California Twirl

Also known as: California Whirl, Frontier Twirl, Twirl to Swap.

An online definition may be found here.

Bars: 2.

This figure involves a couple, standing side by side, with the woman to the right of the man and inside hands joined. They change places, and end facing the other way (with the same hands still joined. The man walks forward outside the woman in a semicircle turning right, while the woman twirls under their joined hands 180° to the left.

History

Lloyd Shaw does not mention it in his Cowboy Dances from 1939.

The first use I can find is from the report of the "Southern California Square Dance Standardization Subcommitee" which was published in the January 1951 issue of Sets in Order.

California Whirl (Turn-back or around after an arch)

Although the modern California Twirl is invariably done with the man on the left and woman on the right, this does not seem to be the case in 1951 with more examples where the man is on the right:

It's Corners California Whirl, and see-saw round with your own sweet girl

"California Whirl": holding his corner's right hand in his left, the gent twirls the lady in a CW spin under his left arm while he walks a half CCW turn, ending up at arm's length, each facing in proper grand-right-and-left direction. Then passing corner girl by left shoulder, see-saw round partner, also passing left shoulder

California, Here I Come by Bob Hall, published in the Nov, 1951 issue of Sets in Order

By 1953, the term "California Twirl" appears in Easy Key Handbook of Square Dance Fundamentals, Clarke Kugler. And his definition now says that the woman is on the man's right.

Things were different on the East Coast: in Northern Junket, Aug, 1970, page 22 there is a dance which uses the term "Frontier Twirl" (with a comment saying it's a new term for an old figure) in a context where I'd use a "California Twirl", so I suspect the two are the same. Although published in 1970, the dance itself dates to 1968.

CALLERLAB published the first standardized list of calls in 1975, and California Twirl was on that list.

Recently I have seen the term "Twirl to Swap" used to mean a non-gendered version of California Twirl, and, occasionally, "Box the Gnat", and "Star Through".

Some dances which (probably) use this figure

• Dances for which I have animations

Note: This list may be incorrect or incomplete.

See Also

• Box the Gnat

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