1. Follower's right in Lead's left, clockwise turn

Demonstration
Have a look at the full body demonstration of a halo turn:

merengue_halo_follower_singlehanded_rinl_clock_full.avi (6.7 Mb)

Observe that:

• both of them are far enough apart for the turn to be made safely, but Nathan is still close enough to have no difficulty in leading around the far side of Shirin's head;
• their forearms and hands rest at waist level, are raised to prepare for the start of the turn, return to the raised position after the turn, and then lowered;
• Nathan adjusts his hand to make palm-to-palm contact with Shirin as he raises his hand;
• Nathan is simply pedalling on the spot marking time. Shirin uses a rotating, pedalling walk that is timed precisely to the speed of lead she's receiving from Nathan;
• the arms not involved in the turn are bent loosely at the elbow, aiding hip action and balance through the turn.

Now view a close-up of the HALO arm movement:

merengue_halo_follower_singlehanded_rinl_clock.avi (4.0 Mb)

Observe that:

• the dancers' hands trace a perfectly level and circular path around the top of Shirin's head - like an invisible halo;
• in the first turn, Nathan maintains finger/palm-to-palm contact throughout. Anatomical restrictions during the final quarter of the turn require him to rotate his hand at the wrist to attain the start position;
• in the second turn, Nathan overcomes the final quarter restriction by reaching his thumb around the little-finger edge of Shirin's hand. During this phase his palm proceeds to slide over the back of Shirin's hand around her little-finger edge until palm-to-palm contact is re-established;
• Shirin does not rely on the shape of her hand to maintain contact. She uses an advanced method through exerting contact pressure, unlike the basic procedure that will be described below. Shirin does this to make more options available to the person leading her.

Pause the clip and use the seek bar to make sure you see the above details.

Preparation
Stand facing each other with a partner offset. Take hold of your partner's hand, follower's right in lead's left. With your elbows hanging loosely beside your respective bodies, stand at the distance where both of your forearms, plus handhold, form a straight line from your elbow to your partner's (on all axes). This is approximately the correct partner distance, and you may have to fine-tune it. Remember that the dimensions of each partnership are unique.

Description

1. Lead: raise both your partner's and your own hands, straight up to a height just above your partner's head. Ensure that the hands arrive at that position having palm-to-palm contact, with your fingers parallel to the floor and pointed loosely outwards.
   Follower: you may curl your fingers loosely over the edge of your partner's hand to form "little hooks".
    
2. Lead: look at your partner and imagine that she/he is wearing a perfectly circular and level halo, slightly less than her/his shoulder-width in diameter.
    
3. Lead: firmly ease your left palm forward (and slightly inward) so that your partner's halo now passes through the centre of your partner's palm.
   Follower: as you feel your right hand being eased back, increase the muscle tone of your right arm so that you have firm contact pressure with your partner via the palm.
    
4. Lead: trace a circle clockwise around your partner's head, maintaining a constant hand speed throughout. Ensure the halo passes through the centre of your partner's palm during the course of the entire turn. Your legs should be pedalling on the spot.
   Follower: an increase in contact pressure is your signal to turn. As you do so, try to keep your right arm positioned in the north-east sector relative to your body, assuming your centreline is north. Your legs should be pedalling all the while.
    
5. Lead: you will experience an increase in tension in your wrist when your hand is about ¾ of the way through the halo. How you resolve this depends on the degree of tension and curvature of your partner's fingers:
   
   • If low curvature, and low finger tension: while maintaining palm-to-palm contact with your partner, bring your wrist over the top of your partner's fingertips, then around the other side. Watch the detailed video clip using the seek bar (turn 1);
   • If "little hooks": then with your thumb, reach around the edge of your partner's hand at the point where her/his little finger joins the hand. Your fingers, palm and thumb should form a vertical "C" shape (partial cylinder) for your partner's hand to rotate in (turn 2).
      
   Follower: if you feel your partner's palm start to rotate on the vertical plane (turn 1), release finger tension and increase palm pressure slightly. Otherwise you need only maintain contact pressure (turn 2).
    
6. Lead: slow your hand speed to a halt as your partner's centreline comes around to face you.
   Follower: slow your turn as contact pressure decreases.
    
7. Lead and Follower: ideally, both your hands should have finished where they began the turn, with your centrelines facing each other. All that remains is for the lead to lower both hands to the waist level position, indicating the end of a turn.

2. Follower's right in lead's left, anti-clockwise turn

Demonstration
Full body view:

merengue_halo_follower_singlehanded_rinl_anticlock_full.avi (6.8 Mb)

Detailed view:

merengue_halo_follower_singlehanded_rinl_anticlock.avi (4.0 Mb)

Observe that:

• fingers of Shirin's right hand forming "little hooks" are more obvious;
• Nathan only needs to use the first two fingers of his left hand to lead the turn;
• in the first turn, Nathan resolves the issue of anatomical constraint by rotating his wrist before outlining the halo;
• in the second turn, Nathan rotates his wrist just after starting the halo.

Preparation & Description
The halo is drawn anticlockwise. Other remaining aspects are similar to that described for the first turn.

3. Follower's right in lead's right, clockwise turn

merengue_halo_follower_singlehanded_rinr_clock.avi (3.5 Mb)

Observe:

• Nathan rotates the wrist of his right hand, so that the pads of his fingers are in contact with Shirin's hand as the hands are raised to begin the turn. This variation has the benefit of signalling earlier to Shirin that she is the one who will be turning; she does not have to wait until lead pressure for that to become clear.

4. Follower's right in lead's right, anti-clockwise turn
The cross-handed turn against the hand-hold is the weakest turn in this class: it has the least freedom for the lead to articulate the wrist, and the direction of halo encourages the fingers to lose their grip. This halo is the only one that begins with a pull instead of a push.

merengue_halo_follower_singlehanded_rinr_anticlock.avi (3.6 Mb)

Observe how:

• Nathan unlocks his wrist by articulating it over the top of Shirin's hand, keeping his first two fingers pointed downwards to draw the halo;
• Shirin maintains a loose grip by forming a cylinder with her fingers and palm around Nathan's fingers;
• Nathan places his thumb on the back of Shirin's hand once his hand is positioned above hers. The thumb provides some "push" while the fingers provide the "pull".

Principles
The lead should cause the follower's hand to describe a perfect circle, about and above the follower's head. The circle should be parallel to the floor, and approximately shoulder-width in diameter.

It will become necessary for the lead's wrist to perform two 180 degree rotations which take place on a number of possible planes. (Yes, I deliberately mentioned only one rotation. Go back and watch the videos again carefully).

Contact pressure should be constant throughout:

• If the lead increases the speed of the halo, contact pressure increases, and the follower should turn faster to bring the pressure back to equilibrium.
• If the lead decreases the speed of the halo, contact pressure decreases, and the follower should turn slower to bring the pressure back to equilibrium.

Goals
You should be able to establish and understand the nature of contact pressure, especially how to maintain its equilibrium in a partnership.

To get the most out of the tutorials to come, you should be able to perform the eight simple single-handed forms of the HALO turn fluently (we've only shown you four, you should work out the others). Some double-handed versions can be found in the Extras section.