Tech Squares: the square and round dance club of MIT

Call of the Month: June, 1991

Coordinate

by Barry Leiba

Last month we looked at CUT THE DIAMOND and saw an example of a three-and-one line—a line in which three dancers are facing in one direction and the fourth is facing in the other. Three-and- one lines are not often seen at the Plus level, but some callers do use them and do some interesting figures with them. This month we'll take a new look at COORDINATE.

Most of you have probably never done COORDINATE except from a standard column where everyone holds right (or possibly left) hands. How can we do COORDINATE from lines? Let's review the definition:

1) All 8 circulate once and a half
2) Center six trade (triple trade)
3) End two and very center two move up

Now let's set up a three-and-one line. Get out your little figurines and follow along:

1) Heads PASS THE OCEAN (a quarter-tag formation)
2) Sides TRADE AND ROLL (funny diamonds)
3) CUT THE DIAMOND (three-and-one lines with sides in the centers facing out)
4) Girls TRADE (now everyone's facing in except the side boys, who are in the centers of their lines)
5) COORDINATE...

First, everyone circulates once... for the centers that's a BOX CIRCULATE and for the ends it's a PASS THRU. Next everyone circulates one half... for the centers, again, it's a BOX CIRCULATE, putting them into a diamond with the boys holding hands and the girls at the points. The ends go around the outside, meet, and take right hands. Now the girls have left hands on the outsides, two of the boys have right hands in the middle, and the two remaining boys are alone on the very ends. So the center six trade: the center boys trade by the right, all the girls trade by the left. Finally, the end two boys and the center two boys all move up to become the points of facing diamonds.

So now we can finish the sequence with:

6) DIAMOND CIRCULATE, girls turn back
7) FLIP THE DIAMOND and trade
8) RIGHT AND LEFT GRAND.

(Printable Version)

The columns are copyright ©1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 by Barry Leiba; for permission to reprint them, please contact the author. No request has been refused yet. Of course, you may print a copy for personal use without specific permission. You may contact the author by e-mail at "leiba@watson.ibm.com".

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