Up a double, Siding, Arming
Country Dances, Ancient and Modern

Shoulder Round

Also known as: Gypsy.

Bars: 4.

Gypsy The shoulder round is pattern which can be either left or right, in fact it is almost exactly the same motion as the right/left hand turn — except you aren’t allowed to touch each other, instead you stare soulfully into each other’s eyes as you rotate around. You step in a little, turn either your right or left shoulder to your partner, look over your shoulder at them in as sexy a way as possible and turn around in a circle, usually returning to place.

As with hand turns, the figure may be fractionalized, with a half shoulder round meaning you trade places with the person you are going around.

In the example I have the 1st couple doing a right shoulder round and the 2nd couple doing a left. This combination actually occurs in dances and is called a “partner mirror shoulder round with the women in the middle at start”.

History

John Sweeney has a good article on the origins of this figure, as does Colin Hume.

First of all the term "shoulder round" is a modern invention, it is a replacement for the term "gypsy" which was felt to be offensive. "Gypsy" itself appears to be only slightly less of a modern invention. Cecil Sharp borrowed the term "Gyp" from Morris dancers and used it in some of his interpretations starting in 1911. I don't know who changed that to Gypsy.

But Sharp's "Gyp" is very different from the modern shoulder round (or from the gypsy of twenty years ago). Sharp describes two related figures: "Whole-gip facing centre" and "Whole-gip facing outward", the first of these is like a two hand turn with no hands, in other words you face your partner as you go round them in a circle, the second has you with your back to your partner as you go round them.

(I've never seen either of these figures actually danced).

Porter, Heffer, & Heffer may be the first to use the word "gypsy" rather than "gyp" in The Apted Book, 1931.

If Playford, or any subsequent publishers, ever intended to used any of these three figures, they did not make the fact clear in their dance descriptions.

Some dances which (probably) use this figure

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