Capering & Kickery

February 2021 Gig Calendar

My excitement for February: returning to DJing blues!  I'm not a big blues dancer, but I love the music and look forward to spinning online for my old Boston-area pals at Bluesy Tuesy and new folks from Powerhouse Blues!  I'll also be returning to my ultra-basic footwork classes and might add another pop-up class or lecture somewhere in there...

Otherwise: it's still a pandemic.  But the vaccines are coming!

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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Four Saturdays, February 6th-27th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 101 (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
1:00pm-2:30pm.  Four-part Zoom series covering absolute basic steps for Regency and Colonial era dance.  One-hour lesson including warm-up/cool-down plus after-class discussion.  No previous experience needed!  This is the first in the HT&DS footwork classes, a revised version of last year's 101, and is the prerequisite for the 102 and 103 level classes.  The class is intended for absolute beginners and moves very slowly.  Steps include the chassé-jeté-assemblé sequence, the kemshoole and kemkossy for Scotch reels, and the rigadaun step.  $20 for the series; see event page for registration link.

Four Saturdays, February 6th-27th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 102a (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
3:00pm-4:30pm.  Four-part Zoom series covering basic steps for Regency and Colonial era dance.  One-hour lesson including warm-up/cool-down plus after-class discussion.  Prerequisite: 101 class or permission. This is the first in the HT&DS rotation of 102-level footwork classes, a revised version of last year's 102a.  The class assumes that you have an understanding of the basic steps for Regency and Colonial footwork, including the chassé-jeté-assemblé sequence, the kemshoole and kemkossy for Scotch reels, and the rigadaun step, and moves on from there to more complicated steps and sequences for quadrilles and reels.  This is a friendly, gently-paced class for footwork beyond the absolute basics.  $20 for the series; see event page for registration link.

Tuesday, February 9th ~ ONLINE / Boston & Philadelphia-based
Social Time & Blues DJing (Facebook event)
for Bluesy Tuesy (Facebook group) & Powerhouse Blues (Facebook group)
8:00-9:00pm Social Time; 9:00-10:00pm DJed dance music.  I'll be hanging out during the first half of the evening and spinning the tunes for at-home dancing for the second half!  See Facebook event for Zoom link.  Suggested donation $5.00.

Sunday, February 21st ~ ONLINE / UK-based
Online Club Session 9: Regency Ballroom: or the art of being improper (Facebook event)
for Nonsuch History & Dance (Facebook group)
1:00-3:00pm.  "Despite their success and long-lasting popularity, waltzes and quadrilles took time to conquer regency ballrooms. This session will connect dance master instructions with reviews, diaries and caricatures to understand the first impression these continental dance forms left on the British public before becoming long-term favourites."  I will be responsible for about half an hour of the event, briefly talking about quadrilles and teaching variations of turn for the figure dos-à-dos then discussing wilder dance moments from French ballrooms.  Other presenters include Darren Royston, Professor Michael Burden (University of Oxford), and Alena Shmakova.  Short talks and dance practices will include: a Strathy-based warmup, Regency waltz, eighteenth-century masquerades, body/posture-shaping devices, and ballroom etiquette.  Short Q&A at the end.  £10 per person; register in advance via the website or Facebook event.

 

Sunday, February 28th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

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I am available for private 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.

January 2021 Gig Calendar

Well, we're still online-only...this month is planned as a research/writing month, so while I'm doing one brand-new lecture, I'm not planning any other major teaching events, just a few low-key private pop-up classes, which will keep popping up here throughout the month.  I expect more organized public classes to resume in February!

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 2nd ~ ONLINE / California-based
Pop-Up Class: Arbeau's Bransles
3:00-4:30pm.  Private event.  Fun and easy dances for the new year!  Sixteenth century line and circle dances.  Easy steps, great music, and no partner needed!  $5 per person; pay by Paypal at class.  This class is limited to students of my HT&DS 101-102-103 classes only.  Facebook link for student group only.

