Capering & Kickery

Up She Goes!

After the flight of the Wright Brothers in 1903, society was increasingly fascinated with the new aeroplanes.  Dance music and dancers followed the fad, with quite a few "Aeroplane Waltzes" being composed and at least two different dances by that name written.  Philadelphia dance teacher and writer Albert W. Newman published his own Aeroplane Waltz in his 1914 manual, Dances of To-day, suggesting that it be danced to the 1910 song "Come Josephine in my Flying Machine," though any other fast waltz will do.  The chorus to the song begins:

Come Josephine in my flying machine,
Going up, she goes!  up she goes!

I've included a brief snippet of the song for reference; click to play:

Mr. Newman's dance, which was dedicated to the wealthy Philadelphian William P. Baltz, is a simple sequence dance that was also included in the 1914 compilation Dance Mad published in St. Louis by F. Leslie Clendenen.  Both Newman and Clendenen considered the dance particularly appropriate for children; given how silly the song sounds to modern ears, this is probably still valid advice.  My experience is that few adults can perform it for long without laughing.

The dancers start side by side facing along line of dance, joined hands together in front.  Steps are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

Mr. Newman's Aeroplane Waltz
1b    Glide left foot forward (1); raise right foot in front (2); hop on left foot leaving right foot raised (3)
1b    Repeat same leading on right foot
(dancers face each other in normal closed ballroom position)
1b    Glide left foot to side (1); draw right foot up to it (2,3)
1b    Repeat glide, with a more exaggerated step and a pronounced dip
4b    Turn to the left or the right with the Long Boston or simply waltz

By waltz, Newman means the "new waltz" of the late 19th and early 20th century, with the partners stepping forward-side-close/back-side-close, rather than the older rotary waltz.  The Long Boston, also known as the One Step Boston or Cradle Boston, involves stepping back on one foot with a bend (1), rising up on the ball of that foot (2), and dropping the heel (3), then transferring the weight to the other foot with the same sequence; repeat.  Turning to the right (with the gentleman's left foot back)or left (with the right foot back) is accomplished by shifting the back foot slightly clockwise or counter-clockwise each time the weight is transferred.  This makes for a slow, four-bar pivot turn which doesn't travel, though it's possible to be aggressive about it and make a full turn every two bars.  But it is not a series of traveling pivots.

The dance is intended to simulate the experience of being in an aeroplane, which does nothing to reduce the giggle-factor.  Newman helpfully explains that

"This glide and dip represents the aeroplane going over a mountain top and down into the valley."

Clendenen adds that in the turn,

"the body should sway slightly from side to side, to represent the unsteadiness of the aeroplane."

and that the entire dance should be performed with "an extreme lightness and most gracefully."

The sheet music for "Come Josephine" is available online at the marvelous Lester S. Levy Collection at Johns Hopkins Unversity, for those who would like to match tune and dance.

Two Easy Hesitation Steps

Here are a pair of easy hesitation waltz sequences from Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman's book Dances of To-day, published in 1914.  Newman unimaginatively calls them the "hesitation step" and the "hesitation step to the side."  I like to use these sequences as a short break from the fast regular waltz of the era and turning sequences such as the three-step and five-step Bostons.  They are also useful in a crowded ballroom -- the first to pause temporarily and the second to thread ones way between other couples more compactly than a turn permits.

Steps given are for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.  The sequences are performed in ballroom position with the gentleman facing out toward the wall of the room and the lady facing in toward the center.

Hesitation Step (two bars/six counts)
1 Step left foot sideways along line of dance, pointing right foot to the side
2 (hold)
3 (hold)
4 Transfer weight back to right foot, bending the right knee slightly
5 Straighten knee
6 Bend right knee slightly

I think of this informally as "step.....boing, boing" because of the springiness of the two little dips backward on the right foot on counts four and six.

Hesitation Step to the Side (two bars/six counts)
1 Step left foot sideways along line of dance, pointing right foot to the side
2 (hold)
3 (hold)
4 Cross right foot behind left (lady crosses left foot in front of right)
5 Step left foot sideways along line of dance
6 Close right foot to left in first position

This step starts with the same hesitation on the first bar, followed by a grapevine-like cross and side-step and a close of the feet.  Newman provides a diagram of the gentleman's steps for reference:

While Newman doesn't specifically pair the two sequences in his book, I find making them into a four-bar combination pleasing, with the first sequence gathering energy before launching into sideways motion on the second.

The Three-Step Boston or English Boston

Concluding a trio of posts on easy hesitation waltzes, here is the simplest hesitation at all: a normal waltz sequence stretched over two bars of music.  Albert Newman succinctly described the dance in his 1914 manual, Dances of To-Day:

In reality it is our Standard Waltz, but instead of taking two measures this Boston takes four measures.

What this works out to in practice is that the first step (forward or backward) of each half-turn is held for an entire bar (three counts) and the step to the side and close are done on the first and third counts of the second bar of music, with the overall rhythm being ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-SIX.  The three steps taken over two measures give the variation one of its names; I see nothing especially English about this that would account for the other.

The Pompadour Waltz

The Pompadour Waltz is a minor but interesting variation on the five-step Boston or five-step waltz described by Albert Newman in 1914 (and by me here).  I have found it only in the collection Dance Mad, or the dances of the day, compiled by F. Leslie Clendenen and published in St. Louis in 1914.

To perform the Pompadour, the dancers alternate brief hesitating grapevine sequences with the five-step Boston in an eight-bar sequence as described below.  The steps given are for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

The Five-Step Boston or Five-Step Waltz, 1914

In his 1914 manual, Dances of To-day, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman describes a four-bar waltz variation he calls the Five-Step Boston or Five-Step Waltz.  Unlike the five-step waltz of the mid-19th century or the half-and-half of the 1910s, this waltz is done in the usual 3/4 waltz time, spreading five movements out over the six counts of music.  This is a hesitation waltz movement, well-suited the fast waltzes of the early 20th century.   It is easy to learn and provides a pleasant break from constant fast spinning.

The Twinkle Hesitation

The Twinkle Hesitation, attributed to S. Wallace Cortissoz, was published in Leslie Clendenen's collection, Dance Mad, in St. Louis in 1914.  I'd been looking at dances in that book that incorporated twinkle steps, and this one caught my eye as fun to dance.  The dance itself is a sixteen-bar, three-part sequence, but each part also makes a nifty independent addition to any hesitation waltz.

The Mistletoe Hesitation

The Mistletoe Hesitation is a lovely little sixteen-bar hesitation waltz sequence originally published in F. Leslie Clendenen's Dance Mad, or the dances of the day (St. Louis, 1914), a collection of dances and dance moves borrowed liberally from other dance teachers and manuals.  The Mistletoe is attributed to M.W. Cain and is one of the earliest uses I have found of a twinkle step.

The Overlooked Eight Step

• Era: 1910s
• Dances: one-step, tango, half & half, hesitation waltz

Why, in fifteen-plus years of dancing ragtime socially, had I never done the eight step?  It's not an obscure step; it's the first variation world-famous dance couple Vernon and Irene Castle give for the one-step and is also mentioned by them in their descriptions of the tango, half and half, and hesitation waltz.  And yet somehow I'd neither danced it nor reconstructed it until late 2007 when I was looking for interesting one-step moves for some new dance students.