Capering & Kickery

New York, New York

The New York is another of the myriad "redowa and mazurka" variations given in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890).  Along with the Fascination, it is one of only a few variations credited to Indianapolis dancing master D. B. Brenneke.  It reappears among the material translated directly from Gilbert in [George] Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903), where it is listed as a mazurka and again credited to Brenneke. 

Gilbert gives both this "New York" and another dance called "The New York", making it unclear whether the name refers to the city or whether it is simply a new version of the York.  Lopp lists it as La New York, along with two different dances called La Nouvelle York.  Lopp's translations suggest that the reference is to the city as much as to the popular dance.  That might make it something of a pun, since the New York does include the characteristic sliding sequence found in the first measure of the York. 

Contradicting this is the appearance of the dance in the addenda of the fifth edition of William B. De Garmo's The Dance of Society (New York, 1892), where it is listed simply as "The York, No. 2", which leads one to the new-version-of-the-York interpretation of the title.  De Garmo notes that "This method has become very popular."

The Independent York

The Independent York is an interesting variation on the original York, albeit one that was probably rarely danced outside a studio context.  I have found it in only two sources.  The earlier is Melvin Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), where it is uncredited, suggesting that Gilbert himself created it.  The later source is La Danse, by [George] Washington Lopp, published in Paris in 1903, much of which is simply a French translation of Gilbert.  It appears there as L'Indépendant York and is credited to Gilbert.  The sequence is identical in both sources.  Gilbert classifies it, as he does the York, under "redowa and mazurka"; Lopp lists it as a mazurka.

The Independent York is danced in 3/4 time, with four repeats of the rhythm "1&2-3 &1-2-3".  Lopp gives a metronome tempo of 144 beats per minute.  The dancers begin in a standard ballroom hold, the gentleman facing the nearest wall and the lady the center of the room. 

The complete sequence takes eight measures.  The first four measures are the same as the York itself:

1        Slide the left foot along line of dance
&2     Close with the right foot and slide the left foot again (chassé)
3        Close with the right foot, displacing left into a raised second position (cut)

&1     Hop on the right foot (optionally, clicking heels) and slide left to side
2        Close with the right foot, displacing left (cut)
3        Leap onto the left foot, crossing the line of dance and making a half-turn

(repeat all, reversing feet)

Above is the gentleman's footwork; the lady dances opposite.  The last &123 is a polka redowa step.  In four measures, one complete turn is made.

The second half of the Independent York repeats exactly the same steps.  What distinguishes it is that, in a very unusual move for a nineteenth century couple dance, the partners separate and turn away from each other, much like casting off as performed in early country dances.  For the first two measures, the dancers release their hold and move parallel to each other, curving away from each other slightly.  On the polka redowa in the second measure, they make a half turn, ending back to back and circling back against line of dance.  On the repeat, they turn halfway at the beginning of the first measure to slide sideways against line of dance, facing each other, then come together again on the polka redowa of the final measure.

The entire eight measures are then repeated as often as the dancers like.

The Independent York is not entirely leadable with a dancer who does not already know what to expect, though a skilled dancer with fast reflexes might figure it out visually if the York step pattern has already been well established.  But with a partner who already knows the move, the lead is easy: do a few normal York sequences to establish the pattern, then simply release the lady with a gentle push along the line of dance.

Since the Independent York travels against the line of dance and takes extra space to each side, the gentleman needs to take care before starting the move to have sufficient room to execute the variation without interfering with other couples on the floor.

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Harvard Dip

I've been spending some quality time in Harvard's library lately, which reminded me of this little waltz variation by Melvin Ballou Gilbert, author of Round Dancing.  The original instructions may be seen at left; click the image to enlarge.

The Harvard Dip was published in Gilbert's magazine of dance, etiquette, and exercise, The Director, in September, 1898.  I have never seen it published elsewhere, and suspect it was purely a dancing-school variation.  The name appears to be a commercial gimmick; there is no obvious connection to Harvard other than perhaps Gilbert's desire to attract that university's students to his summer dance classes in Boston.

Gilbert earns no credit for originality with the Harvard Dip.  The first half of the eight-bar sequence exactly mimics his Brooklyn colleague H. Fletcher Rivers' "Le Metropole", with four bars of alternating slides sideways along the line of dance and half-turns of waltz.  The second part consists of the second, third, and fourth bars of Indianapolis dancing master D. R. Brenneke's "Fascination" plus a bar of waltz at the end to round out the musical phrase and set up the opposite-foot repeat.  Both "Le Metropole" and "Fascination" were included in Round Dancing.

This reshuffling of the same basic elements of late nineteenth-century American waltz variations makes the Harvard Dip a shining example of the desperate flailing of dancing masters attempting to generate new material in the face of the decline in interest in most of the old nineteenth century dance repertoire.  That does not make it any worse (or better) than many other variations of this era, so should you wish to dance it, here's how to do it:

Starting the Waltz, Dodworth Style

Sometimes very brief instructions provide more information about ballroom practice than one would expect. 

Speaking of the "new waltz" of the late nineteenth century, New York City dancing master Allen Dodworth wrote in  his 1885 manual, Dancing and its relations to education and social life (link is to the 1900 edition), the following suggestion about starting the waltz:

To begin the waltz with the leap is somewhat awkward, and for that reason many dancers adopt the following excellent expedient:

Immediately upon taking position for waltzing, the gentleman slides the left foot, occupying two of the three notes of the measure; at the third, a change is made from the left to the right foot, leaving the left elevated for the leap which follows; with these two movements the gentleman places himself in front of the lady, so that his first leap may be backward. At the same time the lady makes a very short slide with the right, then a change to the left foot, raising the right preparatory to the first forward leap, which occurs simultaneously with the gentleman's backward leap.

It must not be forgotten that a waltz is written in phrases of two bars each, the lady beginning each phrase with the right, the gentleman with the left foot; as the foregoing method of starting requires but one bar, it is necessary to wait for the second bar of a phrase before beginning.

The move is easy enough to reconstruct; the dancers wait for one bar (three counts), then the dancers slide their first foot (gentleman's left, lady's right) (1-2) and cut with their second foot (3), turning a quarter clockwise so that the lady faces line of dance and the gentleman has his back to line of dance.  They are then ready with their first foot (still elevated from the cut) to leap along the line of dance for the first step of the waltz. 

