The circle is the oldest form of group dance, which measures and shapes space with one's body; brings the community together around a centre, symbolic or real: the village fire, the altar, an important person or one who needs support from the group. In circle dances the community gathered and danced for itself, the world, the divinities, the stars, reproducing their rotational movement. No leaders or hierarchies, just a group that simply gets in touch with the sacred and nourishes a sense of community.
A form of contact is almost always established between those who participate which requires them to adapt their steps and find a common movement and rhythm; you hold hands, you grab your neighbor by the shoulders or hips, you hug…
 In 'simple' circle dances a sequence - short or long - of movement is performed, which is always repeated the same for everyone from start to finish, without changing one's position in the circle.
In 'complex' dances, however, the dancer periodically leaves his initial place by changing position with respect to the others (in coordination with the group). In these dances we will find crossed figures, in chains, in lines, in concentric circles, in bridges, in arches, in stars and many others...

The proposed circle dances will be:
Breton and French circles (Chappelise, Circle circassien, Bourrée, Branle…)
Waltz in a circle (from Ireland, Scotland, Spain...)

Balkan and Greek dances (Icariotikos, Hassapico, Biserka, Kolo…)

Eastern European dances (Bear Dance, Alunelul, Tzigan tchitza, Small and Large Cross, Drumul Dragului, Goat Dance…)

Dances from Italy (the Sardinian circles, the various forms of Scottish and Sicilian polche in circle...).

The original form of serpentine dances is a free and open movement of rhythmic exploration of space; starting from the closed ring shape, the community opens towards the external space and relies on a guide who leads it towards a goal: it becomes a queue that metaphorically crosses a treacherous path in search of something; a group of women and men who extricate themselves from the "deceptions of the labyrinth" and, victorious and triumphant, find the exit by following the 'master'abballu' and faithfully imitating his steps. Serpentine dances take different shapes and steps. The dances on two lines arranged frontally allow a 'contrasting' action. The main themes of this type of dance are love games and fights: in love games men and women arrange themselves in front of each other in an attitude of courtship and conquest, in the latter the group is divided into two. hostile choirs'; but there can also be astral and other symbols: the divisions between members of different social groups, such as the 'outspoken' and the married, or those devoted to one Saint rather than another...


We will deal with:

Farandole (An Dro and Hunter Dro, Rondeau from Gascony...)
.

Dances from the Balkan area (Serbian Kolo, Rom Dances, Kurdish Dances…)
 Bourrée and other dances in two rows and in 'squares'
.

Quadrille (from Ireland, Quebec, and the countless forms of Sicilian CONTRADDANCE).

We will resume the Bourrée introduced in the first year to study its countless regional variations (in 2 and 3 times, in pairs, in squares, in a circle, in rows...); the study of the variants of Scottish (also impaire) will be deepened; the Rondeau in pairs, the Congo, the French Mazurka will be introduced; the rhythmic variations of the Waltz (in 5, 8, 11 beats...); we will introduce the very complicated Irish Polka sets; we will start to 'play' with the rhythms played with the feet (a practice that exists in many traditional dances - not only in Flamenco - from Ireland to France to Sicily)..