Capering & Kickery

August 2023 Gig Calendar

We are now on May, Take III, and I have nothing original to say about it except that I am really looking forward to autumn.  I'll make a short trip to Boston for DJing and library research, then back at home again for research and writing and all the mundane life stuff.

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Tuesday, August 8th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy (Facebook page) (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
7:30-10:00pm (plus).  Lesson (not me - I don't teach blues!) from 7:30-8:30, then I will be DJing blues from 8:30 until at least 10:00, possibly longer if the dance floor is full!  Indoors with an air cleaner going; masks and proof of vaccination required.  Sliding scale donation, $5 to $20.  Volunteers get free admission!

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

 

The Prince Charming, 1981

And now for something completely different...

Once upon a time, there was a song, and a dance, and a video...and I totally missed them.  It was the autumn of 1981.  MTV was brand-new.  And a band called Adam and the Ants released "Prince Charming", with its very own associated dance, supposedly written because the music did not lend itself to standard nightclub/disco dancing (Wikipedia).  The single record, shown at left (click to enlarge) claimed to be

Introducing the new Dance Craze "The Prince Charming"

July 2023 Gig Calendar

For the first time in four years we have a non-gig calendar!  Previous July plans have been postponed, so I will be hibernating quietly at home this month, getting things prepared for later in the year (autumn will be lively!) and taking care of non-dance business.

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!  I am currently scheduling through summer 2024.

Dorothea: a 1912 march figure

"Dorothea" is a full choreographed march taken from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912).  It combines some standard march figures used in unusual ways with less standard ones and enough mixer elements that it also qualifies as a fun cotillion (dance party game). 

Like many figures in Walker's book, this one probably originated elsewhere.  I don't know where, and I don't know the significance of the name.  But how could I possibly resist a march whose creator fully expected it to devolve into chaos at the end?    

"...when the dancers have become helplessly tangled at the sides of the room, trying to find out where to go next..."

It's comforting to know that if the figure goes terribly wrong the caller can just skip to the end and claim it was planned!  

It is not at all comforting, however, for the first diagram to present a problem.

June 2023 Gig Calendar

June feels a bit like May, Take II: a quick trip to Boston early in the month to DJ and do a bit of library research, then holing up at home for research and writing...and yardwork and home renovations and all those little things I do when I'm not working.

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Tuesday, June 6th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy (Facebook page) (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
7:30-10:00pm (plus).  Lesson (not me - I don't teach blues!) from 7:30-8:30, then I will be DJing blues from 8:30 until at least 10:00, possibly longer if the dance floor is full!  Indoors with an air cleaner going; masks and proof of vaccination required.  Sliding scale donation, $5 to $20.  Volunteers get free admission!

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

 

May 2023 Gig Calendar

Tra la...it's May!  Waltz workshops and DJing a waltz afternoon in Boston early in the month, then I'll be taking a break from travel for some needed time at home for research and writing!

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Sunday, May 7th ~ Concord, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Cross-Step Waltz Workshops & DJ'ed Dance for Mostly Waltz for Boston (Facebook event)
11:00am-5:00pm.  Three cross-step waltz workshops (one introductory, two intermediate) plus a couple of hours of waltz and other couple dances to my eclectic collection of recordings.  Pricing below; details here; registration page here.  Capacity is limited!

• Each workshop: $15 / FAC members $13 / Student, Need a Break $10
• Dance: $10 / FAC members $8 / Student, Need a Break $5
• 2 or 3 workshops + dance: $40 / FAC members $34 / Student, Need a Break $25.  

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

 

April 2023 Gig Calendar

As April begins I'll still be on my March Chicago trip, now extended to Wisconsin.  Then after a couple of weeks at home, I'll be on the road again to the amazing New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) and a Civil War ball in Pennsylvania, with a bit of DJing tucked in between.  I'm looking forward to a fabulous and eclectic month!

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Saturday, April 1st ~ Racine, Wisconsin
Regency Ball for Grimmoire Productions' LARP Lies and Liability
Private event for LARP attendees.  

Friday-Sunday, April 21st-23rd ~ Marlborough, Massachusetts
NEFFA 2023 (The New England Folk Festival)
I will be teaching and speaking on Saturday and Sunday as part of this enormous folk festival filled with music and dance.  High-quality masks and vax requirements!  See the full schedule here.  My sessions:

• Saturday, 1:00-1:50pm: Early American Cotillions (workshop) 
• Saturday, 4:00-4:50pm: A Black Caller in Napoleonic France (talk)
• Sunday, 12:30-1:20pm: Shadow Waltz Variations (workshop) 
• Sunday, 2:00-2:50pm: Allemande: The Couple Dance (workshop) 

Tuesday, April 25th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy (FUSEY Tuesy (Facebook page) (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
7:30-10:00pm (plus).  This is a Balter/Fusion night!  Lesson (not me - I don't teach blues/fusion!) from 7:30-8:30, then I will be DJing blue/fusion from 8:30 until at least 10:00, possibly longer if the dance floor is full!  Indoors with an air cleaner going; masks and proof of vaccination required.  Sliding scale donation, $5 to $20.  Volunteers get free admission!

Saturday, April 29th ~ Waverly, Pennsylvania
The 17th Annual Grand Civil War ball (Facebook event)
7:00-10:00pm.  Formal 1860s ball to be held at the Waverly Community House with live music by Spare Parts and a beginner-friendly dance program!  This ball is a benefit event for the Lackawanna Historical Society.  Pre-ball workshop 1:00-3:00pm.  No mask or vaccination requirements.  Tickets $40 (includes workshop); see the website to purchase.

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

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Coming in May: a day of cross-step waltz (workshops and DJ'ed dance) for Mostly Waltz for Boston!

March 2023 Gig Calendar

March for me will come in like the proverbial lion as I wrap up my little European tour with a weekend of workshops in Munich and go out, err, still like the lion with a trip to Chicago for research and an evening of country dancing (loosely defined).  In between, I'll be in Boston for DJing (and more research).  Updated: the DJing and Boston trip are canceled, conveniently replaced by a class at a local university!  Whee!

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Saturday-Sunday, March 4-5th ~ Munich, Germany
"In the Manner of …" Tänze „verschiedener Nationen“ um 1800 (Facebook event)
Dance workshops on late 18th to early 19th century dances that involve one nationality presenting a dance "of" or "in the style of" another.  Country dances and quadrilles.  Teaching language will be English.  Download the event flyer (PDF) here or see the website for more details and registration information.  This weekend is just about sold out but will be keeping a wait list in case of cancellations.

Tuesday, March, 21st ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy (Facebook page) (Facebook group)
CANCELED DUE TO VENUE RENOVATiON WORK
7:30-10:00pm (plus).  Lesson (not me - I don't teach blues!) from 7:30-8:30, then I will be DJing blues from 8:30 until at least 10:00, possibly longer if the dance floor is full!  Indoors with an air cleaner going; masks and proof of vaccination required.  Sliding scale donation, $5 to $20.  Volunteers get free admission!