Saturday, January 9th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Regency Masquerade Lecture (Facebook event)
10:00-11:30am.  Lecture and discussion on late 18th- and early 19th-century masquerades and fancy dress balls in England.  Discussion time afterward.  $5 per person, preregistration required - see Facebook event for registration info.  Limited to 50 people and likely to sell out SOLD OUT.

Saturday, January 9th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Pop-Up Class: Arbeau's Bransles II
3:00-4:30pm.  Private event.  Fun and easy dances for the new year!  Sixteenth century line and circle dances.  Easy steps, great music, and no partner needed!  Price split by number of students; pay by Paypal at class.  This class is limited to students of my HT&DS 101-102-103 classes only.  Facebook link for student group only.

Saturday, January 16th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Pop-Up Class: Minuet
3:00-4:30pm.  Private event.  Basic minuet step forward and sideways, basic minuet "Z" figure and hand turns.  No partner needed!  $5 per person; pay by Paypal at class.  This class is limited to students of my HT&DS 101-102-103 classes only.  Facebook link for student group only.

Saturday, January 23rd ~ ONLINE / California-based
Pop-Up Class: Minuet, part two
3:00-4:30pm.  Private event.  No partner needed!  $5 per person; pay by Paypal at class.  This class is limited to students of my HT&DS 101-102-103 classes only.  Facebook link for student group only.

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

Sunday, January 30th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Lecture on Regency ballroom practices/etiquette
for Teel House Emma Virtual Regency Retreat (Facebook event)
7:00-9:00pm.  Online "ball" with concerts, at-home dancing, and at some point my prerecorded lecture (about 25 minutes) and brief Q&A time.  Lecture will be first-person, living history style, on Regency ballroom practices and etiquette.  This event is limited to attendees of the weekend-long Teel House Emma Virtual Regency Retreat.  Register here.  Full schedule here.

Saturday, January 30th Sunday, January 31st ~ ONLINE / California-based
Pop-Up Class: Minuet, part three
3:00-4:30pm.  Private event.  No partner needed!  $5 per person; pay by Paypal at class.  This class is limited to students of my HT&DS 101-102-103 classes only.  Facebook link for student group only.  Rescheduled from Saturday to Sunday!

 

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I am available for private 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.

Coming in February: a return to regular basic footwork classes and an online blues DJing gig!

CD Review: Minuets & Optional Dances ~ Ignatius Sancho

I recently saw the eighteenth-century African-British composer Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780) described as "largely forgotten", which struck me as an odd way to describe someone who's been the subject of a modern biography (Ignatius Sancho: African Man of Letters, by Reyahn King, Sukhdev Sandhu, James Walvin and Jane Girdham (1997)) and a one-man play in both London and New York City, recently had a new collection of his letters published (Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African, edited by Vincent Carretta (2015)), has had both facsimile and modern editions of his music published (including Ignatius Sancho (1729-1780), An Early African Composer in England: The Collected Editions of His Music in Facsimile, by Josephine B. Wright (1981) and at least five books of his works in modern notation from Africanus Editions), whose music is being recorded and performed, and, last but not least, whose dances have been the subject of at least a couple of books of reconstructions.  We should all be so forgotten!

It occurred to me that I had one of those recordings, Minuets & Optional Dances (2015), by the Afro-American Chamber Music Society Orchestra, tucked away somewhere.  I hadn't ever done much with it because it consists primarily of minuets, which are not something I spend much time on.  But the 140th anniversary of his death seems like a good day to dig it out!

December 2020 Gig Calendar

Well, here we are at the last month of this very strange 2020.  As usual, I'm wrapping up my classes for the year.  As not-usual, they are online classes.  Hoping for better in 2021...

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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Two Saturdays, December 5th & 12th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 103b: Fitting Steps to Dances  (CONTINUED) (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
2:00pm-3:30pm.  The last two classes in a four-part Zoom series covering basic steps for Regency and Colonial era dance.  One-hour lesson plus after-class discussion.  Prerequisite - 101 class or permission. Continuing the HT&DS series of historical steps for country dances and related forms, this second "fitting steps" series will again focus on using steps we've learned with the specific figures of dances from different historical periods. Some previous experience required - either our 101 class or basic knowledge of steps such as doubles and singles, the chassé-jeté-assemblé Regency sequence, and the rigadaun. Other steps will be reviewed or taught briefly as needed. This is a friendly, gently-paced class going beyond the absolute basics to how to apply steps in the ballroom.  CONTINUING SERIES STUDENTS ONLY.

