Divide the Ring and Cut Away Four

Cutting off Three, Two, and One ~ Quicksand Divide the Ring and Cut Away Four

Divide the Ring and Cut Away Four is a Square Dance. It was published by Lloyd Shaw in 1939 in Cowboy Dances. It is a Square dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 208 bars.

Lloyd Shaw writes:

THE CALL:

  1. Honors right and honors left.
    All join hands and circle to the left.
    Break and swing and promenade home.
    1. First couple balance and first couple swing,
      Down the center and divide the ring.
      The lady goes right and the gent goes left.
    2. Swing when you meet
      At the head and the feet.
    3. Down the center and cut away four,
      The lady goes right and the gent goes wrong.
      Swing when your meet
      At the head and the feet.
    4. Down the center and cut away two,
      The lady goes gee and the gent goes haw.
    5. Everybody swing.
  2. Now swing on the corner,
    Allemande left with the one you swung.
    Right hand to partner and trot right along, Promenade eight when you get straight.

Repeat 2 and 3 for second, third, and fourth couples.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), circle, lead, rights and lefts, swing (and probably others).

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=DivideTheRingAndCutAwayFour

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The dance is copyright © 1939 by Lloyd Shaw. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.