Capering & Kickery

One-Step Variations: Zig Zag

I'll wind up this little mini-series of one-step posts with an easy variation from Vernon and Irene Castle's manual, Modern Dancing, (New York, 1914).  The zig zag is very similar to the snake dip described by Philadelphia dancing master Albert Newman (discussed by me here).  The oscillating from right Yale position (the two dancers' right sides together) to left Yale position (left sides together) with the lady backing up while the gentleman moves forward is the same, with the differences found only in the starting foot and the placement of the dip.  I have no doubt that these are simply regional variations of the same step, but they do have a slightly different effect when danced.

While the snake dip begins with the gentleman stepping to the left (right Yale position) with his left foot, the zig zag begins a beat later.  After one walking step forward on the left foot (lady backing on the right), the gentleman crosses his right foot in front of the left to step out to right Yale position, taking three steps in that position (right-left-right) before crossing his left foot in front of the right to shift to left Yale position and take three steps (left-right-left) thus.  The lady is dancing opposite, crossing her left foot behind her right to start the move and continuing on th opposite foot from the gentleman, always crossing behind.

The zig zag may be continued indefinitely, exited most easily after any trio of left Yale position steps by the gentleman simply not crossing his right foot over, instead stepping straight forward toward the lady and resuming backing her up for as many steps as needed to round out the musical phrase.

The Castles suggest ornamenting the step with a slight dip:

To make it more effective, the dancers can bend on the first step.  That is when the man crosses the right over the left and when he crosses the left over the right.

This bend is actually on the same foot as in Newman's snake dip -- he places the dip on the second step of every three-step diagonal, which is effectively a crossing step.

Skipping Through the One-Step: Polka Skips and Pony Steps

There's a perception that doing the 1910s one-step is always a matter of stepping precisely once per beat, no more and no less.  As can be seen in the half fade-away, which leaves one foot in the air for a beat, that isn't always strictly true.  And while that sort of pause is unusual, the one-step also incorporates skipping steps of various kinds in moves like the polka skip and pony step, as described by the leading dancers of the era, Vernon and Irene Castle, and other dancing masters in dance manuals published in 1914.

One-Step Variations: Half Fade-Away

It's been quite a while since I got back to the plain old 1910s one-step, so here's a quick and easy sequence from Albert Newman's Dances of to-day, published in Philadelphia in 1914.  It's an interesting little combination of side steps and natural and reverse half-pivots that I've never seen anywhere else.

Ballroom Marsupials

The most popular "animal dances" of the early 1900s appear to have been the Turkey Trot and Grizzly Bear.  But the F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation manual Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) offers a pair of one-step variations attributed to London dance teacher Walter Humphrey, who apparently found inspiration in the hopping of Australian marsupials.  I've never found these variations in any other source, so it's not clear to me how widespread they ever were.  I would also have placed them a bit earlier, maybe 1908-1910, as by 1914 the animal dance fad was already well past and the smoother, more elegant style of Vernon and Irene Castle was making the one-step acceptable in respectable ballrooms.  It's possible that Mr. Humphrey and/or English dancers in general had not quite caught up with the latest American dance fads, or that Clendenen was not as fussy in compiling his book as its subtitle, "The Dances of the Day," suggests.

For both variations, the dancers both face line of dance.  It's not clear whether they should retain joined hands in front or open up fully.  I find the latter more graceful, but how much of a priority grace should be while hopping around a ballroom imitating a marsupial is debatable.  Those wishing to study wallaby technique in detail may consult this National Geographic video.

Steps below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

Kangaroo Hop
1    Short step forward left
2    Long hop forward on left foot
3    Short step forward right
4    Long hop forward on right foot

Wallaby Jump
1    Step forward left
2    Hop forward on left foot
3    Hop forward on left foot
4    Hop forward on left foot
5-8: repeat step and three hops on right foot

In both variations, the dancers need to actually travel forward on the hops rather than just bouncing in place.

As William Hamrick noted drily in The Flying Cloud Vintage Dance Handbook, wallabies have a different understanding of rhythm than kangaroos.