Tuesday, March 21st ~ New Britain, Connecticut
Dance workshop at Central Connecticut State University
12:30-1:30pm.  Guest-teaching eighteenth & nineteenth-century dance for a dance history class.  Enrolled students only.

Friday, March 31st ~ Glen Ellyn, Illinois (Chicago area)
Dancing Through Time for Chicagoland English Country Dance
7:30-10:30pm.  An evening of various forms of set dancing - longways, squares, circles, etc. from the Renaissance to the 21st century.  Some experience with some form of set dancing (country dance, contra, squares, etc.) will be helpful.  Sliding scale $5-15.  See website for COVID safety requirements.

 

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

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Coming in April: from Chicago to Wisconsin for a Regency-themed ball at a LARP, then a lull before NEFFA and a Civil War Ball at the end of the month!

Ocean Waves, 1914

As I go flying over the ocean waves for my miniature European tour, here's an appropriately-named one-step variation from the pages of Frank H. Norman's Complete Dance Instructor (Ottawa, 1914).  As far as I know, that is the only place "Ocean Waves" was ever published, so I would not consider it a common variation.  But it's kind of wacky fun and provides something besides boat swings to do with both arms outstretched, in case anyone was feeling the lack of such things.

The dance hold is as shown at left: partners facing with arms outstretched and hands joined.  The step itself is very simple.  I'll give the gentleman's feet; reverse for the lady.

Prepare by placing weight on the right foot and freeing the left foot in a raised second position.  It doesn't actually matter which way the dancers are facing, since the step turns on the spot, but since it will cause traffic problems, it's best done in the center of the room rather than right in the line of dance.

Ocean Waves
1&        Chassez: cut left foot to right, displacing right (1) and step to the right (&)
2           Cut: cut left foot to right, displacing right to raised second

1&        Chassez: cut right foot to left, displacing left (1) and step to the left (&)
2           Cut: cut right foot to left, displacing left to raised second

Repeat as many times as desired, turning in place and "allowing the hands to wave up and down at side imitating 'waves' ".  I don't find it graceful to move just the hands or even just the arms in this; I think what is meant, and certainly what I prefer, is something more maxixe-like, keeping the arms extended throughout and tilting the torso so that the left hand/arm/shoulder rises when the dancer is moving to his/her left and vice-versa.

The time signature was listed as "Tempo 3-4" -- tempo is misused this way repeatedly in the book -- but since it was notated in two and specifically said to be a variation that may be introduced in any one-step, I think this was simply a typo for "2-4".

Although Norman directs the dancers to turn, they could actually perform the step without any turn, either on the spot, going back and forth or progressing in a slight zig-zag along the line of dance, similarly to the one-slide racket, of which this is basically an accenting variation.  I don't personally count it as a racket since it lacks the characteristic slide on the strong (first) beat and distinctive fast "cut-cut" pairs, but it's certainly close kin.

The Detroit, 1886

The Detroit, published in 1886, was a very simple sequence dance which in theory uses a polka variant, though the 6/8 music feels more like a two-step.  The dance was choreographed by Herman A. Strassburg Jr. to music by John E. Fancher.  The cover of the sheet music, courtesy of the Detroit Historical Society, is shown at left (click to enlarge). 

The dance instructions were published with the sheet music as well as by M. B. Gilbert in his compilation Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and by G. W. Lopp in La Danse (Paris, 1903).  Both attributed it to Strassburg. 

The dance instructions are essentially the same in all three sources, though the internal reference to polka variant is given by Strassburg as the Rush Polka, by Gilbert as the Glide Polka, and by Lopp as the polka coquette.  According to Gilbert, and discussed here, all three are different names for the same variation.  It's possible they are regional terms.

Jenny Lind Polka - German Polka (American contra dances)

I'm going to jointly cover the two contra dances prolific nineteenth century musician-caller-author-publisher Elias Howe published under the titles Jenny Lind Polka and German Polka because they share the same unusual eight-bar sequence of figures as well as an additional sixteen of the thirty-two bars total of each dance.  They're more variations on a theme than separate dances.

Their names refer to pieces of music.  "Jenny Lind Polka" was, of course, named for the famous "Swedish nightingale", shown at left, who toured the United States in 1850-1852.  It is still regularly played and recorded.  "German Polka" is more obscure.

Both dances were published with consistent wording for each in Howe's Complete ball-room handbook (1858), American dancing master, and ball-room prompter (1862 and 1866), and New American Dancing Master (1882 and 1892).  I think it extremely likely that the figures were arranged by Howe himself.  One or both dances also appeared in two works that were highly derivative of Howe: both of them in John M. Schell's Prompting, How To Do It. (New York/Boston/Chicago, 1890), and the Jenny Lind Polka alone, with a difference that was probably an error, in the anonymous Gems of the Ball Room Call Book. (Chicago, 1896).

Polish Dance, 1832

This blandly named "Polish Dance" was published by expatriate English dancing master William George Wells in The danciad, or companion to the modern ball room in Montreal in 1832.  I have my doubts about whether there is anything authentically Polish about it, but the dance itself is...interesting.  Let me start with a transcription.

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POLISH DANCE

    To be danced by an unlimited number of couples, and placed exactly in the same situation as for the Original Gallopade.

WALTZ TIME.

    Fig.— Promenade = = Poussette = = sett and turn partners = ladies’ hands across and back. joining hands to partners’, forming a cross = = all promenade in a cross and turn partners to places = = all the couples now fall into Quadrille parties of four, and perform La Pantalon, still in Waltz time = sauteuse = =.
    [This may be repeated at the pleasure of the party.]

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I've previously discussed both Wells' "Original" Gallopade and the possibly-more-original Original Gallopade published by J. S. Pollock.  It's clear that the Polish Dance is performed in a circle of couples.  The reference is also a reminder that Wells was not necessarily the originator of many (any?) of the dances in his book; see here for another example. 

So, the Polish Dance should be done in a circle of couples, specifically, in an even number of couples, since in the second part of the dance, they form half-quadrille sets, couple-facing-couple, to perform the Pantalon figure of the French quadrille.  There are some minor reconstruction problems with the dance, but before going on to those, let's take a look at the basic structure of the dance:

• the couples move around the room, promenading and doing figures as a group
• they do a quadrille figure in pairs
• they end with sauteuse waltz

Does this remind you of anything? 

Lyra Figures, 1912

Image courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

The "Lyra Figures", a fancy march cotillion (dance party game) in which the columns of dancers outline the shape of a lyre within a wreath, were published in Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912).  I suspect that, like the Winthrop(e), they were copied from some other source, but I do not currently have any idea what it might have been. 

