grand_square

The Double Grand Square is, in many respects, just like a standard Grand Square.

You face only your partner or your opposite, and alternate between them. They are your "buddies".
Each person walks a small square in one quadrant of the large square.
A Grand Square begins with the heads moving forward towards their opposites (one of their buddies) for three steps, then turning to face their partners (their other buddy) on count four, while the sides back away from their partners (buddy) for three steps, then turn to face their opposites (other buddy) on count four. The call is "Heads Go Forward, Sides Divide." Once everyone knows what they are doing, the call is "Sides face, Grand square."
In the Double Grand Square, the centers start essentially the way the sides do, that is, face their partners and back away from each other to start.
In the Double Grand Square, the corners start essentially the way the heads do, that is, walk forward towards their opposites.
From then on, if you are far from one of your buddies after you turn on count four, you walk forwards towards them for three steps, then turn toward the other one on count four.
If you are close (face-to-face) to your buddy after you turn on count four, you walk backwards three steps, then turn to face the other one on count four.
Each person walks in the prescribed way around four sides of a square in one quadrant of the large square, then reverses and walks back the way they came around the same square.

One trick with the movies is to right-click and uncheck "loop" so that the movie will stop when it gets to an end. You can run it again by right-clicking and choosing "play". In the movie, the heads are red, the sides are purple, the centers are green and the corners are blue. Try watching just one person or one couple. Then try watching the sides and the centers — they both start by facing their partners and moving away from them. Then watch just the heads and corners — they start by facing their opposites and moving towards them.

But wait...there's more...

Here's some of the Facebook conversation after I posted the link:

Kay L Tomlinson at 7:15am June 4

Martha--one of the best moments of our calling party last night was sixteen people doing a double Grand Square, flawlessly, laughing (as they say) all the way! WAY COOL!!!!

Martha Edwards at 9:53am June 4

Ya think? Ohmgod, I was beside myself. After we did it the very first time, I was ready to quit, so as not to spoil the fact that we did it at all. Doing it again, at speed (or nearly) was icing on the ice cream cake...

Think we could do it at Gateway? I'm thinking yes - and faster! We could probably just line everyone up the right way, tell the centers they're sides and tell the corners they're heads, and just say "Sides face, Grand Square" and we'd do it. (If we'll count - one, two, three, turn! - no room for approximate timing!)

Not that I'm throwing down the challenge, or anything!

Martha Edwards at 10:29am June 4

We could do the "are you an X or are you an O" from Dutch Crossing, too. Let's see. Heads and Sides do a grand chain. Centers face out, pass the corners by the right. Corners (now centers) do a star half way, then on their way out, pass the (new) corners by the right, who become centers again, and do a star half way, with a courtesy turn putting them back into the center in time to start the double grand square again.

And I do not want to hear the answer to the question "Are you an X or are you an O"...

:-)