Hands held high, the dancers circle/circled to the right.

[diamondcutter]

Hands held high, the dancers circle to the right.

Source: Practical English Usage (4th edition) 10.5, , Michael Swan

I’d like to know if this sentence is used in the context in which people are taught how to do a dance because the verb “circle” is in its present simple form.

 

[emsr2d2]

It's either a dance instruction or it's the use of the historical present. Example sentences in text books are often given out of context. Was there nothing in the relevant section of Practical English Usage to help you work out what it was exemplifying?

 

[diamondcutter]

This is the section in which the example sentence is.



I consulted the second and third editions of the book and found the same sentence in them. It should be either a dance instruction or the use of the historical present as Emsr2de says in #2.