This figure would be somewhat difficult for a ball preceptor to lead "cold", at least without multiple floor managers, but with a lead couple who knew the track, it wouldn't be all that difficult.  After a simple march-around lead-in, the leading lady and gentleman stay on their own sides of the room, leading their lines up and down curving tracks to form the shape of the lyre.  It might even work with only a single knowledgeable dancer, if their partner were good at moving in mirror image and the room not too crowded for them to see each other at opposite sides.  At the end, there is a simple march by platoons to end in facing lines for a waltz or other couple dance.

The Klondike Two-Step...Take Two!

Dance history research, at least if done well, is often not so much a matter of coming up with definitive solutions as a continual cycling back through old material in the light of new sources or new understanding and correcting and refining one's work.  I'm still in the middle of that process for the Klondike Two-Step, but as my region is currently undergoing an Arctic blast of cold air with a temperature similar to the average in the Klondike in January, it seems like a suitable moment to revisit the dance and check in on new developments.  When I first discussed it here thirteen-plus years ago, I was mainly concerned with the basic reconstruction of the dance, and since the single description I had for it was a bit of a mess, I had plenty to say about that and neither the desire nor the resources to delve more deeply. 

It would probably be helpful to go read my earlier post before going on.

So, what have I learned since I wrote it?

February 2023 Gig Calendar

February starts gently for me with an online lecture that is a sort of sequel to one I did in Moscow eight (!!) years ago and one of my regular trips to Boston to DJ before I head off to Europe at the end of the month for a teaching trip to Belgium and Germany that will also take me briefly through Dublin and Amsterdam for research, art, and reunions.

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Wednesday, February 8th ~ ONLINE / Massachusetts-based
Lecture: Ignatius Sancho and Julien Clarchies: Black Men of Letters and Music
for LIRA (Learning in Retirement Association - University of Massachusetts, Lowell)
1:00-3:00pm.  Zoom lecture.  

Tuesday, February 14th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy (Facebook page) (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
7:30-10:00pm (plus).  Lesson (not me - I don't teach blues!) from 7:30-8:30, then I will be DJing blues from 8:30 until at least 10:00, possibly longer if the dance floor is full!  Indoors with an air cleaner going; masks and proof of vaccination required.  Sliding scale donation, $5 to $20.  Volunteers get free admission!

Friday-Tuesday, February 24-28th ~ Néthen, Belgique (Belgium)
Voyage Dansé: La Révolution américaine, sur les traces d'Outlander (Facebook event)
Four-day dance festival organized by Compagnie Aliquam Amentis centering around American dance from the Boston Tea Party (250th anniversary) to the War of 1812.  Colonial to Federalist, in American terms; Jane Austen to Regency in English.  Dance program will include American cotillions, country dances, and allemande.  Grand costumed ball of the period 1773-1815.  Other creative activities of the era such as sewing and writing will be included as well.  See the event website for tickets.  (This event is mostly sold out for the weekend, but tickets are still available as of early February for the ball and for Monday-Tuesday.)

 

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

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Coming in March: I go from Belgium to Germany for Regency-era (more or less) workshops in Munich!

The Bonnie Brae, 1895

In honor of Burns night, here's a simple (and completely American) Scottish-themed "society" dance by Chicago dancing master Robert Alexander Campbell: The Bonnie Brae.  Campbell, also the creator of The Vassar, was credited as both the choreographer of the dance and the composer of the music, though the latter was "harmonized" by Robert Heiss and on the sheet music the dance was co-credited to a Miss Josephine E. Rice.

Interestingly, this time Campbell labeled himself a member of the Western Association Normal School Masters of Dancing rather than the leader of Campbell's Solo Orchestra and apparently no longer felt the need to note that he was the pupil of C. A. Carr.  Also of note: the cover gave not only a Chicago publisher but a London one as well.  Apparently Campbell was moving up in the world!  Though one notes that he did not state on the music that the dance had actually been accepted by the Western Association Normal School, which I discussed briefly here.

"Bonnie Brae" is Gaelic for "pleasant hill", according to this useful article about a street with that name in Los Angeles.  Given his surname, perhaps Campbell came by the Gaelic honestly, or perhaps he just thought the phrase sounded suitably Scottish, a nice match for the tartan-clad dancers on the cover, which may be seen at left (click to enlarge).  The lady at center might be Miss Rice.

Chivers' La Grande Polonaise, 1821 (1818?)

La Grande Polonaise was published as an individual work by G. M. S. Chivers, probably early in 1821.  The first trace of its publication I have found is toward the end of an ad from London's Morning Post on Thursday, March 1st, 1821, for an Assembly to be held the following Monday.  The ad is shown at left; click to enlarge.  [see update note below for more information about the dating of this dance] 

La Grande Polonaise is not on the list of dances definitely planned for the assembly, but the author -- presumably Chivers himself -- noted that "several new Species of Dancing" would also be introduced, so it is possible it was danced at that event.  Its price of two shillings is the same at which it would later be advertised in the back of Chivers' third major book, The Dancing Master in Miniature (1825). 

I am not aware of any surviving copy of the original publication, alas, but the figures for La Grande Polonaise were also printed in Chivers' second book, The Modern Dancing Master (1822).  Chivers' description of the dance from that book:

La GRANDE POLONAISE, is generally thought to have originated in Poland, and it is a favorite Dance of the Polish Nobility.

The dance commences with a Tune in March Time, and terminates with a Sauteuse, and will require at least ten or twelve couple to perform it.

Any number of persons can join in the Dance; observing that there is an even number of couples; and no person should join after the Dance has commenced.

The figure given, is the same as was performed when the Allied Sovereigns were at Aix-la-Chappel.

I am extremely skeptical of Chivers' claim that this was danced at the Congress of Aix-la-Chappelle in 1818.  While the average London dancer might not have been familiar with the polonaise, a musical form and dance in 3/4 time, the Continental attendees probably would have been, and are unlikely to have danced a "polonaise" to march (4/4) music.  I expect they danced a polonaise (probably more than one, as the Congress lasted for two months), but I very much doubt it was this "polonaise".

Given Chivers' track record of choreographic creativity and blithe unconcern for accuracy in labeling dances, however, I do find it perfectly plausible that he created this dance himself and, out of ignorance or deliberate choice, used a march tune and an ordinary marching (walking) step rather than a polonaise step.  I thus consider La Grande Polonaise to be a purely English invention, not a Polish or even French dance, and not representative of early nineteenth century polonaise in general.  Nor, as a niche dance by a specific dancing master, would I expect it to have been widely danced outside London or even outside Chivers' own events.  But for a specifically English ball of the early 1820s, it's reasonable and unusual enough to make a pleasant change of pace.

January 2023 Gig Calendar

Happy new year!  I wasn't planning to travel for anything but library research this month while I wait out the post-holiday Covid surge and polish a bunch of old and new reconstructions for my European trip in February-March.  But it seems I'm going to Boston to DJ again.  Tomorrow!  Whee!