But Dodworth gives us more here than just the dance instructions.  Offering a fix reveals what the problem was that he thought needed one.

CD Review: The Civil War Grand Military Ball

The Civil War Grand Military Ball dates back to 2007, but I only recently encountered it while looking for new nineteenth century dance music.  It is the fourth recording by the Tennessee-based 52nd Regimental String Band and the first to consist specifically of dance music.

The most immediately noticeable difference between this album and most of my others is that most of the tracks include vocals, which may or may not be to everyone's taste for dancing.  I have mixed feelings about it, myself.  I prefer my nineteenth-century dance music instrumental rather than vocal, but with a couple of notable exceptions (see below) I enjoyed the singing and was amused to realize that the two songs ("Polly Wolly Doodle" and "Kemo Kimo") in one medley are ones I remember singing versions of as a little girl growing up in Texas.

Late 19th Century Jig-Time Dances: The Pasadena

The Pasadena, a would-be replacement for the two-step, appears in the 1900 reprint of New York dancing master Allen Dodworth's 1885 tome, Dancing and its relations to education and social life, but can be dated back to at least 1898.  It appears to have been created as a dancing school dance, as Dodworth's nephew, T. George Dodworth, discussed in his introduction to the new edition of his uncle's manual:

In order to bring the work up to date, I have been requested to write an introduction which will include a list of dances that have come into fashion since my uncle's book was originally published.

As a matter of fact, however, society dances have decreased, rather than increased, during this interval. When this work first appeared most of the round dances described in its pages were fashionable. But Dame Fashion is fickle, and, owing to some unaccountable change in taste, we now have only the Two Step, the Waltz, occasionally a Saratoga Lancers, and the Cotillion. In the dancing-schools the old dances are still taught, but with numerous new combinations, which are composed to improve the pupil and keep alive the interest. From these combinations we have the Tuxedo Lancers, the Amsterdam, Gavotte der Kaiserin, Minuet de la Cour (for four persons), and the Pasedena.

Howe's "Rats" Quadrille, concluded (3 of 3)

This is the third in a series of three posts discussing the "Rats" Quadrille, with this one covering the fourth and fifth figures.  See the two previous posts for introduction and background and the first three figures.

Howe's "Rats" Quadrille, continued (2 of 3)

On to the actual figures of Howe's "Rats" Quadrille!  Please see the first post in the "Rats" series for an introduction to the quadrille and links to sheet music. 

Howe's "Rats" Quadrille (1 of 3)

Les Rats Quadrilles is a set of five tunes composed by G. Redler as alternate music for the first set of French quadrilles. The tunes are unusually good, and the set became enormously popular and was reprinted for many years, not only in England but in America and Australia as well.  In 1854 a  piano-duet (four hands) version arranged by J. C. Vierec was published in Philadelphia. 

Some editions featured the "tree roots" version of the title shown at left, and others a small orchestra of rats with various instruments.  American editions seem to have credited the composer as "J. Redler", but English sources consistently give his first initial as "G".

I do not have a definitive initial date for the first publication of Les Rats, but in 1846, A. M. Hartley, in his The academic speaker, a system of elocution (Glasgow) mentions on page 319 the inclusion of "Redler's popular Rat Quadrilles" in Volume I of the collected Hamilton's Cabinet of Music, a sheet music series, which puts Les Rats into the first half of the 1840s.

Revisiting Chassé Out

Almost four years ago, I discussed the quadrille figure "chassé out", or chassé ouvert, in a post discussing the reconstruction of a mid-century quadrille.  I've revisited the figure occasionally since then, both in its Regency-era context and in its unusual mid-19th century appearances in the quadrille calls of American dancing master Elias Howe, and found enough new information to be worth a fresh post on the topic and to make me reconsider how I would reconstruct the figure both for early quadrilles of the 1810s-1820s and for the quadrille sets published by Howe in 1858 and 1862.

Lancers, Lancer's, or Lancers' ?

My old dance buddy Chris Imershein of the North Carolina group Triangle Vintage Dance writes:

Just curious if you have any historical sources for the proper "spelling" of The Lancers Quadrille(s).  Spare Parts has it as "Lancers" on the original [Civil War Ballroom] CD, but as "Lancer's" in their sheet music book.  I've also seen it as Lancers' on the web.  Any thoughts?

Late 19th Century Jig-Time Dances: Le Rêve

Continuing to work my way through late nineteenth-century jig-time (6/8-time) dances, here's one attributed to New York dancing master C. H. Rivers (left) but found not in Rivers' own dance manual, but in the "Miscellaneous Dances" section at the back of M. B. Gilbert's 1890 tome, Round Dancing, as well as in American expatriate Washington Lopp's 1903 French translation and expansion of Gilbert, La Danse. 

"Le rêve" is French for "dream."  Gilbert leaves off the circumflex for "Le Reve", but Lopp, as would be expected for someone writing in French, includes it.  I have no information about the source of the name.  Possibly it was named after a particular piece of music, or the name might simply be a romantic fancy.  Gilbert states that dance was adopted by the American Society of professors of Dancing, New York, on September 4th, 1889, which dating explains its absence from Rivers' own work, published in Brooklyn around 1885.

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Fascination

Fascination is another of the myriad minor waltz variations given by dancing master M. B. Gilbert, in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), who includes the dance "by permission of D. B. Brenneke", presumably the creator.  It is essentially a longer and slightly more complex elaboration on the Gavotte Glide.

Gilbert's description reads:

First Part:--Slide left foot to side (2d), 1, 2; draw right to left, placing weight on right, 3; one measure. Repeat one measure. Slide left to side, 1, 2; draw right to left and slide left to side (chassé), & 3; one measures. Draw right to left and slide left to side, & 1, 3; draw right to left, placing weight on right. 3; one measure.

Second Part:--Waltz four measures. Recommence at first part.

Counterpart for lady.

The dancers are in standard waltz position, the gentleman facing the wall.  The lady dances the same moves on opposite feet.

The reconstruction is not particularly difficult; two slow slides along the line of dance, followed by a faster sequence of slides, followed by waltzing.  The gentleman's steps are given below the lady dances on opposite feet.

