Grapevine is the name of a dance figure, which may look different in various ballroom, club, and folk dances, but shares a common appearance: it includes side steps and steps across the support foot.
The most basic endless grapevine sequence of steps may look as follows:
The sequence is then repeated.
The whole movement is in the same sidewise direction. The sequence may start from any of the four listed steps and may break at any place wherever it is convenient to move into another dance figure, e.g., into a grapevine in the opposite direction.
Troy Kinney (1914) described the Grape-Vine as part of One-Step as follows: [1]
The grape-vine is an alternation of second and fourth positions of the feet ; one foot travelling sidewise on a straight line, the other foot going from anterior to posterior fourth position, and vice versa. The step travels to the woman's right (the man's left), without turning. The man's steps are the converse of the woman's, he starting with his left foot. The step is executed in closed position of the couple, and is usually performed several times in succession. The arrival of the feet in fourth position is usually punctuated with a slight dip.
The step is used, e.g., in Foxtrot, Polka, Electric Slide and Hustle.
In some dances (e.g., Polka, Hustle, Electric Slide) it is an eight count figure, often split into two, mirroring each other and called "Grapevine to the right" and "Grapevine to the left".