One-Step Variations: Traveling Turns

Although the traveling turn (or "pivot," though in period that can refer to a different turn as well) is enormously popular among modern dancers of the one-step, possibly because of the notoriously lengthy string of pivots done in continuous sequence by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), it actually does not seem to have been nearly as popular among dancing masters of the 1910s.  While the traveling turn occasionally appears in other dances, I have found a written description of its use in the one step only in Albert Newman's Dances of to-day, published in Philadelphia in 1914.  Other sources mention "whirls" or "swirls," but exactly what kind of turning these terms refer to is not specified.

Newman's description of the step is brief and uncharacteristically vague:

In order to execute these turns properly it is necessary that the dancers should be most proficient and move perfectly together.

Each foot virtually describes a semicircle (cycloid movement) upon the floor, the dancers really stepping around each other.

This is quite effective, but requires considerable practice together.

The Snake Dip

• Era: 1910s
• Dance: One-Step

Like the Pomander Walk, the Snake Dip is a one-step variation found in Albert Newman's Dances of to-day, published in Philadelphia in 1914, in which the dancers take, alternately, right- and left-side Yale position.  In the Snake Dip, however, the dancers make a continuous zigzag pattern along the line of dance rather than alternating travel with making circles in place. 

Newman somewhat imaginatively suggests of this sequence that "when well done it resembles the movement of the snake."

His diagram of the gentleman's steps is at left.

An Easy One-Step Sequence

F. Leslie Clendenen's 1914 compilation, Dance Mad, is full of sequences of varying levels of difficulty for many of the popular dances of the 1910s.  This one caught my eye as being a short (sixteen beats) and simple introductory one-step suitable for getting beginners dancing quickly and for teaching the lead for rhythm changes between one-step and two-step.  Clendenen gives it no special name or attribution, just "One Step."

Directions are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.  Starting foot is left for the gentleman and right for the lady.  Begin in normal ballroom position, with the gentleman facing along the line of dance.

Counts      Steps
1-2-3-4      Back the lady four steps
1&2           Two-step (step-close-step), angling diagonally forward to the left
3&4           Two-step (step-close-step), angling diagonally forward to the right
1-2-3-4      Back the lady four steps
(Turn a quarter clockwise)
1-2-3-4      Slide left foot along line of dance (1) close right to it with weight (2); repeat
(Turn a quarter counter-clockwise so gentleman faces line of dance, ready to repeat)

The angling to the left and right on the two-steps rather than moving straight forward along the line of dance cues the lady to perform a two-step rather than simply walking.  Clendenen describes this as "throwing [the] body slightly to [the] side on the 2 step" and moving "quite freely at left and right of partner."

An interesting variation, not given in the source but compatible with period practice, would be to turn clockwise rather than counter-clockwise at the end so that the sequence is then repeated with the gentleman backing up.  The mid-sequence turn will then be counter-clockwise.  This will not result in full turns, but the dancers could alternate backing the lady and backing the gentleman.

The Pomander Walk

• Era: 1910s
• Dance: One-Step

The Pomander Walk is a one-step variation found in Albert Newman's Dances of to-day, published in Philadelphia in 1914, in which the dancers take, alternately, right- and left-side Yale position and walk around each other in circles.  The full sequence as described by Newman is as follows:

From a normal one-step, backing the lady, the dancers step out to Yale position, right side to right side, and walk in a straight line, the lady moving backward and the gentleman forward.  At some point, they begin to walk around each other in a circle, both moving forward.  Newman's illustration of this is shown at left.  The gentleman eventually makes an about-face -- the lady must as well, though Newman neglects to mention this -- leaving the dancers left side to left side, and they again move in a straight line with the lady going backward.  They make another circle, both dancers moving forward, followed by a position shift to return to facing each other and backing the lady.

Hesitate, Hesitate, Hesitate!

• Era: 1910s
• Dance: One-Step

In his 1914 manual, Dances of To-day, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman describes three different hesitations suitable for the one-step or Castle walk.  In one description he notes that a hesitation is

...most practical, especially when one finds himself in a decidedly congested position, surrounded on all sides by merry dancers...it is the same as marking the time of the music, as the dancers execute the movement sur la place (on the spot).

Because of this practicality, hesitations are one of the first things I teach new dancers of the one-step.  Here are Newman's three hesitations for your dancing pleasure!

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.