First Part (four bars)
1,2       Slide left foot sideways (second position) along line of dance
3          Close right to left
1,2       Slide left foot sideways along line of dance
3          Close right to left

1,2       Slide left foot sideways along line of dance
&3       Close right to left (&), sliding left sideways (3)
&1,2    Close right to left (&), sliding left sideways (1,2)
3          Close right to left, turning a quarter clockwise to place gentleman's back to line of dance

Second Part (four bars)
Waltz two complete turns, underturning at end to leave gentleman facing the wall.

 

The waltz would be the lively, leaping waltz described in Gilbert, rather than the earlier style common in the mid-nineteenth century.

[George] Washington Lopp, whose La Danse (Paris, 1903) translates much of Gilbert into French, with some additional material added, gives a virtually identical description of the dance, helpfully adding a metronome count of 184, the same count he assigns the regular waltz of the era.  Lopp calls this waltz the Boston (and describes the second part of the Fascination as four measures of Boston), but the description is that of Gilbert's Glide Waltz: the same waltz pattern done entirely gliding rather than with the leaps and cuts of Gilbert's waltz.  This difference is common across Lopp's descriptions of Gilbert's variations.  I would interpret it to mean that in Paris in the early 20th century, the common method of waltzing was to glide rather than leap, and that the Fascination was performed differently than it had been in America in the late 1880s.

La Russe

I picked La Russe out some time ago while looking for easy late nineteenth century waltz-time variations.  The name means "the Russian woman", and I recently had the pleasure of teaching it in Moscow to a very talented group of Russian dancers.

No specific choreographer is known for La Russe, but we can date it with unusual precision to just over 130 years ago.  Dancing master M. B. Gilbert, in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), noted that it was "introduced by the American Society of Professors of Dancing, New York, May 1st, 1882," and it turns up in a couple of other American dance manuals of the 1880s.  All the descriptions are quite consistent, though the terminology used varies.

Late 19th Century Jig-Time Dances: The Bronco

Like the Rockaway, the Bronco is another dance listed under the "Miscellaneous" category in M.B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) as suitable for either jig time (6/8) or galop time (2/4). 

Please see my earlier post on the Rockaway for a discussion of jig and galop rhythms and a sample of jig music.

Original description

Leap backward from the right to left foot, 1; leap backward upon the right foot, 2; leap backward upon the left, 3; pass right to side and immediately draw left to right (à la Newport), & 4; pass right to side and draw left to right, & 5; leap forward upon the right, 6; pass left to side and draw right to left, & 7; pass left to side and draw right to left, & 8; four measures.  Repeat, commencing as at first. The second time the right foot may move backward at the sixth count, making the turn to the left.  Counterpart for lady.
        ---  Gilbert, Round Dancing, p.165

Reconstruction (8 measures of dance)
(steps for the gentleman; lady dances opposite)

1   2    leap back L, R
3&4    leap back-side-close L-R-L         (waltz-galop natural half-turn)
  &5    side-close R-L
6&7    leap forward-side-close R-L-R    (waltz-galop natural half-turn)
  &8    side-close L-R

Repeat from the beginning (4 measures).

This variation has a very similar construction as that of the Rockaway, with a pair of leaps followed by turning steps.  The "3&4&5" and "6&7&8" sections are each a waltz-galop with a second side-close added; the dancers make a complete turn every four measures.  All steps travel along the line of dance, with quarter turns before and after the first side steps, as described in my previous post on the waltz-galop.

One variation is given: the second time through, the leap on "6" may be backward, resulting in a reverse half-turn instead of a natural half-turn.  The pairs of leaps at the beginning are always done backward by the gentleman, make the dance easier for ladies wearing the elaborate bustles of the era.

I have no other English-language sources for the Bronco, but, like the Rockaway, it reappears in American expatriate dancing master [George] Washington Lopp's La Danse, published in Paris in 1903, under the category "Two Step et Three Step".  The description is a fairly close translation of Gilbert, but Lopp does not mention the variation of a reverse turn on the repeat.

Late 19th Century Jig-Time Dances: The Rockaway

I've recently been looking more closely at some of the "Miscellaneous Dances" found in the back of M. B. Gilbert's 1890 tome, Round Dancing, and noticed that quite a few of the dances there are labeled specifically as for dancing to jig time (6/8) or for either jig or galop (2/4) time.  The Rockaway is one of those given as suited for either time signature.

The earliest source I have for this dance is a New York dance manual, and it seems likely that it was named for the Rockaway Peninsula, a part of Long Island which was a popular seaside resort area in the nineteenth century.  The description in Gilbert is considerably clearer and is the basis for this reconstruction.

Revisiting the Highland Reel

• Era: 1850s, England

It is a truth that ought to be universally acknowledged that whenever I post about a dance on Kickery, I soon after turn up another source for the dance that offers a different spin on things.  In the case of the Highland Reel in its country dance figure form, that process took a few months, but I have indeed come across another source, Diprose’s ball room guide to the figures of the most fashionable dances by J. Albert Jarvis, published in London in 1857.  Looking at Jarvis does not make me change anything about my original two interpretations of the dance, but he offers an unusual enough variation of the Highland Reel that it is perhaps just as well that it has ended up in a separate post.

His description:

This dance is arranged by parties of three, in double lines -- a lady between each two gentlemen.  They advance and retire; each lady performs the reel with the gentleman on her right hand, the opposite gentlemen remain in their places; hands three round and back; all six advance and retire, then lead through to the next trio, and continue the figure to the end of the room.

My interpretation of these instructions is much like those for the other versions of the Highland Reel, except for that pesky reel itself:

The Highland Reel (version three)
(formation: a column of trios of one lady between two gentlemen)
8b    Trios forward and back twice
8b    Each lady reels with the gentleman to her right (see below for details)
8b    Each lady hands three around and back with her right-hand partner and the opposite gentleman
8b    Trios forward and back, then forward and pass right shoulders through the opposite trio

The directions for the reel baffled me briefly: how could a lady reel with only one gentleman?  The minimum for a reel is three, but Jarvis is quite specific that the other gentlemen remain in their places.  But three is not, as I eventually recalled, the maximum for a reel.  I believe Jarvis is actually suggesting a reel of four diagonally across the two trios with the two ladies and their right-hand partners.  Each lady moves into the set to pass right shoulders with the gentleman on her right.  A diagram of the reel as it begins, with the two gentlemen who are not part of the reel marked (G).

