Capering & Kickery

Mr. Saracco's Five-Step Waltz

• Era: 1840s-1890s America

In the 1840s, two separate dances known as the "Five-Step Waltz," "Cinq Temps Valse," or "Valse à Cinq Temps" arose, one from Paris and one, apparently, from New York.  The latter dance was described in 1854 by D.L. Carpenter in The Amateur's Preceptor on Dancing and Etiquette as follows:

This very beautiful Waltz was first introduced in New York, by that able master, Mr. Saracco; every movement being so exact and pointed, and of which is different from the Cellarious five time Waltz, being too much in the style of a gallop...

Mr. Saracco himself is shown at left.  His dance and the Cellarius version are sufficiently distinct in their movements that I will address only Saracco's five-step waltz in this post.

The Union Dance

• Era: 1860s-1880s

The Union Dance is a short, schottische-like dance sequence which I have found in only two sources: Thomas Hillgrove's 1863 A Complete Practical Guide to the Art of Dancing (pp. 170-171) and the 1883 Professor M.J. Koncen's Quadrille Call Book and Ball Room Guide (p. 89)  The latter is a compilation of numerous other sources and the instructions therein are nearly identical to the earlier ones, so Hillgrove may be regarded as the preferred source for dating this dance.  Given the timing and Hillgrove's location in New York, it is possible that the name of the dance was meant as a political statement, though it is also possible that it was simply the name of a tune to which it was danced or a completely random title.

Light Dragoon

• Era: 1850s-1860s America

"Light Dragoon" is an easy mid-19th century American country (contra) dance, one of a lengthy list of contra/country dances given in two manuals attributed to Elias Howe.  In one of the two, it is cryptically labeled "Pinkerton;" possibly this is the name of the choreographer of the dance.  It is performed in a longways set of any length, though four to six couples is easiest.  All couples are "proper," with the men standing to the left of their partners when all are facing the top of the room.

An 1860s Schottische Quadrille

Here's a first for Kickery: a reconstruction of an entire quadrille!  The Original Set of Schottische Quadrille [sic] was published in Boston in 1862 in a compilation manual attributed to Elias Howe.  I have found no other sources for this particular quadrille.

I'm going to work through the entire dance figure by figure with a bit of discussion about the choices I made in this reconstruction.  Those who just want to print out the calls and take them off to teach it without having to sort through my reconstructive nattering, despair not: there's a link at the bottom of this post to a PDF handout you can download.

Holly Berry

• Era: late 1850s onward

“Mrs. Henderson has introduced this dance in compliance with the request of pupils and friends, who were at a loss for a cheerful country dance in which all might join without previous instruction in the fashionable dances.”

Holly Berry is a short set dance apparently composed by London dance teacher Mrs. Nicholas Henderson in the 1850s.  Its first known appearance is in the second edition of her Etiquette for Dancing, published in the 1850s.  The dance was also included in Elias Howe's American dancing master and ball-room prompter, published in Boston in 1862, which appears on the Library of Congress website here.  Howe's manual, unusually, includes a specific credit to Mrs. Henderson.

The dance is reminiscent of the galopade country dances of the 1830s and was perhaps seen as too old-fashioned in style by the mid-19th century.  It does not appear to have been commonly reprinted and probably was not wildly popular.  But it makes an interesting change of pace in a Victorian or American Civil War-era reenactment ballroom.

Pop Goes the Weasel

• Era: 1850s through early 1900s, England and America

No, it isn't just a children's rhyme!  The tune is older, but in the mid-nineteenth century a rather silly dance began appearing both on sheet music and in dance manuals.  It seems to have been hugely popular, which reminds me that (1) dancing was a pastime for young adults and (2) most nineteenth-century punch recipes involved significant amounts of alcohol.

The Passing Salute in the Victorian Era

The final important salutation of the Victorian era was the passing salute or bow, used when the lady or gentleman was in motion, rather than stationary (as at the commencement of a dance).  Writing in 1863, Thomas Hillgrove explained that the passing bow

is the proper salutation for both sexes when passing each other in the street or in public places, and is performed without halting.  It is a proper salutation also on entering a parlor or ball-room.

Hillgrove actually wavered a bit as to whether a lady should make a full courtesy or merely a passing salute when entering a ballroom.  Allen Dodworth, in 1885, emphasized the importance of the knowledge of the different forms of salutations and when to make use of them:

The manner of making these motions are sure indications of the standing and associations of both lady or gentleman, but more especially of the latter.  The various circumstances of social intercourse requiring their use in almost unlimited variety, unmistakably show the difference between good habitual motions and an occasional attempt.

