How to play
- Participants
- At least two couples. The source sets no upper limit.
- Space
- A level area where each couple can step and turn without colliding with others.
- Equipment
- Music suitable for this version, or a live musician · A leader who demonstrates the movements and musical section boundaries before starting
- Starting formation
- Couples stand in a circle in waltz hold, turned slightly sideways. The formation diagrams cited in LNKC’s text are absent from its online page. Before the music starts, a leader must show each partner’s facing and identify their exact next partner.
- Section I, bars 1–2: take two step-close movements towards the centre. In bars 3–4 take two back outwards. Repeat in bars 5–8.
- Section II, bar 1: dancers taking the source’s women’s role walk two steps to the next partner identified by the leader, clapping three times. The source calls him the next man on the right, but the surviving text does not establish whose facing determines right. Men turn halfway over their left shoulder in place to meet the incoming partner and clap once.
- Bars 2–4: the new partners take waltz hold and turn on the spot to the right in six walking steps.
- Bar 5: release hands, face each other and clap three times on one-and-two.
- Bars 6–8: resume waltz hold and turn in the opposite direction. Finish ready for the next inward movement.
- Before dancing the whole cycle, rehearse one partner change slowly with a leader. Each moving dancer must know exactly whom to approach, and each receiving dancer must know which side the new partner comes from. Right alone does not establish clockwise or anticlockwise progression around the circle.
Ending: Repeat each cycle with a new partner. Moving around the whole circle brings dancers back to their first partner; finishing then is a useful workshop agreement.
Documented version: LNKC’s circular version with partner changes. The title does not restrict the dance to four people.
Getting ready
Learn waltz hold and the step-close movement beforehand: step sideways and bring the other foot alongside. The turns in section II use walking steps.
Making the partner change clear
The source specifies a waltz hold, but the drawings referred to as figures 1–3 are missing. The initial facings and the reference point for right cannot therefore be reliably reconstructed from this page alone. Use this account to follow a version taught by a leader; it is insufficient as an independent beginner lesson.
Which version are we learning?
LNKC’s circular version with partner changes. The title does not restrict the dance to four people.