 G=>                      (G)
          <=L
                    L=>
(G)                      <=G

The sequence for dancing a reel for four is as follows:

Each lady passes her partner by the right shoulder, then loops around to the right on the ends as the gentlemen pass left shoulders in the center.  The ladies then pass the other gentlemen by the right shoulder, then pass each other by left shoulders in the center while the two gentlemen loop around to the right at the ends.  Ladies pass their partners by the right shoulder, then loop around to the right again while the gentlemen pass left shoulders in the center.  There is one further pass of the ladies by the right shoulder with the gentleman not their partner, then the ladies pass each other in the center by left shoulders heading as the gentlemen loop to the right, the ladies heading toward opposite ends of the set for the hands three round with her right hand partner and the gentleman opposite.  

This is much easier to do than to describe verbally; in essence, it is a figure eight with three loops instead of two, as in this diagram:

For the loops at the ends, dancers should look over their right shoulder and follow their noses, taking a generous curving path rather than turning sharply.  Passes are always right shoulders at the ends (with two consecutive passes by right shoulders at each end) and left in the center, or by right shoulders with the opposite sex and left shoulders with the same sex.  If all the dancers employ the chassé  or Kemshoole step -- in modern terms, a skip-change, performed as (hop) step-close-step -- as suggested in some contemporary descriptions of the Highland Reel, they will be able to complete the reel more easily than by walking.

For the other figures:

As with other descriptions of the Highland Reel, advancing and retiring twice to start is not specified but is necessary to fill the music.

Also as usual, the personnel for the hands three round and back are not specified, but I’ve left it at hands three on the “ends” of the set, each lady circling with her right-hand partner and the gentleman directly opposite him who was left out of the reel.  For the two dancers who were already moving, this flows nicely.  Each lady has just passed the other lady by the left shoulder, and the active gentlemen has just looped around his own right shoulder.  These two can just keep moving counter-clockwise in a curved line as if they were going to continue the reel.  Instead, they simply take hands (her right to his left) and pick up the extra gentleman in order to flow directly into the hands three circling to the left (counter-clockwise)

I actually prefer this variant to either of the more common versions described in my original post on the Highland Reel since it lets each lady interact with both gentlemen in the facing trio (during the reel with one and during the hands three with the other).  While I would not use a variation found solely in an English manual for an American Civil War-themed ball, for any other mid- to late nineteenth-century ball I would be strongly tempted to do the dance “Jarvis style”.

 

Bricklayer's Hornpipe

• Era: 1850s-1890s, America (New England)

Here’s an easy American contra dance of the Civil War era found in three Boston sources.  Two are manuals by Elias Howe: Howe's Complete Ballroom Handbook (Boston, 1858), and American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862); the third is Professor L.H. Elmwell’s Prompter’s Pocket Instruction Book (Boston, 1892).

The figures for the dance, as given by Elmwell:

First couple cross over inside below second couple (4); Up on the outside and turn partners to places (4); First couple down the centre, back and cast off (8); First lady swing second gent (4); First gent swing second lady (4); Right and left (8).

The earlier instructions from the two manuals by Howe are virtually identical except that he describes the second move as “up on the outside swing partner to place”, a distinction I will address below, and the swings of the first lady/second gentleman and first gentleman/second lady as “quite round”.

The Swedish Dances, Part Seven: After Mr. Chivers

(Seventh in a series of posts discussing and analyzing the Swedish dances.  The first post may be found here.)

While never a prominent format, the Swedish dances became enough of a success to outlast their originator.  In the second edition of his Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (London, c1830), dancing master J. S. Pollock, “Professor of Dancing, late of Paris” gives figures for many of the unusual country dance formats originating in the late 1810s and early 1820s, among them three different sets of figures for Swedish dances.  

Pollock describes the Swedish dances as being suited to either a lady between two gentlemen or a gentleman between two ladies, though his instructions are invariably for the latter configuration.  His diagram suggests a set of trios all of the same configuration.  Interestingly, Pollock explicitly states that “no change of places is to be made either at the top or bottom of the same,” meaning at the ends of the set.  This means that a right-hand dancer going down the set would become a left-hand dancer coming back up, a minor complication which Pollock was either indifferent to or regarded as a feature.

Pollock’s three dances, each thirty-two bars in length, are not given associated tune-names, only numbers, consistent with his descriptions of other types of dances.  Any tune of the proper length might be used.  My reconstructions are as follows:

No. 1
8b    Hands six round and back again

8b    The two top ladies and opposite gentleman cross right hands around then left hands back
8b    The other three the same

8b    All six advance and retire and pass through

No. 2
8b    All six advance and retire twice
8b    The top two ladies and opposite gentlemen hands three round and back

8b    The other three the same
8b    All six advance and retire and pass through

No. 3
8b    Hands six round and back again
8b    Top gentleman swing the lady opposite on the right with his right hand, then the lady opposite on the left with his left

8b    Bottom gentleman the same with the top ladies

8b    All six advance and retire and pass through

Reconstruction notes
The issues of reconstructing passing through in Chivers’ Swedish dances were discussed in my second post in this series.  For Pollock’s Swedish dances, one could use either version, but I lean toward the simpler one without the taking hands or the setting after passing through.  Those details appear to have faded with Chivers; I have never seen them elsewhere, and they seem a bit elaborate to be simply assumed.

Pollock opens his second dance with “All six advance and retire”, but to fit the music, it must be done twice.  Chivers was also inconsistent about mentioning this in his instructions.

A notable characteristic of Pollock’s dances is their use of figures which distinguish between the top trio (nearest the head of the set) and bottom trio, a distinction never made by Chivers.  His third dance is also the earliest appearance I have found of the center dancer interacting with diagonal opposites in sequence (right-hand opposite then left-hand opposite).