Saturday, December 19th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Pop-Up Class: Thomas Wilson's Sauteuse Waltz
3:00-4:30pm.  Private event.  A look at the sauteuse waltz described by London dancing master Thomas Wilson in the mid-1810s, including steps, turning technique, different time signatures, and attitudes of the arms.  $5 per person; pay by Paypal at class.  This class is limited to students of  my HT&DS 101-102-103 classes only.  Facebook link for student group only.

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

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I am available for private online lessons 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.

November 2020 Gig Calendar

November is going to feel strange this year, with no trip to Gettysburg for the Remembrance Day Balls.  Hopefully they will be back next year!  In the meantime, I'm going to spend November ping-ponging from the 17th century (unusual for me) to the early 20th, with a detour for footwork classes focusing mostly on late 18th to early 19th century dance.  I'm especially excited about both the Playford Then and Now Festival, hosted by The Historical Dance Society (formerly the Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society) in the UK with a great lineup of speakers, and the chance to repeat for the Historical Tea and Dance Society in California a lecture I gave for a university group back in September on the intertwined lives of the dancers Vernon and Irene Castle and the musician James Reese Europe.  Both the Castles and Europe are frequently discussed, lectured, and written about separately.  I'm thrilled to bring their stories together!

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-Sunday, November 7-8th ~ ONLINE / UK-based
Playford Then and Now Festival (Facebook event)
for The Historical Dance Society (Facebook group page)
12:00-18:30 (UK time) Saturday / 12:00-18:00 (UK time) Sunday.  Please adjust times for your own time zone!  Online (Zoom) dance festival/conference centered around historical and modern English country dance.  I will be giving a presentation at 14:10 (UK time) Sunday on songs attached - or not - to the country dance tune "Jamaica".  Other presenters include Anne Daye, Charlotte Ewart, Jeremy Barlow, Colin Hume, Aaron Macks, and more.  More details on the event website.  Tickets £15; purchase online here.

Sunday, November 15th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-2:00pm.  Private event.

Saturday, November 21st ~ ONLINE / California-based
A Ragtime Revolution: Vernon and Irene Castle and James Reese Europe (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
10:00-11:30 (Pacific time).  Online (Zoom) lecture: "For a few brief years in the 1910s, an English vaudeville actor, a New York socialite, and the son of a former slave were some of the most famous entertainers in America. Join us to explore their intertwined stories, ranging from Harlem to Broadway, from New York to Paris, from World War I’s flying aces to the trenches of France, before this magical historical moment ended in tragedy. This lecture will trace the parallel careers of James Reese Europe and the Castles, their complicated interracial collaboration, and their influence on music, dance, and entertainment."  Limited to 50 people, advance registration required, tickets $5.00/per person.  Ticket link here.

Four Saturdays, November 21st-28th/December 5-12th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 103b: Fitting Steps to Dances (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
2:00pm-3:30pm.  Four-part Zoom series covering basic steps for Regency and Colonial era dance.  One-hour lesson plus after-class discussion.  Prerequisite - 101 class or permission. Continuing the HT&DS series of historical steps for country dances and related forms, this second "fitting steps" series will again focus on using steps we've learned with the specific figures of dances from different historical periods. Some previous experience required - either our 101 class or basic knowledge of steps such as doubles and singles, the chassé-jeté-assemblé Regency sequence, and the rigadaun. Other steps will be reviewed or taught briefly as needed. This is a friendly, gently-paced class going beyond the absolute basics to how to apply steps in the ballroom.  $20 for the series; registration link here.

