Why is it hard for contra dancers to circle right?

Pushing, pulling, and following the leader

I like dancing, social dancing particularly, and contra dancing especially. Today, I’m going to talk about three things. The third thing I’ll talk about is why, in contra dancing, it’s usually harder to circle to the right than to circle to the left.

Contra dancers either just starting or just finishing a circle move — most likely a chain into a circle, I would guess. From source.

In order to get there, I need to first talk about leading and following in dancing, talk a little bit about how contra dancing works, and then I can talk about one weird reason why contra dancers, even experienced ones, so frequently mess up when trying to circle right.

I can think of three reasons why it’s harder to circle right, but one is self-fulfilling, an effect as much of a cause: Contra dances usually don’t include rightward circling because it’s harder. A second is that when going into or out of a swing, angular momentum is in the same direction as a leftward circle, which means one of the most common dance moves “flows” the opposite direction from a rightward circle. Those are simple reasons. But I believe there’s also a third reason.

What does it mean to “lead” and “follow” in dance?

The short and succinct answer many beginning dancers want to hear when they ask this question at the start of a…