The next appearance of a Swedish dance that I have found is in manuscript form in Scotland about a decade later, in Frederick Hill’s Book of Quadrilles & Country Dances &c &c., dated March 22, 1841.  Hill gives both a small diagram and the note “Requires two Gentlemen to one Lady”, followed by a single set of dance instructions:

The first Lady turns the Gentleman opposite on her right with her right, & then the Gent on her left with her left.  The second or opposite L turns the Gent opposite in the same manner and retires to her place. Six hands full round _ advance & retire change sides.

The instructions appear to be simply a slight variation on Pollock’s third dance above, with the genders reversed and the hands six round altered to move only one direction then placed later in the dance:

8b    First (top) lady turns right-hand opposite gent by right hands, then left-hand opposite gent by left hands
8b    Second (bottom) lady does the same

8b    Hands six and circle completely around to the left
8b    All six advance and retire, then pass through

This produces a thirty-two bar dance.  For the pass through (“change sides” in the mansucript), I would have the dancers simply pass through by right shoulders.

It’s also possible to interpret Hill’s instructions as implying that the two ladies move simultaneously rather than sequentially, producing a twenty-four bar dance as follows:

4b    Each lady turns the right-hand opposite gentleman by right hands

4b    Each lady turns the left-hand opposite gentleman by left hands

8b    Hands six and circle completely around to the left
8b    All six advance and retire, then pass through

This is noticeably livelier, with four dancers moving at any given moment during the first eight bars of the dance, and suggests an interesting choreographic link with another dance.  Variations on the idea of both center dancers interacting simultaneously with their right and then left opposite diagonals are also the most characteristic figure of the mid-century American dance called the Rustic Reel (as described in a previous Kickery article), a twenty-four-bar trio-facing-trio dance found in American dance manuals as early as 1841.  While the Rustic Reel’s descent from the Swedish dances was always suggested by its unusual trio format, Pollock and Hill’s instructions provide the most compelling evidence yet that the American dance is a very close descendent of the earlier English genre of Swedish dances.

Harvest Home

• Era: American, late 1850s-early 1860s

In commemoration of the American Thanksgiving holiday, here’s a seasonally appropriate dance from the American Civil War era, a country dance for a set of six couples.

While I have not done a comprehensive search, I appear to have instructions for "Harvest Home" only in a pair of dance manuals by Elias Howe: Howe's Complete Ballroom Handbook (Boston, 1858) and American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862), which include far more country dances than is typical of other dance manuals of the time period.  New England to this day retains a stronger country dance tradition, in the form of modern contra dance, than most other parts of the United States.

Highland Reel (country dance figure)

    •    Era: 1840s-1890s

While researching nineteenth-century Scottish reels, I was surprised to come across a dance labeled “Highland Reel” that was not the usual sort of Highland Reel, a simple mix of setting and heying for three or four dancers, but rather two slightly different versions of a progressive longways dance for trios of one lady between two gentlemen, formed as in the illustration at left (click to enlarge), taken from Elias Howe’s American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862). 

Ironically, I have only one, very late, Scottish source for the dance; most of the sources I’ve found it in are actually American!  One version made its way all the way to Australia and is found in an 1875 manual from that country.  That version, with the dancers’ genders reversed to one gentleman between two ladies, is still extant in the modern Scottish Country Dance community, where it may be found in the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society's Book 13.

The Sultan Polka (a polka contra dance)

Here's an easy mid-nineteenth century American contra dance well-suited to a Civil War-era ball.  I haven't looked extensively, but the only sources I seem to have it in are two manuals attributed to Elias Howe: Howe's Complete Ballroom Handbook (Boston, 1858) and American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862).

The dance is given as part of a list of "polka contra dances", and the instructions are identical in both:

First lady followed by first gentleman (with arms akimbo) polka down the centre and up the outside to place--first gentleman down the centre followed by first lady, up the outside to place--first couple down the centre, back and cast off--right and left.

My reconstruction:

8b    First lady polkas down center and up outside on gents' side to place, followed by first gent
8b    First gent polkas down center and up outside on ladies' side to place, followed by first lady
8b    First couple down the center, turn individually & back, cast off to second place
8b    Rights and lefts

The gentleman at least has his arms "akimbo", meaning hands on hips, palms outward.  The lady might as well, or be holding her skirt lightly with her fingertips.

Howe suggests that the dance could end with "all Polk round the Hall" -- break the sets and all couple polka until the end of the music.

Star Schottische

One of the myriad minor schottische variations described in M.B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (1890), is notable as the earliest appearance I've noticed of what has become the standard style for the first part of modern folk schottische: three running steps forward in "military position" (as described in my previous post, "À la Militaire") rather than the step-close-step of the nineteenth century dance.

Gilbert attributes the Star Schottische to W.F. Mittman.

The steps below are described for the gentleman; the lady dances on the opposite foot.

First Part (two bars of four beats each)
(take military position, side by side)
1b    Three running steps forward, left-right-left, hop on the left foot
1b    Repeat, starting with right foot

Second Part (two bars of four beats each)
(close into a normal ballroom hold)
2b    Waltz galop (two complete turns)

Gilbert does not describe what the free foot does during the hops in the first part; it could be extended into a raised fourth position forward or simply tucked next to the hopping foot. 

At the end of the first part the gentleman must move in front of the lady quickly in order to leap straight backward along the line of dance in the waltz galop.  (See my previous description of the waltz galop for how to perform this step.)

The Gothic Dance

• Era: 1860s, America (New England)

The Gothic Dance seems at first glance to be an oddity among mid-century dances, appearing in only one manual that I have ever found, and unusual in format within the lengthy collection of contra dances in Elias Howe’s American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862).  The dance was first reconstructed by my late mentor and friend, Patri Pugliese, whose reconstruction appears online in the companion dance notes to the CD The Civil War Ballroom.  The dance is a particularly easy one, energetic and fun for beginners and experienced dancers alike, and thus a good choice for balls with a large percentage of new dancers.

Ladies' Double Chain vs. Ladies' Grand Chain

Sometimes, musicians and prompters for Quadrille dancing, when they intend "Double Ladies' Chain," say "Ladies Grand Chain." This is wrong: the figures are entirely dissimilar.
        --- William B. De Garmo, The prompter (New York, 1865)

A century later, this problem is still with us, as modern-day dance historians confuse the two figures when reconstructing quadrilles.  The problem is made worse by the plethora of terminology.  Though the first of the two is called either a Ladies' Chain Double or a Ladies' Double Chain, the second can be known variously as the Chain of Four Ladies, Les Chaine des Dames Continue, Ladies' Grand Chain, Ladies' Right and Left Around, or Ladies' Grand Right and Left. 