Saturday, November 28th ~ ONLINE / Maryland-based
Macoronarena! (Facebook announcement)
for Chessiecon 2020 (Facebook group)
4:00-5:00pm.  A short dance class in Sidney Grant's new solo dance, the Macoronarena, a pandemic-inspired, socially-distanced variation of the Macarena.  Catchy bilingual music, easy dance, family-friendly, and lower-body-disability-friendly - can be done upper-body only!  This event is limited to members of Chessiecon, an online science fiction convention, only.  Weekend memberships $10 or free with purchase of 2021 membership - see webpage for details.

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Coming in December: I wrap up my classes for the year...and perhaps do a Jane Austen event?

I am available for private online lessons 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.

The Way it Ended, 1855

I came across this story in a California newspaper, The Weekly Placer Herald, and didn't find it particularly believable.  But it was not original to the Herald; the attribution at the end is to the Albany Dutchman, which seems to have been more of a weekly humor publication than a newspaper.  Per the Library of Congress's Chronicling America website, it described itself  in 1849 as "A weekly newspaper-devoted to fun, literature, good advice, women and other luxuries."  I don't have any way to check the attribution at the moment, as the Albany Dutchman doesn't seem to be online, but that fits with my impression that this is a tall tale, not an actual incident.  It nonetheless makes a light-hearted ending to my month of masquerades!

In the story, two friends, Bob and Frank, lie to Bob's wife about his having to help a sick uncle.  In reality, they are sneaking off to a masquerade ball.  While Bob is a married man, Frank is "a roue, and as a matter of course is a great favorite with the ladies—roues always are." 

A Louisville Masquerade, 1843

Here's a lively account of a jolly and slightly drunken masquerade held in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1843.  This account has a little of everything: costumes, bad puns, a bit about the dances, and the effects of alcohol on the revelers.  It's too long a report to comment on every bit of it, but the entire thing is transcribed at the bottom of this post.

The report starts out with a lot of philosophy about the joys of masquerades, but the first really useful bit is that as in A Few Friends, the unmasking is done at supper-time, which was probably around midnight:

The unmasking at the supper table is often a great source of laughter and surprise, when it discovers the faces of numerous acquaintances who have been playing off their wit and raillery against each other all the evening, under their various disguises. 

All sorts of people attended masquerades, which is part of what made them scandalous.  In Kentucky, at least, this mixing was not to be feared, though I suspect the upper classes might have differed on this point:

A masquerade is an unsorted class of society, it must be admitted; but are you not liable to mix with bad persons in the best regulated companies?  Even robberies have frequently been committed in churches; and if you keep aloof from mankind on that account, you may soon become a crying philosopher, afraid to stir from your own fireside, in order to prevent contamination, and be devoured by hypochondria the remainder of your days.

The writer had a few drinks before arriving and is thus in a good mood:

It was at a late hour that I entered the room, and I was in a right good humor for fun and frolic, and the scene before me, having taken a glass or two of Walker’s rich old wines, the vivifying qualities of which would almost make the dumb to chatter. 

Remember "vivifying".  The extra "life" provided by alcohol recurs later.

Wandering around in the dark, 1912

Since wandering around with small lanterns in a dark room looking for people to dance with also seems like a suitable spooky, or at least entertaining, activity for Halloween balls and cotillion parties, here are another pair of cotillion figures from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) that feature that very activity!

These are both simple mixer figures in which pairs of ladies and gentlemen must find their designated match, either by number or by name.  

1. LANTERN FIGURE.  Original description:

Palm Fronds and Canary Warblers, 1912

Along with masquerade and fancy dress balls and costumes, the other topic I generally include in October is suitably wacky cotillion figures, dance party games that could be part of the final section of a ball or of a stand-alone event.  Most of them are simple mixers, but I have a gleeful passion for the stranger ones that involve costumes or props or simply strike me as delightfully weird.  Here are a couple of the latter, both taken from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912).