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Tuesday, January 3rd ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy (Facebook page) (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
7:30-10:00pm (plus).  Lesson (not me - I don't teach blues!) from 7:30-8:30, then I will be DJing blues from 8:30 until at least 10:00, possibly longer if the dance floor is full!  Indoors with an air cleaner going; masks and proof of vaccination required.  Sliding scale donation, $5 to $20.  Volunteers get free admission!

 

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

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Coming in February: off to Belgium!

Regency Oddities: Roger de Coverley

Wrapping up my little series on extended-Regency-era oddities, let's talk about an unusual version of the English finishing dance, Sir Roger de Coverley!  This is one of the rare dances where tune and dance are so tightly associated that it's reasonable to give the dance the tune name.

I discussed a typical Regency-era version of the classic Sir Roger de Coverley figure long, long ago.  Since then, I've accumulated a number of other versions of the figure with the same characteristic elements: opening figures performed on the long diagonals followed by whole-set figures that end with the original top couple progressed to the bottom.  I've written up a couple of later nineteenth century versions here and here.

Now, this is not to say that there were never any other, more typical, country dance figures set to the "Roger de Coverley" tune.  In its earliest appearance with dance figures in the ninth edition of Playford's The Dancing Master, published in 1695, it is printed with a normal progressive figure, completely unrelated to the later dance.  One hundred and thirty years after that, a different figure, very generic-Regency, was published with it in Analysis of the London Ball-Room (printed for Thomas Tegg, London, 1825).  Never underestimate the willingness of music publishers and dancers, to recycle a tune.

But there's one set of figures I've found printed with "Sir Roger de Coverley" which is a real oddity:

Regency Oddities: Heys for Four

When I add new extended-Regency-era country dance tune books to my collection of photos and scans, one of the things I do is quickly skim through the figures looking for anything out of the ordinary.  And while heys (or reels) are quite common figures for country dances in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (indeed, all the way back to the seventeenth century!), in this period, they are almost always heys for three.  Figures like "hey your own sides", "hey contrary sides and hey your own sides", "hey top and bottom" (where one dancer in a couple goes up and one goes down the set), and the corner-formation heys where the lady heys with two gentlemen and the gentleman with two ladies are all very common.  But these are all heys for three dancers.  A "right and left" quite round is technically a circular hey for four, but a classic, Scotch reel-style hey for four dancers in a line is not listed as a standard figure and doesn't really turn up.  

Until, of course, it does. 

Newman Hesitation Boston

Wrapping up my rather drawn-out examination of Albert W. Newman's Boston variations, here is an actual sequence mixing his Long Boston with various hesitations.  As usual, it's not clear how he distinguishes between Boston and hesitation waltz.  The Newman Hesitation Boston was published in Newman's Dances of to-day (Philadelphia, 1914) and later reprinted, with some minor edits, in F. Leslie Clendenen's Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914). 

Newman called his little sequence "one of the most popular dances at the present time", though I doubt that was actually true anywhere outside Newman's own sphere of influence.  In Dance Mad, he edited his claim to "The most popular Hesitation Waltz in Philadelphia at present."  He also described it in his own book as "very easy" and "most restful".  It is not only simple to dance, it's actually quite lovely.

December 2022 Gig Calendar

Winding down for the year after a busy late autumn with a final trip up to Boston.  Then home for a few weeks to attempt to catch up on writing projects!

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Saturday, December 10th ~ Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Boston Gender Free Contra Dance (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
7:30-10:30pm.  The main caller is Rich Sbardella, but I will be doing a single guest slot calling my circle mixer, Masha Poka!  Live music by Woody & The West Side Warblers.  Role identifiers: Larks and Robins.  Fragrance free (helpful info here).  Masks and proof of vax + booster required.  Sliding scale $5-15 plus donations requested for the music fund.  

Sunday, December 11th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Second Sun Rising (Facebook page) (Facebook event)
7:00-11:00pm (plus).  Lesson (not me) from 7:00-8:00, then I will be DJing fusion for partner dancing from 8:00-9:30, followed by another DJ (TBA).   Top-tier masks (or buy at door for $1-2) and proof of booster (or vax + test at door) required.  Sliding scale $5-20; volunteer opportunities available.  

 

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

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Coming in 2023: a festival in Belgium, workshops in Germany, and more!

November 2022 Gig Calendar

Things are getting lively again!  Online and in-person workshops, two balls, and a DJ gig, plus at least two library visits, and I'm hoping for four...

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Saturday, November 12th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Cotillion Working Group Reunion Class
12:00-1:30pm.  Private event.

Friday & Saturday, November 18th & 19th ~ Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
The 18th Annual Remembrance Day Dinner & Ball (Facebook community) 
5:30pm-midnight each day.  TWO nights!  TWO formal dinners!  TWO balls!  This is the return of John Newbold's event!  Both evenings will be formal Civil War-era events with pre-1865 costume (civilian or military) required.  Advance reservations (dinner and ball or ball-only) are needed, and this event generally sells out well in advance!  Friday night: 1860s fancy dress ball.  Saturday night: classic formal Civil War ball.  I will be calling with live music both evenings by the Fleeting Moments Orchestra and different beginner-friendly dance programs!

Sunday, November 20th ~ Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Private dance workshop at Historic Rock Ford
1:00-4:00pm.  Workshop on early nineteenth century American dances.  Private event for Rock Ford dancers only.

Sunday, November 27th ~ Concord, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Mostly Waltz Boston (Facebook event)
2:00-5:30pm.  I will be teaching a lesson in basic cross-step waltz from 2:00-3:00 followed by dancing (waltz and other couple dances) to live music by Becky Tracy and Keith Murphy from 3:00-5:30pm.  FAC members $13, non-members $15, students/need a break $7.  Attendance is limited and attendees must pre-register via the website.  

Tuesday, November 29th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy (Facebook page) (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
7:30-10:00pm (plus).  Lesson with Clayton & Kelly from 7:30-8:30, then I will be DJing blues from 8:30 until at least 10:00, possibly longer if the dance floor is full!  Indoors with excellent ventilation; masks and proof of vaccination required.  Sliding scale donation, $5 to $20.  Volunteers get free admission!

 

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

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Coming in December: back to Boston again to DJ for Second Sun Rising and call a waltz mixer at Boston Gender Free Contra Dance.  Then home for the holidays!

General Fleury's Bal d'enfants travesti, 1867

On Tuesday, April 23, 1867, a children's fancy dress ball, or bal travesti, was held at the home of General Émile Félix Fleury, a prominent senator and equerry of the Emperor Napoleon III. The event was covered in the pages of Le Monde Illustré on May 4, 1867, with the illustration below (click to enlarge) and a brief description of the event.

Bal d’enfants travesti, donné le 23 avril, chez le général Fleury,
grand écuyer de S. M. L’Empereur — Le galop final.

Children's fancy dress ball, given the 23rd of April at the home of Général Fleury,
Grand Equerry of His Majesty the Emperor — The final galop.

