, as a unit, away from the center of the Line for 3/4 of a circle (270
degrees)."

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

What you do

Find which half of the line you are in.
If you are in the Mini-Wave, keep your joined hands and turn three-quarters of a turn — 270 degrees — around the centre of your Mini-Wave. You stop before you have completed the circle, so you are now facing a new direction.
If you are in the Couple, stay with your partner, keep your couple handhold, and walk as a unit three-quarters of a circle, away from the centre of the line.
Adjust to your new formation. From a Two-Faced or One-Faced Line you finish as Facing Couples.

Three-quarters is the awkward part. You turn past a half turn but stop short of a full one, so you do not end up where you started and you do not end up facing the opposite way.

Timing

6 beats — three bars of music, the same length as a Swing Thru. Take it slowly and let the beat carry the turn; rushing a three-quarter turn is how dancers end up in the wrong place.

Styling

"Dancers who are partners maintain current handholds throughout the call."

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

Do not let go halfway round, and do not grab a new hand to help yourself round. The handhold you started with is the one you keep.

Restrictions

The manual lists the starting formations as a Mini-Wave or a General Line, and records one improper combination: it is improper to Sweep a Quarter after Cast Off Three-Quarters. The caller should not put those two together.

There is also a long-standing disagreement about where the pivot point sits when a couple turns. The 2026 manual settles it: as long as you turn in the right direction and finish in the right formation, you are dancing the call properly.

Common faults

What happens	Why	The fix
You turn a full circle and are back where you started	Three-quarters slides into a full turn	Stop a quarter short — 270 degrees, facing a new wall
You turn a half turn	Confusing it with a half Trade	It is three-quarters, not a half
The couple turns toward the centre of the line	Turning the wrong way	The Couple turns away from the centre of the line
You end up facing the wrong wall in a Two-Faced Line	The Couple and the Mini-Wave turned different amounts	Every dancer turns three-quarters; the two halves just dance it differently

Where you meet it

Cast Off Three-Quarters is most often heard in the pair "Centers In, Cast Off Three-Quarters", which takes a Completed Double Pass Thru to Facing Couples. It also appears as simply "Cast Off 3/4". See the course overview.

Centers In — the call that normally sets it up. See M44.
Single Hinge — one half turn from the same Mini-Wave, where this is three-quarters. See M43.
Swing Thru — the same six beats of turning, by the right and then the left. See M33.
Wheel and Deal — two couples turning as units, like the Couple half of this call. See M26.

Also called / formerly

You will nearly always hear the short form "Cast Off 3/4". There are other fractions in the wider dance world — Half Cast Off, Cast Off a Full — but at Mainstream this unit is the three-quarter turn and nothing else.

Manual source: Mainstream Dance Program Definitions, revised 29 March 2026, page 22. Reproduced under the permission in sources and attribution.