1. Human Palm Trees.  Original description:

Professor Webster's Masquerade Party, 1876

On March 18, 1876, the Morning Herald of Wilmington, Delaware, published a short blurb covering a recent "masquerade party" given by one Professor Webster at the Dancing Academy Hall.  Unusually, the newspaper coverage says nothing about the costumes other than that there were enough of them to "have exhausted a first class costumer’s establishment, and have taxed the ingenuity of an artist."  Instead, we get an actual dance program, consisting entirely of quadrilles, Lanciers, and glide waltzes, and accompanied by names which might be masquerade costumes, though I'm not certain of that.

Professor Webster was a long-time Wilmington dancing master - he was still teaching as late as June 4, 1899, when the Sunday Morning Star reported on the closing reception of his current series of dance classes (see about two-thirds of the way down the first column here.)

Here's the list of dances, in order.

A promenade of 15 minutes, presumably the Grand March, followed by a polka.
1. Quadrille, plain, Des Layton, No. 100, Thatcher
2. Waltz Glide, Flag of Truce, White
3. Quadrille, Lanciers, Tin Fiddle, Hildreth
4. Quadrille, plain, Jigiana, Cleland
5. Quadrille Polka, Mary’s Lamb, Osborne
6. Waltz, Glide, Old Mother Goose, McIntire
7. Quadrille, Robinson, Fandango, Aiken
8. Quadrille, blain [sic], Auld Lang Syne, Burk
9. Quadrille, Polacca, breakdown, Stidham
10. Waltz, Glide, Timber Heels, Simmons
11. Quadrille, Mazourka, Red, White and Blue, Grant
12. Quadrille, plain, Lunatic, Pierson
13. Quadrille, varieties, La Manayunk
14. Waltz, glide. Spring Chicken, Vanderbreak
15. Quadrille, plain, Piccodilly [sic], Mose
15. [sic] Lanciers, Shoddy, McCall
17. Waltz, glide, Go, Lang.

A Fancy Dress Party (from A Few Friends), 1864

A Few Friends, by Korman Lynn, was serialized in nine parts in Godey's Lady's Book during the year 1864.  The serial doesn't have a lot of plot; it describes eight evenings of a group of friends gathering together to, for the most part, play parlor games.  It's great for anyone who wants to research mid-nineteenth century parlor games, which are described in elaborate detail, but the only section of any real interest to me is the final one, in which the friends gather for a fancy dress party.

To pick up the story at this point, it is only necessary to know that the kind and generous Ben Stykes has been quietly pursuing the lively Mary Gliddon from the beginning of the story, though a certain Mr. Hedges, a young man from Liverpool, is also interested in her.

Even a single part of the story is too long for me to transcribe here, but I'll quote the costume descriptions, some of which are detailed and unusual, and the resolution of the romance.

A Fancy Dress Hop at West Point, 1865

On Saturday, September 9, 1865, The New York Times published an account of a fancy dress "hop" given by the ladies of Cozzens' Hotel in West Point, New York, home of the famous U. S. Military Academy. 

Cozzens', established in 1849, was a prominent hotel near the Academy.  The original building was destroyed by fire in the March of 1861 but quickly rebuilt.  The image below is a late-nineteenth-century print by Max Egalu of the view of the Hudson River from the hotel; the original is in the collection of the Boston Public Library.


With its ready supply of eager cadets from the Academy, Cozzens' was a popular site for dances.  In 1859, an article in Harper's Weekly explained that:

"...the rigors of military etiquette are mitigated thrice a week by balls or hops, which are given by the cadets to their friends and guests at Cozzens’s Hotel and elsewhere in the neighborhood. These gay parties are justly famed among the fair sex; for better and more indefatigable dancers than the cadets are not to be found even in New York. Pretty girls who go to West Point to spend a few days in the bracing air, and enjoy the lovely Hudson scenery, invariably declare that they never enjoyed any ball in their life so much as the Cadet Hops."

        --- Harper's Weekly, September 3, 1859

 

The article was accompanied by an engraving of such a "hop", specifically described as "a scene familiar to the happy people who spend summer days at Cozzens's at West Point."

 

The original may be seen at archive.org (engraving, article).

 

A more detailed history of the hotel may be found at The News of the Highlands.