Let's take a look at the difference between the two figures.

The Newport

A new waltz or redowa variation pops up in a few of the manuals of the very late nineteenth century.  Presumably named after the wealthy resort town, the Newport appears in slightly different versions in different manuals, but the common element appears to be a series of quick sliding steps.

A Waltz Minuet

In the late nineteenth century, short dance sequences came into vogue, combining couple dancing with simple figures.  Among these were more than one attempt to merge a romanticized version of the eighteenth-century minuet with the waltz.  These "waltz minuets" bore no particular resemblance to their minuet namesakes, lacking the "Z" pattern of the true minuet or any real attempt at proper steps. 

In 1890, M.B. Gilbert published in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) a waltz minuet choreography consisting of a sixteen-bar "minuet" pattern alternating with sixteen bars of waltz.  The sequence is given below.  The first section is quite slow, with only one step or movement per bar of music.  The dancers start with right hands joined and both begin with the right foot.

1b    Slide right foot foward
1b    Close left foot to third position behind, bending the knees
1b    Slide left foot backward
1b    Close right foot to left in third position, bending the knees
2b    Walk around each other two steps (right, left)
2b    Bring feet together, drop hands, and bow/courtesy to partner over both measures
8b    Repeat all of the above joining left hands and beginning with the left foot
16b  Take closed position and waltz

Total: 32 bars of waltz music; repeat dance as needed to fill out music.

The first four bars are noted by Gilbert as being the "Pas minuet," though no baroque dancer would so label them.  The bringing of the feet together is not clearly spelled out, but it would make sense to simply close up the right foot to the left.  The waltz would be that described by Gilbert, the lively turning "leap-slide-cut" of the late nineteenth century.

A lovely little video of dancers Thomas Baird and Cheryl Stafford performing Elizabeth Aldrich's reconstruction of this waltz minuet may be viewed courtesy of the Library of Congress here.

Le Triangle

Subtitled Nouveau Quadrille, Le Triangle is not actually a quadrille in the literal sense of a dance involving facing couples.  It was composed by F. Paul and published in his manual, Le Cotillon, in Paris in 1877 and is danced by three couples rather than four, arranged in the form of a triangle.  Paul composed it to address the difficulty of finding four couples for the quadrille croisé of the time.  He adds modestly that he does not intend to impose it upon dancers, but gives the description only as a proposal.  I have never seen Le Triangle in any other source; it may never have been danced outside of Paul's immediate circles.

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: The Bowdoin

This is the final post in this month's little series of easy and useful late nineteenth century waltz variations from M.B. Gilbert's 1890 manual, Round Dancing.  The first three posts in the series may be found here, here, and here.

Gilbert notes of the Bowdoin that he "applied these movements to the Waltz during the seasons of 1888-89, and found the application very pleasing."

Once again, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding the waltz steps, with my preference being for the smoother transitions allowed by the gliding version.

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Le Metropole

Returning once again to my short series on some of the more useful waltz variations published by M.B. Gilbert in his 1890 manual, Round Dancing, here's a third simple variation for the late nineteenth century waltz.  The first and second posts in the series may be found here and here.

Le Metropole uses the same simple sliding and waltzing steps of the Gavotte Glide but mixes them in a different way.  Gilbert attributes it to H. Fletcher Rivers.

Like the Gavotte Glide, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding.  And as with the Gavotte Glide, its gliding feel makes me lean toward the latter for the sake of smoother transitions.

Dance Card: Las Vegas Benefit Ball, 1894

The last dance card I posted having been well received, here's another one from my collection.  This one is from a benefit ball held in Las Vegas on April 24, 1894, with music by the East Las Vegas Military Band "Assisted by "Prof. J.A. Hand's Full Orchestra." 

The card is badly stained, but the lovely cover image of a putto playing a guitar to a group of birds is still charming.  The cord for the pencil is still attached, though discolored.  The edges are pinked.  The card has not been used, though one dance ("Comus Waltz") has been crossed out and "Waltz" written in, presumably after a last-minute program change.  The ball committee -- all men -- is listed on the back cover.

(click to enlarge the images)

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Gavotte Glide

This is the second in my short series on some of the more useful waltz variations published by M.B. Gilbert in his 1890 manual, Round Dancing. The first post in the series may be found here.

Of all of the variations in Gilbert, this simple mix of sliding steps and waltz turns is probably the easiest and the one I use most frequently in teaching new dancers.  Gilbert attributes it to "Constantine Carpenter, Son, and Charles C. Martel."

As with the Diagonal Waltz, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding, though its gliding feel makes me lean toward the latter for smoother transitions within the variation.

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Diagonal Waltz

By the end of the nineteenth century, American dancing masters such as M.B. Gilbert were coming up with long lists of little waltz variations of dubious utility and doubtful popularity.  Many of these are minor variations on a few simple themes, often interpolating sideways slides and chassé steps between measures of waltz.  I'm going to do a short series on some of the more useful and leadable of these variations this month, all taken from the pages of Gilbert's immense manual, Round Dancing, published in Maine in 1890 and incorporating many variations from the 1870s and 1880s.  Calling them "Victorian" is a bit of misnomer, since these are essentially American variations.

The Diagonal Waltz does not actually involve anything other than the normal step of the "new" waltz (step-side-close pattern) of the late nineteenth century.  It is really just a sequence incorporating natural and reverse turns in such a way as to never make a complete turn in either direction.  This is so basic a waltz skill that similar sequences are incorporated into most twentieth century versions of the box-step or Viennese waltz as well.

Gilbert considers a leaping version of the waltz (leaping-side-cut) to be the basic, but the Diagonal Waltz will work either leaping or simply gliding.

The Invention of the York?

A couple of months ago I described the late 19th-century waltz-time move known as the York, which incorporated mazurka-style heel-clicks and was considered a variation of the polka mazurka.  At the time, the earliest source I had located was M.B. Gilbert's Round Dancing, published in 1890, where the dance was included "by permission of E.W. Masters," possibly its creator.  An interesting article from The New York Times, dated September 9, 1885, both brings the date of the dance back a few years and provides an amusing anecdote about the dance's possible origin.