A full transcription of the original article with my translation is given at the end of this post.

A Masquerade in Montana, 1899

And...it's back to masquerades, fancy dress balls, crazy cotillion figures, and other fun for the month of October!  First up: a Christmas masquerade ball in Montana in 1899.

The Degree of Honor masquerade ball was held on Christmas night at the Hefferlin Opera House in Livingston, Montana, the elaborate building at right in the postcard photo at left; click to enlarge.  At this time, the Degree of Honor was the ladies' auxiliary of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, a post-Civil War "fraternal" mutual benefit society providing insurance, burial policies, etc, to working-class men.  In the late 1890s, the Degree of Honor was said to have had 40,000 members nationally.  It later spun off into a separate organization and existed independently until 2017.

Livingston itself was tiny at the time, having been founded as a cluster of tents at a future railroad stop in 1882.  Even today, its population is under ten thousand people (per the 2020 census); at the time of the ball, it was probably only around a thousand.  This puts into perspective its description as "largely attended" in the coverage of the ball in the social column of The Anaconda Standard on Sunday, December 31, 1889: seventy-five couples following the leaders of the march.  For a town of that size, that is actually quite impressive, and the coverage noted that the event succeeded both socially and financially.

October 2022 Gig Calendar

Writing time!  I have a huge backlog of papers and articles to get written, so I'll be spending most of October home doing that, with one trip at the end of the month to the UK for an academic conference.

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Friday-Sunday, October 28-30th ~ London, England
European Association for Dance History Conference (Facebook group)
"War, Peace & Politics in Dance".  Extensive program of academic papers with some workshops.  I will speaking and teaching a workshop on French social dances celebrating the Franco-Russian Alliance.  Note that this is late nineteenth-century material which is not in any way connected with current events.

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

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Coming in November: back to the beautiful Gettysburg Hotel for the The 18th Annual Remembrance Day Dinner & Ball!

September 2022 Gig Calendar

Finally, a month that begins to look like normal for me, with workshops and DJing and lots of research time.  On the road again!

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Friday, September 2nd ~ Chicago, Illinois
Steampunk Dance Workshop at Chicon 8 (Facebook group)
7:00-8:00pm.  Workshop on my own steampunk choreographies: historically-inspired figures set to Abney Park music - probably "Wanderlust" (USA premiere!) and "Overboard".  Masks and vaccination required.  Limited to attending members of Chicon 8, the 80th World Science Fiction Convention.  See their website for membership information.

Saturday, September 10th ~ Oak Park, Illinois (Chicago area)
Workshops & Dance (Facebook event) for Chicagoland English Country Dance
1:00-10:00pm.  Two dance workshops and an evening dance with live music by Jonathan Whitall and Meg Dedolph.  Workshops: (1) steps for early 18th century hornpipe country dances and (2) cotillions.  Evening dance: a potpourri of dances from the 17th to 21st centuries, modern style.  Masks and vaccination required.  $15 per workshop, $20 for evening dance, $40 for the full day.  Payable in cash or check at the door.  More information at the website.

Tuesday, September 20th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy (Facebook page) (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
7:30-10:00pm (plus).  Lesson with Julie Brown from 7:30-8:30, then I will be DJing blues from 8:30 until at least 10:00, possibly longer if the dance floor is full!  Outdoors if the weather is good, indoors with excellent ventilation if not.  Masks and vaccination required for indoors.  Sliding scale donation, $5 to $20.

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

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Coming in October: the European Association for Dance History Conference in London!

August 2022 Gig Calendar

Onward goes the hot and quiet summer!  I am still consolidating and collating and cataloguing my research collection, with interesting results, especially in the "collating" area, with my only event this month a reunion with my pandemic group of online cotillion students!

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Saturday, August 13th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Cotillion Working Group Reunion Class
6:00pm-7:30pm.  Private event.

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

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Coming in September: I will be in Chicago for the first ten days of the month doing research and teaching!

Trouping the Colors

This is a bit of a thematic reach, but in honor of America's Independence Day, here's a simple cotillion mixer figure featuring American flags.  It is taken from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, (Buffalo, NY: Two Step Publishing Company, 1912), which compiled figures from a variety of different sources.  The diagram at left is from Walker, in which it is arranged for fifty-seven couples, but the figure can easily be performed by a smaller (or larger) number.

The essence of the figure is to divide the dancing couples into groups of increasing size, with each group in turn (smallest to largest) first two-stepping and then, at a signal, forming a circle as the next group begins to dance.  Each new circle forms around the previous one(s) and circles in the opposite direction.  Once each group is circling, a signal starts the dancers doing a grand right and left in their own circle -- this is the mixer element -- and then, at the last signal, taking the person they are now facing as their partner for a final two-step.

July 2022 Gig Calendar

Well, now I have two months of a fairly long, hot summer ahead of me without much going on before things kick back into gear again in the autumn.  I've been making a project for the last month or so of organizing and cataloguing my rather enormous collection (and, um, backlog) of research photos from various libraries, so I expect I'll continue with that, and I have plenty of writing to do!  But first, one more online lecture!

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Sunday, July 17th ~ ONLINE / Maryland-based
Lecture for the Jane Austen Society of North America - Maryland Region (JASNA-MD)
2:00-3:00pm.  Private event for JASNA-MD members; see their website to join the group.

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

 

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Coming in August: a quiet month at home!

For the Queen's Jubilee

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Portrait

This being the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II of England's official Platinum Jubilee celebration, it seems appropriate to look back almost 125 years to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, for which English dancing master Walter Humphrey composed a sequence called, logically enough, The Victorian:

This dance was arranged as a novelty for the ball-room, to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen in 1897, and, as it can be danced to Two-step music or Washington Post, makes a pleasant variety.

The sequence itself is short and the reconstruction ought to be straightforward, but, unfortunately, Humphrey's instructions complicate matters.  I'll present my reconstruction first then talk about the problems.

June 2022 Gig Calendar

Another month full of exciting travel, this time to Germany, and then on to precepting a Civil War ball in Pennsylvania.  In-person teaching and dancing, hurrah!

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Wednesday-Sunday, June 15-19th ~ Burg Rothenfels, Germany
Historical Dance Symposium (Facebook community)
International conference of dance historians and historical dancers with workshops, papers, dance evenings, and a ball.  I will be presenting a workshop on late nineteenth century couple dance teaching techniques and a paper on a late eighteenth century manuscript about contredanse (cotillion) steps.  Note that I will only be present Wednesday night through Saturday.

Saturday, June 25th ~ Waverly, Pennsylvania
The 16th Annual Grand Civil War ball  (Facebook event)
7:00-10:00pm.  Formal 1860s ball to be held at the Waverly Community House with live music by Spare Parts and a beginner-friendly dance program!  This ball is a benefit event for the Lackawanna Historical Society.  Ticket information and more here.