Anti-Masquerade Americans, 1794 and 1837

Welcome to October: masquerade and fancy dress month on Kickery!

To start things off on a different note, let's look at some of the anti-masquerade sentiment found in the early years of America.  Full transcriptions of the articles cited may be found at the end of the post.

On December 22, 1794, the Gazette of the United States and daily evening advertiser (Philadelphia) published an "extract of a letter from an American Gentleman in London" dated December 20th.  This might or might not have been a genuine letter, as opposed to editorial-moralizing-disguised-as-correspondence, but it represented the conservative sentiment about masquerades in what was at the time the capital city of the young United States.  Naturally, the English were still attending such shocking entertainments, providing the convenient opportunity to run a titillating description for their readers.

The gentleman, upon entering the masquerade, at first found his situation "awkward" and felt "sensations, bordering upon disagreeable".  But, realizing his anonymity, 

"...the apparent ease of all around me; the intoxicating strains of the well adapted music, and above all the indescribably contagious influence of the place; set me free from every restraint, and gave my soul the same riotous sense of pleasure, which seemed to have full possession of all around me."

Above left is an 1811 English drawing of a masquerade (click to enlarge) by prominent caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson; you can see the "freedom from restraint" in the prominent "HORNS TO SELL" sign (suggesting a volunteer for cuckoldry) and the man in the red domino at far right about to pinch the derrière of the cross-dressed woman in yellow.  The women's small half-masks are obvious, but some (possibly all) of the apparent faces, particularly the bearded and long-nosed ones, were also masks.  The anonymity of masks was, theoretically, the difference between a masquerade and a fancy dress ball, which involved costumes without masks.  This difference could get somewhat blurry, especially with costumes that worked as disguises.

October 2020 Gig Calendar

Life continues on in pandemic time, which feels like a cross between time flying by and a sort of vague timelessness. 

October will be a quiet teaching month for me while I work on a new research project for a festival next month, but I have a new double series of California-based basic country dance footwork classes this month before we probably take a break over the holiday period.

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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Four Saturdays, October 3rd-24th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 102c (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
1:00pm-2:30pm.  (FIRST CLASS ONE HOUR EARLIER)  Four-part Zoom series covering basic steps for Regency and Colonial era dance.  One-hour lesson including warm-up/cool-down plus after-class discussion.  Prerequisite - 101 class or permission. This is the third in the HT&DS rotation of 102-level footwork classes! Footwork 102c assumes that you have an understanding of the basic steps for Regency and Colonial footwork, including the chassé-jeté-assemblé sequence and the rigadaun step, and moves on from there to more complicated steps and sequences for quadrilles, cotillions, country dances, and reels, covering different material than 102a and 102b.  This is a friendly, gently-paced class for footwork beyond the absolute basics.  $20 for the series; see webpage for registration link.

Four Saturdays, October 3rd-24th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 103a: Fitting Steps to Dances (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
3:00pm-4:30pm.  (FIRST CLASS ONE HOUR EARLIER)  Four-part Zoom series covering basic steps for Regency and Colonial era dance.  One-hour lesson including warm-up/cool-down plus after-class discussion.  Prerequisite - 101 class or permission. Continuing the HT&DS series of historical steps for country dances and related forms, this new class series will focus on fitting steps we've learned into the specific figures of favorite dances from different historical periods. Some previous experience required - either our 101 class or basic knowledge of steps such as doubles and singles, the chassé-jeté-assemblé Regency sequence, and the rigadaun. Other steps will be reviewed or taught briefly as needed. This is a friendly, gently-paced class going beyond the absolute basics to how to apply steps in the ballroom.  $20 for the series; see webpage for registration link.

Sunday, October 11th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-1:00pm.  Private event.

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Coming in November: a country dance history festival based in England!

I am also available for private online lessons via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice); please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

September 2020 Gig Calendar

Well, I had hoped to be moving back to Russia this month as usual, but it's clearly not to be.  So, online lessons continue.  September is going to be a (relatively) lively month for me, bookended by a lecture and class at a Russia-based festival at the beginning of the month and wrapping up with a pair of USA-based lectures at the end.  In between, my double series of California-based basic country dance footwork classes continues!

