Drills

A drill is a short call sequence that puts two or three calls together and then stops. Dance it slowly until the shapes are right, then dance it again to music.

Every drill here starts from a squared set, except where the note says otherwise, and uses only calls taught in that class or earlier. The class pages carry their own drills; this is the graded set, one per class, with a warm-up at the start and a get-out at the end.

Warm-up

  1. Circle Left 1/4 Dosado Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains the first evening's calls and gets the square moving before anything new arrives.

Class 1 — the ring and the allemande

  1. Circle Left (Full) Forward and Back Dosado Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains the ring at full length, then the same calls after a movement that changes only the timing.

Class 2 — stars and the grand

  1. Circle Left 1/4 Allemande Left Right and Left Grand Promenade Home

Trains the allemande-to-grand join that closes almost every tip.

Class 3 — the couple calls

  1. Heads Right and Left Thru Heads Ladies Chain Heads Swing Promenade Home

Trains the three couple calls in the order a caller most often uses them.

Class 4 — passing and leading

  1. Heads Lead Right Heads Half Sashay Heads U-Turn Back Heads Lead Left Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains the turn-and-lead calls with the sashay between them.

Class 5 — veer, Star Thru and the circulate

  1. Heads Lead Right Veer Left Couples Circulate Bend the Line Right and Left Thru Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains Veer into a line, the circulate along it, and Bend the Line from facing couples.

Class 6 — across and back

  1. Heads Square Thru 4 Swing Thru Boys Trade Girls Trade Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains Square Thru into a wave, then the trades that put every dancer back in sequence.

Class 7 — lines and turns

  1. Heads Double Pass Thru First Couple Go Left, Next Couple Go Right California Twirl Pass Thru Wheel and Deal Double Pass Thru Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains the split column, the twirl and the wheel, and finishes with a pass through that returns the square.

Class 8 — waves and the box

  1. Heads Pass Thru Heads Dive Thru Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains Dive Thru from a facing line, and finishes the figure the way a tip usually finishes.

Class 9 — waves in motion

  1. Heads Pass Thru Heads Pass the Ocean Swing Thru Extend Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains Pass the Ocean, the swing through the wave, and the extend that moves the wave along.

Class 10 — wheels and sweeps

  1. Heads Pass Thru Heads Flutterwheel Heads Sweep a Quarter Heads Pass Thru Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains Flutterwheel and Sweep a Quarter side by side, so the class hears the difference.

Class 11 — quarters and centres

  1. Heads Touch a Quarter Single Hinge Centers In Cast Off Three Quarters Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains four small quarter turns in a row, which is what the class has to do without thinking.

Class 12 — the last calls

  1. Heads Pass Thru Heads Square Thru 4 Spin the Top Scoot Back Allemande Left Promenade Home

Trains the two wave calls of the last class back to back, and brings the square home.

Get-out

  1. Allemande Left Right and Left Grand Promenade Home

Trains the standard get-out: allemande to corner, grand right and left, promenade. Use it whenever you want a figure to finish cleanly.

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