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I am once again available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, always providing the pandemic does not spiral back into disaster again.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

 

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Coming in July: an online lecture for JASNA-Maryland!

May 2022 Gig Calendar

IN-PERSON EVENTS.  That pretty much sums it up.  See you on the real, live dance floor!

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Friday-Sunday, May 6th-8th  ~ St Katharine’s, Parmoor, Frieth, England
Early Dance Circle Biennial Conference 2022: Retrieving & Reconstructing the Past through Dance  (Facebook event)
This conference will feature an international set of speakers on historical dance topics spanning the 15th century to the 20th, plus five workshops, three performances, and an evening of participatory dance.  I will be presenting a paper on the opening "changes" of the mid- to late-18th century French contredanse (cotillion, square dance) and teaching a workshop on a late 1810s French version of Le Grand-Père, a Continental finishing dance.  A full list of contributors and paper/workshop topics is included on the registration form (pdf).

 

Saturday, May 21st ~ Essex, Connecticut
The Essex 1814 Ball  (Facebook event) - CANCELLED
A formal 1810s ball with live music by Marnen Laibow-Koser and Jean Monroe and an American-specific program of country dances and cotillions.  $25 in advance; ticket information here.

 

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I am once again available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, always providing the pandemic does not spiral back into disaster again.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

 

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Coming in May: a trip to Germany and an American Civil War Ball in Lackawanna, Pennsylvania!

April 2022 Gig Calendar

Spring has sprung, I'm still in the USA, and I have one more month of online events before transitioning back to primarily in-person teaching in May and June!

Please note: online events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones.  Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance! 

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Saturday, April 9th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Cotillion Working Group Reunion Class
12:00pm-1:30pm.  Private event.

Sunday, April 24th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

Friday-Sunday, April 22nd-24th ~ ONLINE / Boston-based
New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) Online (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
Large festival featuring contra, English country dance, international folk dance, waltz, many other forms as well as music (lots!), crafts, etc.  I will be teaching two sessions with an emphasis on quick instruction and then participatory dancing: Hand Jive! (Saturday, 12:00-12:50pm) and Having a Brawl: 16th Century French Circle Dances (Sunday, 10:00-11:00am).  I will also have an informal dance history chat (about anything people want to discuss) in the Cafeteria breakout rooms on Saturday from 6:00-7:00pm - come to the Cafeteria and look or ask for the room.  The full schedule is posted here.  Registration info here.  

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I am available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice) during the pandemic; please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson or talk.  I am also available for small-group in-person dance events; fully vaccinated dancers only, please!

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Coming in May: the Early Dance Circle conference and an 1814 Ball in Connecticut!  In person!!!

March 2022 Gig Calendar

Well. 

The major possibility I was expecting for March was to move back to Moscow and resume teaching dance in Russia and Ukraine, so I didn't plan much of anything else.  As anyone who has not been living under a rock for the last few days is no doubt aware, that is probably not happening this month, and it's hard to say whether it will happen in the foreseeable future.  Or at all.

So...new possibilities are needed.  I'll make a quick research trip to Boston early this month and will be working on other events and workshops in the USA for later this spring, plus planning for one or two conferences in Europe.  For those who've been wanting me in the USA but have been blocked first by my mostly being in Russia and then by the pandemic, this is a great time to book me.

Is anyone else tired of being resilient after the last two years?

Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones.  Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance! 

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Sunday, March 20th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

 

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I am available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice) during the pandemic; please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson or talk.  I am also available for small-group in-person dance events; fully vaccinated dancers only, please!

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Coming in April: online dance workshops at the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA)!

American Boy

Another dance associated with the Mahler family of dancing masters in St. Louis is the American Boy, an easy two-step sequence described by Jacob Mahler in the October 24th, 1909, issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  It is one of two sequences fully described in an article entitled "Five New Dances Now the Delight of Society" on page 65.  It's not clear whether Mahler choreographed it himself, and I've not been able to find any other source for the dance.

The starting position is the dancers side by side, gentleman on the left and lady on the right, holding inside hands as shown in the illustration at left from the Post-Dispatch article, and facing line of dance.  The gentleman starts on the left foot and the lady on the right.

Interestingly, Mahler gave the lady's steps, with the gentleman dancing opposite, so I will do the same.

Russian Militaire

"For children there have been accepted La Veta and the Russian Militaire, the latter a semi-drill and march step, combining simple and graceful poses for the little ones."

-- Marie Petravsky, "New Fads in Dances", The Sunday Morning Call (Lincoln, Nebraska). Sunday, October 25, 1896, p. 5.

The accepting organization referred to was The Western Association and Normal School of Masters of Dancing, which also accepted a number of dances for adults that year.  The newspaper article was timed to the start of the new dancing season in New York, but on the sheet music it is noted that the dance was adopted on June 11, 1896, in Toledo, Ohio.  It is also claimed, apparently inaccurately, that "This Dance was the only Dance adopted out of ten others presented." 

The choreographer of the dance was John A. Mahler, brother of the much better-known St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler.  Both brothers taught children; another of John Mahler's dances, the Two and a Half Step, was inscribed to "the Young Ladies of the Mary Institute and Hosmer Hall", two St. Louis schools.  There is no indication on the sheet music that it was meant for children, which makes one wonder how many of the other simple sequence dances of the period might also have been meant for the younger set!

February 2022 Gig Calendar

As we come out of the Omicron surge, I'm starting to plan actual, in-person events for later this spring (May/June), hoping they will actually take place this year.  Meanwhile, I'm back with the California-based Historical Tea & Dance Society again this month for another Zoom lecture and will have a research trip or two as well.

Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones.  Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance! 

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Saturday, February 19th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Cotillion Working Group Reunion Class
12:00pm-1:30pm.  Private event.

Sunday, February 20th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

Saturday, February 26th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Dancing à la Carte: a Century of Dance Cards (Facebook event)
for The Historical Tea & Dance Society (Facebook page)
2pm Pacific/5pm Eastern.  "Whether plain or fancy, covered with feathers or in the shape of a fan, your dance card guided you through the ball. It ensured you didn't miss your waltz with Walter Whirligig or your quadrille with Quentin Quickstep, and then became a treasured souvenir forever after. But what were dance cards? When did they arise, what did they look like, and what can they tell us about dancing in the past?"  A popularly-oriented Zoom lecture on dance cards, primarily nineteenth century, with lots of lovely images! $5 per person, limited to fifty people.  Registration information in the sidebar here!

 

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I am available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice) during the pandemic; please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson or talk.  I am also available for small-group in-person dance events; fully vaccinated dancers only, please!

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Coming in March: life is full of possibilities...

The National Park Quadrille (3 of 3)

(See the first and second posts in this series for the structure of the quadrille, the "chorus" figure, and the introductions to each figure.)

Completing the National Park Quadrille, here are the third and fourth figures!