Dance Card: Improved Order of Red Men, 1881

I am not a big collector of dance cards, but occasionally I buy one or get given one as a gift.  I plan to post them occasionally as examples of the order of dances at actual balls of their eras. 

This dance card, for a "Public Installation" of the Improved Order of Red Men, is dated January 6, 1881, and is divided between the a ceremony for a fraternal order and the following ball.  (Click to enlarge the front cover image at left.)

The Improved Order of Red Men is still in existence and claims a history going back as far as 1765 and a descent from the Sons of Liberty who perpetrated, in Mohawk disguise, the Boston Tea Party in 1773.  The current name dates from 1834.  Details of the order's history may be found on its website.  Two of the three "tribes" (local organizations) listed seem still to be in existence, though perhaps not in the same cities: Red Cloud (Indianapolis) and Minnewa (Philadelphia).  Polmete seems to have vanished.

The Royal Lancers, Figure 5

The fifth and final figure of the Royal Lancers/Horse Guards quadrille for sixteen is actually not a very radical departure from the fifth figure of the usual Lancers.  The only real change is replacing the opening grand chain with a less elegant right hands across/left hands back done by all eight ladies together.  The only virtue of this change is that this figure fits the standard music, which a grand chain of sixteen people would not.  The rest of the figures are really no more than a typical fifth figure performed side by side but separately by two groups of four couples.

Please refer to the first post in this series, here, for the diagram showing the formation of the Royal Lancers, with each pair of numbered couples (first/first, second/second, etc.) being located diagonally across the set from each other.

The Royal Lancers, Figure 4

Moving right along with the Royal Lancers quadrille for sixteen: the fourth figure is the first figure to really take full advantage of the large-square format, with each repetition bringing the active couples (heads or sides) exactly halfway around the square to the diagonally opposite position.  In this, it has more in common with the fourth figure of Allen Dodworth's later New York Lancers (here) than with that the standard Lancers, a version of which is described in the same post.

The formation for the Royal Lancers is shown in the first post in this series, here; reference to that diagram will be useful in sorting out the perambulations of the various couples.

The Royal Lancers, Figure 3

Proceeding through the Royal Lancers quadrille for sixteen, the third figure incorporates choreographic adaptations to the larger square similar to those made in the first two figures.  Once again, moves that are usually done by the head or side couples together are divided, but this time in a way which harks back to the oldest form of the Lancers, with the figures led in turn by each lady and her opposite.  The ladies chain for four couples is then modified into four ladies chains for two couples each, to suit the large-square formation.

A direct comparison with the third figure of the original Lancers may be made via my post on the third figure of the New York Lancers, here.  The formation for the Royal Lancers is shown in the first post in this series, here.

The Royal Lancers, Figure 2

Continuing on from my previous post covering the first figure of the Royal Lancers quadrille for sixteen, here is the second figure.  Once again, moves that are usually done by the head or side couples together are divided so that the first couples move during the first time through, the second couples during the second, and so forth.  A more substantial alteration is that rather than the side couples (in the first two repetitions) dividing to form lines of four at the heads and those lines going forward and back followed by a two-hand turn to places, the Royal Lancers takes advantage of the ready-made lines of four along each side of the set and allows both the head and side lines to advance and retire sequentially, skipping the two-hand turn to places entirely.

Comparison with the second figure of the original Lancers may be made via my post on the second figure of the New York Lancers, here.

The Royal Lancers, Figure 1

Era: American, 1860s onward

There are several "sixteen Lancers" quadrilles, written for eight couples rather than four, many of which adopt similar solutions in adapting the figures to twice as many couples.  The Royal Lancers, or Horse Guards, is a version that I have found in only two sources: Thomas Hillgrove's 1863 A Complete Practical Guide to the Art of Dancing and Professor M.J. Koncen's 1883 Quadrille Call Book and Ball Room Guide.  The diagram at the left (click to enlarge), taken from Hillgrove, shows the arrangement of couples for the Royal Lancers.  Note that the odd-numbered couples on each side are to the right of the even-numbered ones.  Koncen provides a similar diagram but misnumbers two of the couples.

The figures of the Royal Lancers are only minor variations on the standard Lancers ones, but the multiplier effect of doing the figures with twice as many couples makes even the simplest figures substantially more interesting.  For the most part, the Royal Lancers may be danced to any Lancers music, but note that there are both 20-bar and 24-bar versions of Figure 4 in the standard Lancers repertoire, and the Royal Lancers requires the longer music.

A Promiscuous Figure: The Sociable

"This is a very lively figure, as it keeps all the couples occupied and introduces a continual change of partners." 

    -- Dick's Quadrille Call-Book and Ball-Room Prompter, New York, 1878.

I've posted occasionally about promiscuous figures (Basket and Star, Gavotte and Minuet, Flirtation), single quadrille figures which may be substituted for one of the figures of the first set of quadrilles to provide more variety.  Another of these, which dates at least to 1848, was known variously as "The Sociable," "Quadrille Sociable," or "Social Quadrille."  Its distinctive feature was repeated partner changes.  As noted above, it also had the virtue of having very little waiting out for any of the couples.  While Charles Durang, writing in Philadelphia in 1856, sniffed at it as one of the "good, but now unfashionable" old figures, it seems to have remained popular right through the middle of the nineteenth century and is even included in a few manuals appearing into the late 19th and very early 20th century.

Different dancing masters disagreed about which figure of the first set this or other promiscuous figures may be substituted for.  One 1878 manual stated that substitution is done for the second or fifth figure, while an 1889 one is equally clear that the third and fourth figures are the ones to replace.  My personal opinion is that the Sociable is stylistically most like a fifth figure.

Thomas Hillgrove, writing in 1857, seems to have been the first to build an entire quadrille around the Sociable, using it as figure one in a traditional five-figure set called the "Quadrille Sociable."  Six years later, he includes it in a later manual as "Social Quadrille No. 1."  A similar five-figure quadrille is included in a manual attributed to Elias Howe and published in 1862.  Unfortunately, the five-figure version is not particularly interesting, just one of many interchangeable rearrangements of generic quadrille figures.  This may explain why it doesn't seem to have been picked up by many other authors. 

