ANDERSON FERRY REEL
longways 5 couples or so' 32 bars duple.

Sue Dupre writes:

Take a look at Anderson Ferry Reel (it's in Joseph Pimentel's Cardinal
Collection, though it wasn't composed by Joseph).  I do it all the time
at parties, and people love it. It's got action on the left diagonal,
and you'd think that would be a dangerous move, but surprisingly it's
not. I tell people "look left, point, and swing."  In summary:

A1: The two lines walk up and back twice

A2 Partners dosido; each person looks diagonally left at the other line
and swings that new partner (end the swing straight across from that new
person). Note: Two people (the head lark and the bottom Robin) were not
involved in the swinging because they've got no one on their left
diagonal, and I call them the "lone folks". They just stay where they
are and wait out the swinging.

B1: the lone folks weave through their own lines to the other end and
add themselves to the end; everyone takes a step left along the line, so
that everyone is facing a new partner across the set. 

B2: forward and back to the new partner; swing

There are several places that you'd think would be trickier than they
are, but you only need to explain each point once, and the dancers get
it for the rest of the dance. For instance, the first time you tell them
to swing the person on the left diagonal, they're likely to go back to
the original partner after the left diagonal swing. But you emphasize
that the left diagonal person is a new partner and that they should end
across from the person they swung, and they get it. 

I love this dance because it looks trickier than it is, and the dancers
feel really pleased with themselves when it's over. It still works even
with a few kids in it, because the adults keep track of the left
diagonal (put all the kids on the same side so you don't have two kids
trying to figure out the diagonal with each other). I usually do it as
the 3rd dance in my program because it's a nice high energy,  rewarding
dance after the initial getting-settled-in dances. 

It works with 4 or more couples though I prefer to use 5 couples to keep
the figures aligned with the AABB musical structure. For music, I'll
tell the band to use a tune that makes the dancers want to strut on the
A1.
 
I hope you try this out - i think you'll have fun with it.