Figure 3     (4b intro, A=8b, B=8b; played 4b + AABBx4)
4b    Introduction (not repeated): gentlemen step to the center and turns to face partners, all quickly bow/courtesy, and the gentlemen return to places

4b    Head trios forward and back
4b    Head trios turn opposites by two hands
4b    All twelve join hands, forward and back
4b    All twelve take hands three in trios and circle round to places
16b  "Chorus" figure (described in detail here)

Repeat three more times (heads, sides, sides).

The National Park Quadrille (2 of 3)

(See the previous post in this series for the structure of the quadrille and the "chorus" figure.)

Going on with the actual figures of the National Park Quadrille!

Note that the first figure does not open with eight bars for the standard honors to partners and corners or opposites.  There is a specific kind of honors for the four-bar introduction to each figure.

Figure 1     (4b intro, A=8b, B=16b; played 4b + AABx4)
4b    Introduction (not repeated): gentlemen step to the center and turns to face partners, all quickly bow/courtesy, and the gentlemen return to places

4b    Head gentlemen with right-hand ladies turn by the right hand (polka steps)
4b    Head gentlemen with left-hand ladies turn by the left hand (polka steps)
4b    Head gentlemen with right-hand ladies promenade halfway round
4b    Head gentlemen with right-hand ladies right and left (chaîne anglaise) to places
16b  "Chorus" figure (described in detail here)

At the end of the figure the two ladies in each trio will have exchanged places.  Head couples repeat, then side couples twice more.

The National Park Quadrille (1 of 3)

The sheet music for Clifford G. Sweet's National Park Quadrille, published in 1892, immediately intrigued me because the cover (shown at left, click to enlarge) proclaimed it "For 8 Ladies & 4 Gentlemen".  In other words, it was a trio quadrille, for four trios in a square, which is one of my favorite variant quadrille formations.  The sheet music was not accompanied by dance figures, but, happily, they are available elsewhere, though not in their original publication.  Two near-identical versions of the instructions may be found in The American Prompter and Guide to Etiquette by E. H. Kopp (Cincinnati-New York-Chicago, 1896) and a late edition of Clendenen's [Fashionable] Quadrille Book and Guide to Etiquette (Chicago, 1899).  Given how close the language is in the two sources, I suspect that both authors were copying from the missing original.

The National Park Quadrille is a four-figure set performed with either polka steps or plain steps ("according to the ability of the dancers") for most of the figures, with a generous amount of polka for couples thrown in during the "chorus" that ends each figure, during which the glide polka, discussed here, should be used.  This is essentially a combination of two slides of galop (one measure) plus a polka step (one measure).  If dancing the polka in the casual slide-together-slide style, which I suspect was typical at this time, it will feel much like a four-slide galop (as described here).

The most interesting element of this quadrille is the back-and-forth progression for the ladies: on each iteration of the quadrille, they change places within their trio, from left side of the gentleman to right and vice-versa.  Since the ladies on the left and right of each trio perform different figures, this prevents any imbalance in the dancing.  Each of the four figures should be performed four times, twice for the head couples and twice for the side couples.  It is noted that if this feels too long, the first three figures can be done only twice (once for heads and once for sides), but that produces a slightly strange result, with the ladies in different positions in each figure and one lady getting more polka-round opportunities than the other.

January 2022 Gig Calendar

Happy new year!  It's got to be better than the last one, right?  Did I say that last year, too?  (Nope.)

This month I'm back (online) with the California-based Historical Tea & Dance Society for another lecture and will have a research trip or two, but we're in the midst of the Omicron surge, so not much else is happening, alas.

Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones.  Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance! 

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Saturday, January 22nd ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Cotillion Working Group Reunion Class
12:00pm-1:30pm.  Private event.

Sunday, January 23rd ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

Saturday, January 29th ~ ONLINE / California-based
From Jane Austen to Fezziwig, and Beyond: Why the last dance of the evening became the best dance of the night.  (Facebook event)
for The Historical Tea & Dance Society (Facebook page)
2:00-3:30pm.  A popularly-oriented Zoom lecture on three popular finishing/finale dances from England and France in the late 18th and 19th centuries.  The official description: "The ball is almost over: you've worn holes in your slippers, your hair is coming down, and you may be a little bit drunk -- but you still want that one last dance, the finishing dance! Whether it's La Boulangère (the only dance mentioned by name in Jane Austen's novels) or Sir Roger de Coverley (stretching through the Regency to Charles Dickens), or the Grandfather dance, the finishing dance was your last hurrah of the evening."  $5 per person, limited to fifty sixty people.  See the Facebook event or the HT&DS website for registration.

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I am available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice) during the pandemic; please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson or talk.  I am also available for small-group in-person dance events; fully vaccinated dancers only, please!

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Coming in February: more of the same, including another lecture!

December 2021 Gig Calendar

And...we may be heading into another winter viral surge.  Fortunately, I've only got online events this month, but I'll be making research trips to Boston and Washington, D.C., and continuing to push my writing (now with extra added translation!) forward.  Life may be quite, but it's not boring!

Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones.  Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance! 

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Saturday, December 11th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Cotillion Working Group Reunion Class
12:00pm-1:30pm.  Private event.

Sunday, December 12th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

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I am available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice) during the pandemic; please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson or talk.  I am also available for small-group in-person dance events; fully vaccinated dancers only, please!

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Coming in January: a new year!  Better things?  Another lecture on La Boulangère?

Pittsburgh Star, 1912

Like the Winthrop(e), the Pittsburgh Star is a cotillion (dance party game) figure in the guise of a march sequence which was published in H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912).  It was most likely copied from some other source; based on the apparent origin of the Winthrop, the original might have appeared in a publication of the National Association of Dancing Masters after a meeting in Pittsburgh. 

The Pittsburgh Star differs from the Winthrop, however, in incorporating the mixer element into the march sequence, which I find more interesting as a figure, rather than by having the dancers seek new partners before beginning the march.

Here are the original instructions for the figure followed by the two diagrams.  Note when reading the directions that "up" is toward the bottom of the diagrams.

PITTSBURGH STAR.
All two-step.  Signal, all march up centre of hall.  All mark time when in middle.  First couple forward in line of direction.  Second couple turn to right; second [third] couple turn to left.  Repeat this until four couples are in front, four on right side, four on left side, and four in back.  This forms the cross.  The four couples in back now wheel round and face other way, thus: [diagram on left]  Now, in single file, [ladies] march to right, gentlemen to left, meeting and going to centre, forming thus: [diagram on right] and all two-step with that person.

I corrected "second" with [third] where it was needed and interpolated [ladies] where it was obvious from the diagrams that it had been left out.

The Seven-Step Boston (Newman's Boston Variations)

Still working my way slowly through Albert W. Newman's collection of Boston variations...