He later expanded upon this:

Every degree of respect may be indicated by the courtesy and bow in their several forms, from the supercilious nod, which says, "How are you, Billy," with an upper inflection of voice and sneering expression, to the movement which plainly means, "I present myself before you with profound respect."

As I have already discussed the methods of making the gentleman's bow and lady's courtesy in the context of a ballroom and the beginning of a dance, this post will review the nuances of the passing salute.

The Lady's Courtesy in the Victorian Ballroom

After discussing the correct performance of the gentleman's bow in the ballroom, it seems appropriate to tackle the movements necessary for ladies to properly perform a courtesy.  In 1875, William De Garmo explained the major difference between the two moves:

In courtesying the knees bend and the body sinks; in bowing the knees do not bend and the upper part of the body is projected forward.  In courtesying, as well as in bowing, the slightest possible inclination of the head forward is admissible.

Ten years later, Allen Dodworth noted that

[The courtesy] is a combination of motions, of no little difficulty, requiring repeated practice for its accomplishment with the necessary ease.  It is singularly artificial and unnatural, and yet is of great beauty when executed by a well-trained lady.

How to perform these unnatural motions?  The sources, unfortunately, are somewhat inconsistent.

The Gentleman's Bow in the Victorian Ballroom

Mid-19th century dance teacher Edward Ferrero writes of the bow and courtesy that they

"...are among the most important rudiments of the Terpsichorean art.  A proper knowledge of them is indispensable to both sexes.  There is no movement so awkward as a stiff bow or courtesy...We have lately been more fully impressed with the necessity of a greater attention, among dancers, to this branch of the art."

It thus seems useful to the modern social dancer or performer to examine the details of the gentleman's bow as performed in the mid- to late 19th century ballroom.  Several dancing masters address the topic in their writing.  Interestingly, all that I have found are American authors; European writers seem not to have felt it necessary to describe the bow.  I suspect this reflects the middle-class audience of the American manuals.

Wrestling with Belle Brandon

Recently my English friend and fellow dance teacher/reconstructor Colin Hume asked on the English Country Dance mailing list for help on some American dances he plans to teach later this month at a festival.  He posted his notes (the final version is now up here) and asked for advice, since he's not a specialist on historical American dance.  I do a lot with quadrilles (French, American, English, Spanish, etc.) so I pounced on the challenge of the 1858 set he proposed to use, the Belle Brandon Set.  This five-figure quadrille is drawn from Howe's Ball-Room Handbook, attributed to Elias Howe (Boston, 1858). 

The first four figures were fairly straightforward, with the first three being pretty much the usual figures of the "First Set" of quadrilles that had been popular for nearly half a century when the manual was published.  Interestingly, they were a more old-fashioned version than those which were popular in the mid-century and which Howe prints elsewhere in the same manual.  Tell-tales include the use of "balance and turn partners" instead of a long balance figure and, in Figure 3, two people crossing back and forth and forming a line rather than four crossing back and forth and going into a basket formation.  It had been common practice from the 1810s onward to use three of the standard figures and then vary the last two, so this set is well within the quadrille tradition.  But the fifth figure proved a real challenge to reconstruct.

Rustic Reel

• Era: mid-19th century America

The Rustic Reel is a simple contra dance found in mid-19th century American manuals, primarily during the Civil War era of the1860s, though it appears as early as 1841 and as late as the 1880s.  Some sources note that it is particularly well suited to being the last dance in an evening:

...this dance is continued until the master of the ceremonies thinks it has been gone equally through, and generally finishes the evening's festivity, and ought not to be used at any other time.
        --- The ball-room instructer [sic], 1841.

Note that the lines of three make it awkward to put on a dance card, since each dancer needs two partners.

Any lively twenty-four bar piece of music can be used; one source specifies 6/8 time, while another suggests a Scotch reel tune.  The dance is formed by lines of three (a gentleman between two ladies) facing three down the room or in a circle, as in the diagram below.  All dancers commence at the same time.

More Promiscuous Figures: Gavotte and Minuet

• Era: 1840s to early 1900s, America

Continuing on from my earlier post on promiscuous or fancy quadrille figures, which may be substituted for individual figures in the first set of quadrilles or other well-known sets, here are two more particularly interesting figures.  Both make use of an unusual figure known as "Sides Four," in which the dancers form diagonal lines across the set and then trade partners and reform the lines.  The Gavotte Figure is a lengthy one with one couple per repetition having a sequence of solo moves while the other six dancers watch.  The Minuet Figure is a shortened and simplified version which keeps more of the dancers moving throughout.  Once the essential Sides Four figure is mastered, the figures are easy to call and perform and can be used today as they were then, to add variety to a familiar quadrille, generally as a replacement for either the second or fifth figure.

