Mitosis Circle Ceilidh Dance

Greetings Folkies!  I'm going to share today a dance of my own devising.  It is known, for reasons which may or may not become obvious, as the Mitosis Circle (32-bar Jig or Reel).

It's a circle dance for a fixed number of people (unusual for a circle dance, I'm let to believe) and can be danced to any 32-bar reel (although I think a jig would work just as well to be honest).  The dance is quite simple once it is set up, but may throw people who are expecting a balanced number of left-right steps.  The dance involves left-right circles, with each circle splitting into two smaller ones at the end of each section.  So, how does it work;

Forming Up
This is, by a long margin, the hardest part of this dance.  Because the circles need to be constant each time to avoid people fighting over partners, you are best off getting people to organise themselves in the following way;

1. Everybody find a partner
2. In your couples, find another couple to dance with
3. Each group of four, find another group of four
4. Each group of eight find another group of eight to make a circle of 16 people.

Which all sounds simple enough, but I guarantee there will be people confused by this.  You will need to stress that they remember the groups they were dancing in at each stage.

So, from there it's a case of some simple counting and basic fractions;  join hands and circle left for a count of eight, then back round to the right for a count of four, before breaking the circle and forming two smaller circles in a count of four.  The dance just repeats this figure until they are reduced to groups of four, at which point the figure becomes left hand star, right hand star, and then couples doing a left hand turn followed by a right hand turn, before everybody rushes back to the big 16-person circle to start the dance over again.  Simple right?

Dealing with rogue groups

Very few ceilidhs have the right number of people for every dance, but with this dance you can cope with incomplete circles by getting the group to perform the first step twice and to not break the circle until the second time through.

Variation
If you feel you have a big enough group, you might consider trying to work out a version where the circle splits into multiples of three.  Good luck to you if you try.

Potential problems

I've said it before, the biggest problem is the initial set up.  Take your time and let them sort out the couples, fours, eights and sixteens in their own time.  Start the dance slow so they get into the rhythm of breaking and reforming circles, but once you've spotted that they have this down pat, don't be afraid to tell the band to really start getting silly with it.

Music

As I said before, any 32-bar reel or jig will suit this nicely.  I've called it to Cooley's Reel and Drowsey Maggy before now, and that works quite nicely.  Possibly the constant Em chords in those tunes are a little serious for this silly little dance...