Our tutor Rod Downey gives dancers some tips about practicing Rights and Lefts.

Try walking Rights and Lefts one bar at a time with three other people at home.

Download Rod’s diagram for Rights and Lefts below for a bar by bar breakdown.

Below, download the RSCDS Manual p155 for Rights and Lefts.  (By the way, the manual is written for teachers, not designed to learn from, so it’s not necessarily easy to follow).

You can see Rights and Lefts danced on the Lower Hutt website. Recall that this is a square formation you have all done and probably it will be easier with nobody holding on too long!

Note how everyone dances to the corners of the square at the ends of bars 2, 4, 6, 8. This marks the square shape.

I ask that the ‘outside’ person (e.g. 1M and 2L on bar 1) go straighter than the ‘inside’ person (1L and 2M, respectively) who curve inwards slight, so that the square shape is defined. This is an older technique, not in the manual.

Practice this at home to the tunes here. Try to do the courtesy turn at the end if you can. The courtesy turn comes on bars 7 and 8, where 2W and 1M ‘curl’ into place, rather than dancing straight into place. This is so they don’t turn their backs on the last person. Note this is the only time you can hold on longer, the last LH of the formation.

28 April 2020