In ‘Circle Away and Together’, man and woman each travel around their own small circle. Dancers first move away from each other along their individual circles—this is the ‘Circle Away’ part of the figure. Then, dancers move towards each other along their individual circles—this is the ‘Together’ part of the figure!

Roundalab Standards (2024) defines ‘Circle Away and Together’ as two half-circles, with a close on Beat 3 and another on Beat 6.

Many dancers, however, dance the figure in a way that allows for a bigger (more interesting!) circle. Rather than closing on Beat 3, they continue walking steadily around the circle, using about five equal steps before closing (or arriving in another desired position) on Beat 6.

The summary diagrams below compare these two approaches.