Neither figure has any choreographic relationship to the gavottes and minuets of previous centuries.

Promiscuous Figures: Basket and Star

• Era: 1840s to early 1900s, America

By the middle of the nineteenth century, the five figures of the first set of quadrilles had grown drearily familiar, and several lively, standardized figures had developed which could be substituted in for one or more of its figures.  These replacement figures were known as "fancy figures" or "promiscuous figures" and could be used to enliven any quadrille.  Two popular ones were the Basket Figure and the Star Figure, with the Basket being slightly more common in period sources.  The Star appeared in dance manuals from the late 1850s all the way into the early 20th century.  The Basket is even earlier, appearing as far back as 1841.  The figures are equally useful today as a way to spice up a well-known quadrille without going to the bother of learning an entire new set of five figures.

Three Chairs: A Genre of Civil War Era Dance Games

• Era: America, 1840s into early 20th century

My friend Patricia asks in email:

Do you know of any documentation for a dance that is known to many as the "hat", "flower", "broom", "paddle", or "fan" dance?

It is described as having two lines of people (usually men in one line and ladies in the other). At the top of the set, one person holds one of the above items and two people of the opposite sex come and stand on either side of the person. He/she looks back & forth between them, hands the item to one of them and sashays or dances down the between the lines with the other person. Sometimes it's done with three chairs, sometimes with no chairs.

I know several dances with most of those names (all but paddle), none of them what Patricia had in mind.  The dance she's describing is a variation on several of the mid-19th century cotillion figures also known as "Germans".  These were not cotillions in the 18th-century sense of a chorus/verse-structured dance for couples in a square.  Instead they were party games with dancing, some of which were quite silly and seem to us today more like children's games than pastimes for a formal ballroom.  By the end of the 19th century, the role of these games had evolved from an amusing way to end a ball into the entire point of the evening, and hostesses vied to run the best "Favor-Germans", with elaborate trinkets as game props and party favors for their guests.

How to Dance the Early Schottische

• Era: 1850s-1870s

A short, performance-oriented summary for those who want to skip the background and just go out and schottische.  This is intended as a summary for those already generally familiar with couple dancing, not as a way for new dancers to learn from scratch; a live teacher is always to be preferred to a written description.

A fuller discussion of and list of sources for the schottische may be found in The Early Schottische.

The Early Schottische

• Era: 1850s-1870s

Origins of the Schottische
One of the most popular couple dances of the mid- to late 19th century, the schottische first began appearing in dance manuals in the 1850s.  The noted Parisian dance teacher Cellarius, writing in the late 1840s, did not mention it at all.  In Markowski et ses salons, a gossipy look at the Parisian demi-monde published in 1860, it is claimed that Polish dancer and Parisian dancing master Markowski invented "la scottish" (among many other dances, including the Hongroise) during a period of dire poverty but great choreographic creativity in the 1850s.  The picture of the great dancer creating dances in his lonely Parisian garret has charm but in the case of the schottische seems unlikely to be accurate. 

The Mazourka Valse, commonly called the Cellarius Valse

• Era: 1840s-1870s

La valse mazurka, dite la Cellarius.  The Waltze-Mazurka, called the Cellarius.  The Mazourka Valse, commonly called the Cellarius Valse. La Cellarius.  The dance is described repeatedly and variously in dance manuals from the 1840s through the 1870s, generally referred to by the name of its composer, famed Parisian dancing master Henri Cellarius.

The mazurka proper was brought from Eastern Europe to the fashionable ballrooms of Paris and London in the early decades of the nineteenth century.  The original form of the mazurka was that of an improvised quadrille, with one gentleman in the set calling the figures on the spot and the other couples following his lead.  The difficulty of the steps combined with that of finding enough skilled dancers to make up a set was seen as overwhelming.  One popular solution was pre-choreographed quadrilles, which several dancing masters composed, but as London dance teacher Mrs. Nicholas Henderson noted in her early 1850s dance manual:

...a Quadrille requiring eight persons or four couples to dance it, and the figures of the Mazourka being extremely intricate and too difficult for private parties, the idea suggested itself to M. Cellarius, of Paris, to change the form of the dance, and convert the Quadrille into a Valse, preserving the original step.  This was no sooner done than it became the fureur of the Parisian circles, and it received the name of the Cellarius Valse, in compliment to the composer, although the proper name is the Mazourka Valse, in contradistinction to the Mazourka Quadrille.