The Sociable by itself, however, is a fun little figure, easy to teach and fun to do.  Here's the basic version:

The Yale University York

• Era: 1890s-very early 1900s

The Yale University York is one of those dance variations that probably had a short to nonexistent life outside the studio of its creator and a few other dancing masters.  Unlike the original York (described here), it seems to appear only in two sources: Melvin Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and George Washington Lopp's, La Danse (Paris, 1903), much of which is merely a direct translation of Gilbert.  Both Gilbert and Lopp attribute it to A.M. Loomis.  Despite its obscurity and probable lack of popularity in its own time, I am devoting a post to it primarily because as a Yale alumna I am charmed whenever anyone names a dance after my alma mater.

The York

• Era: 1890s-very early 1900s

The York is a waltz variation which appeared in several American dance manuals in the last decade of the 19th century.  The earliest reference I have located is in Melvin Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), where he includes it "by permission of E.W. Masters," possibly the creator.  George Washington Lopp, who reprinted much of Gilbert in La Danse (Paris, 1903) directly attributes it to Masters. 

Unlike many of the variations included in Gilbert, the York seems to have enjoyed some minor success.  Allen Dodworth did not include it in the first (1885) edition of his substantial tome, Dancing, but it appears in the 1900 edition in an appendix of recently developed dances which appear to be have been copied in large part from Marguerite Wilson's Dancing (Philadelphia, 1899).  Wilson's fellow Philadelphian, dancing master Albert Newman, included it as "Yorke (Mazurka)" in his 1903 A Complete Practical Guide to Modern Society Dancing, and Wisconsin dancing master A.C. Wirth has "The Yorke" in his 1902 Complete Quadrille Call Book and Dancing Master.  It also appears with identical language to Wirth's in D.F. Jay's  A.B.C. Guide to Ballroom Dancing, published in Chicago around 1900, and M.I. Quick's Complete Guide to Dancing, also Chicago, 1903.  All three midwestern manuals were probably plagiarized from a common source.

The New York Lancers, Figure 5

This is the fifth and final post in a series covering the individual figures of Allen Dodworth's New York Lancers, published in Dancing and its relations to education and social life in 1885, and comparing them side-by-side with the figures of Dodworth's standard Lancers.  The earlier posts in the series, covering figures one through four, may be found here, here, here, and here.

The New York Lancers, Figure 4

This is the fourth post a series covering the individual figures of Allen Dodworth's New York Lancers, published in Dancing and its relations to education and social life in 1885, and comparing them side-by-side with the figures of Dodworth's standard Lancers.  The earlier posts in the series may be found here, here, and here.

The New York Lancers, Figure 3

This is the third post in a series covering the individual figures of Allen Dodworth's New York Lancers, published in Dancing and its relations to education and social life in 1885, and comparing them side-by-side with the figures of Dodworth's standard Lancers.  The first post in the series, with some background and a discussion of Figure 1, may be found here.  Figure 2 may be found here.

The New York Lancers, Figure 2

This is the second post in my little series covering the individual figures of Allen Dodworth's New York Lancers, published in Dancing and its relations to education and social life in 1885, and comparing them side-by-side with the figures of Dodworth's standard Lancers.  The first post in the series, with some background and a discussion of Figure 1, may be found here.

The New York Lancers, Figure 1

I recently had the opportunity to reconstruct and teach a Lancers (Quadrille) variant created by New York dancing master Allen Dodworth and published in his lengthy Dancing and its relations to education and social life in 1885 as "Dodworth's New York Lancers."

The figures are easy ones which make a pleasant change of pace for those accustomed to dancing the popular standard Lancers figures or their Saratoga Lancers variant.  They are also the same length as those of the standard Lancers, though sometimes fewer repeats are needed, so they can be used with many existing Lancers recordings.  I thought it would thus be interesting to take a look at the New York Lancers figure by figure and side by side with the usual figures to see exactly how Dodworth went about creating his version. 

The Polish Galop

• Era: 1880s-early 1900s, New England & Paris

The so-called Polish Galop, which is neither Polish nor necessarily a galop, is one of those odd little variations that was the creation of a single dancing master and was not generally taken up by others.  It is not Polish in origin; the name comes from the heel-clicking move it incorporates, which is typical of Polish dances such as the mazurka.  Its creator, Maine dancing master and author M.B. Gilbert, explains in Round Dancing, published in 1890, that

The movements of this dance were arranged by me for special use in children's classes, and I found the combination a pleasant innovation.

I also found it pleasant; it's actually slightly less "busy" than a regular galop.  And its ambiguity on where the turn (if any) happens is interestingly similar to that of the racket.

Schottische à Pas Sauté

By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, as the standard Victorian couple dances were becoming somewhat stale, there was a flurry of innovation among dancing masters attempting to come up with new variations, most of which do not appear to have caught on widely.  In M.B. Gilbert's 1890 tome, Round Dancing, he describes a variation, the Schottische à Pas Sauté, which resembles the old "doubling" of the schottische parts (as described in my review of the early schottische) in consisting only of "step-hops" but employs the recently stylish "military position", as described in my previous post, "À la Militaire", rather than using the closed position of the earlier era throughout.  Gilbert footnotes this variation as the Hop Waltz, harking back to the jeté waltz of the Regency era.

Both the first and second parts of the Schottische à Pas Sauté consist entirely of step-hops.  The steps below are described for the gentleman; the lady dances on the opposite foot.

First Part (two bars of four beats each)
(take military position, side by side)
1. Step forward left
2. Hop on left extending right to fourth position forward
3. Step forward right
4. Hop on right extending left to fourth position forward

Repeat all of the above.

Second Part (two bars of four beats each)
(close into a normal ballroom hold)
1. Step left across line of dance (lady steps right along line of dance, between gent's feet)
2. Hop on left foot, tucking the right foot behind the left in third position raised, finishing a half-turn
3. Step right along line of dance, between lady's feet (lady steps left across line of dance)
4. Hop on right foot, tucking the left foot behind as before, to complete the turn

Repeat all of the above for a second complete turn.

The word "step" rather than "leap" is used throughout; perhaps leaping was considered unnecessary with so much hopping involved.