The Seven-Step Boston was another variation published by Newman in Dances of to-day (Philadelphia, 1914).  Newman attributed it to the noted English dancing master R. M. Crompton.  Like the Russian Boston, it did not make it into Dance Mad , the compendium of dances and dance sequences published by F. Leslie Clendenen in St. Louis in 1914.

Like the Boston Spanish and Herring Bone Boston, the Seven-Step Boston zig-zags along the line of dance, as shown in the diagram above.  Unlike those two variations, in the Seven-Step Boston the dancers actually make half-turns, so that each "zig" or "zag" starts with the gentleman dancing backward and the lady forward.  It's also musically odd, in that each "zig" or "zag" takes three measures of music, with the pattern repeating every six measures.  And the steps combine elements of the Long Boston, Newman's Original Boston, and both natural and reverse waltz half-turns.  That's a lot to squeeze into a single sequence, but once I got comfortable with it, I found it very enjoyable to dance.

November 2021 Gig Calendar

Back in the ballroom at last!  This month I will return to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for a Remembrance Day Ball (though in a different location and with a different organizer than in previous years) as well as doing a presentation for an online conference in the UK.  I'll squeeze in a research jaunt around the Gettysburg trip and expect to spend time early in the month sewing a new costume for it since my ballgown is (sigh) still in Moscow.  I'm so excited to get back on the dance floor in costume for the first time since early March, 2020!

Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones.  Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance! 

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Sunday, November 14th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

Saturday, November 21st ~ Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Remembrance Day Ball hosted by Civil War Lady / Joy Melcher
In person!  American Civil War-era dinner and ball.  I will be calling the dancing to live music by the Susquehanna Travellers.  This is not my usual Remembrance Day Ball, which is still on pandemic hiatus; this is a different organizer and location.  Tickets $40; Covid vaccination strongly recommended.  See the website for registration and hotel information.

Saturday-Sunday, November 27-28th ~ ONLINE / UK-based
An Assembly for Jane Austen
An online conference run by the UK's Historical Dance Society (Facebook page) with historians, dance researchers, and practitioners giving Austen-themed presentations.  There will also be an evening soiree with a nautical theme with live music by Green Ginger's Meryl and Ian Thomson and prompting by Lizzy Curzon.  I will be speaking at 4:20pm (UK time!) Saturday on the history of the Boulanger, the only dance mentioned by name in Jane Austen's works and letters.  Tickets £20; register here.

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I am available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice) during the pandemic; please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson or talk.  I am also available for small-group in-person dance events; fully vaccinated dancers only, please!

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Coming in November: a real, in-person ball in Gettysburg and an online Jane Austen conference in the UK!

October 2021 Gig Calendar

All right, this month is actually less of the same, relative to last month.  Let's hope that roots grow deep in the dark, because this is definitely a dark and quiet month for me.  But better things - including an in-person thing - are coming in November!  Edited to add: And better things have arrived!  I will be doing an in-person dance class!  In person!!!  Not open to the public, alas, but in person!

Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones.  Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance! 

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Sunday, October 17th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

Monday, October 27th ~ New Britain, Connecticut
Dance workshop at Central Connecticut State University
9:25am-12:05pm.  Guest teaching (in person!!!) nineteenth-century dance for a dance history class.

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I am available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice) during the pandemic; please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson or talk.  I am also available for small-group in-person dance events; fully vaccinated dancers only, please!

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Coming in November: a real, in-person ball in Gettysburg and an online Jane Austen conference in the UK!

The Russian Boston (Newman's Boston Variations)

Getting back to Albert W. Newman's collection of Boston variations:

As far as I know, there is nothing actually Russian about the Russian Boston, which was published by Newman in his Dances of to-day (Philadelphia, 1914), where he credited it to himself.  Presumably the "Russian" element is the use of the "mazourka step", which forms part of many nineteenth-century couple dances and variations.  How this fits into the typical historical aesthetic of the Boston, which is generally a dance of glides and gentle rising and falling rather than hopping and cutting is not clear to me, but I actually like the step-combination.  Unfortunately, the Russian Boston as given by Newman is a peculiar ten bars in length, which makes it irritating when matched with the typical eight-bar strains of most waltz music.  I'll give Newman's version followed by a suggested arrangement to make it a more comfortable sixteen bars.

Interestingly, this variation did not make it into the Dance Mad  compendium with Newman's other Bostons.  Did he not submit it or did it not make the cut?

September 2021 Gig Calendar

I'm cautiously optimistic that things will start to pick up this autumn, though I'm not sure about winter.  This will be a fairly quiet month (like so many recently...) with an online lecture and a research trip.  

And if your dance group us back to actual in-person dancing, I'm willing to travel for small, vaccinated-only events and classes and, of course, to do Zoom lessons and talks for those who are not yet back to in-person events.

Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones.  Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance! 

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Tuesday, September 14th ~ ONLINE / Massachusetts-based
Lecture on masquerades and fancy dress balls
for LIRA (Learning in Retirement Association - University of Massachusetts, Lowell)
10:00am-12:00pm (Massachusetts time). Zoom lecture. This will be similar to the lectures I've done this year on Regency-era masquerades, but expanded to cover the later nineteenth century and into the twentieth.

Saturday, September 18th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Cotillion Working Group Reunion Class
3:00pm-4:30pm.  Private event.

Sunday, September 19th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

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I am available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice) during the pandemic; please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson or talk.  I am also available for small-group in-person dance events; fully vaccinated dancers only, please!

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Coming in October: likely more of the same, but it's very hard to plan, nowadays...

August 2021 Gig Calendar

I'm now in that in-between space in which online lesson series are no longer viable but, with the delta variant surge, in-person lesson and classes have not really started up again, at least not to the extent of hiring traveling teachers.  But I have a wonderful research trip planned this month -- two separate libraries, two days in each, plus seeing friends I haven't see since 2019 -- and expect to have plenty of work to keep me busy, what with wrapping up my July events, revamping my masquerades lecture for another outing in September, and pushing several research and writing projects forward.

That said, I'm also still somewhat willing to travel for small, vaccinated-only events, depending on what and where and how the pandemic is going.  And (sigh) to do Zoom lessons and talks.

Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones.  Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance! 

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Sunday, August 1st ~ ONLINE / California-based
Hand Jive Dance Review
for Stockton Folk Dance Camp
At approximately 6:25pm (Pacific time), I'll be doing a quick (ten-minute) review of my second Stockton Hand Jive class (the Hand Jive Dance) at the closing party.  The schedule is subject to slippage, so it may happen a bit later.  The overall festival is free, though it's a bit late to join in an eight-day event at this point, and donations are encouraged.  Register to attend here.

Saturday, August 28th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Cotillion Working Group Reunion Class
3:00pm-4:30pm.  Private event.

Sunday, August 29th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

 

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I am available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice) during the pandemic; please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson or talk.  I am also available for small-group in-person dance events; fully vaccinated dancers only, please!

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Coming in September: another version of the masquerades lecture!  And maybe more!