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-Sunday, September 5-6th ~ ONLINE / Saint Petersburg-based
Historical Dance Festival Online  (Facebook)  (VK - in Russian)
for Международный фестиваль"Анно Домини"
10:00-18:00 (Moscow time) Saturday / 9:00-19:00 (Moscow time) Sunday.  An online festival of classes and lectures with teachers from Russia, France, England, and the USA!  There will be a total of eighteen hours of classes, lectures, and seminars offered in English (eight hours) and Russian (ten hours) with translation both ways.  Material will range from the 16th century through the 1920s.  I will be offering both a class and a lecture, unrelated to each other.  The class will be on an 1896 American recital solo, "Cachucha", which is based on the famous ballet solo "La Cachucha" performed by Fanny Elssler in 1836.  The class will be in some mixture of English and Russian, with translation as needed, and will be held from 16:00-17:00 Moscow time/9:00-10:00am NYC time on Saturday.  The lecture (in English with Russian translation) will be "Hunt the Squirrel, Chase the Lady!" and will cover two centuries' worth of evolution of this country dance, from early 18th century England to late 19th century America.  This will be from 14:00-15:00 Moscow time/7:00-8:00am NYC time on Sunday.  Please adjust times for your own time zone!  Registration: fifteen Euros or 1000 rubles for the entire weekend.  Tickets: in English and in Russian.

Saturday, September 5th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 101 (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
1:00pm-2:30pm.  Class #3 of a four-part series.  Continuing students only.

Saturday, September 5th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 102b (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
3:00pm-4:30pm.  Class #3 of a four-part series.  Continuing students only.

Saturday, September 12th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 101 (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
1:00pm-2:30pm.  Class #4 of a four-part series.  Continuing students only.

Saturday, September 12th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Low-Impact Historical Footwork 102b (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
3:00pm-4:30pm.  Class #4 of a four-part series.  Continuing students only.

Sunday, September 13th ~ ONLINE / Connecticut-based
Dance Historian Meetup
11:00am-1:00pm.  Private event.

Saturday, September 26th ~ ONLINE / California-based
Lecture: "Hunt the Squirrel, Chase the Lady!" (Facebook event)
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
2:00-3:30pm (California time).  Zoom lecture.  The lady flees and the man pursues her…and then when she turns to him he runs away!  Is it a dance or the story of courtship?  How did the elegant weaving figures of an early eighteenth century English country dance turn into the simple chases of a late nineteenth-century American contra dance?  Or did they?  The lecture will look at how a single country dance evolves, disappears, and - perhaps - reappears over the course of two centuries and two countries and place it in context with other chasing dances and figures from both Europe and America.  $5.  See the Facebook event for registration link!

 

Wednesday, September 30th ~ ONLINE / Massachusetts-based
Lecture: "A Ragtime Revolution: Vernon and Irene Castle and James Reese Europe"
for LIRA (Learning in Retirement Association - University of Massachusetts, Lowell)
10:00am-12:00pm (Massachusetts time).  Zoom lecture.  For a few brief years in the 1910s, an English vaudeville actor, a New York socialite, and the son of a former slave were some of the most famous entertainers in America.  Join us to explore their intertwined stories, ranging from Harlem to Broadway, from New York to Paris, from World War I’s flying aces to the trenches of France, before this magical historical moment ended in tragedy.  In this lecture, I will trace the parallel careers of James Reese Europe and the Castles, their interracial collaboration, and their influence on the music and dance of the 1910s and onward.

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Coming in October: more California-based basic footwork classes!

I am also available for private online lessons via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice); please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

Aunt Nellie's Diary, 1849

Louisa May Alcott is one of those authors I enjoyed much more as a child, when the more treacly moralizing elements of her most popular books flew right over my head.  As an adult, I find it harder to tolerate, an opinion that Alcott evidently shared.  So I'd only ever revisited one of them -- Little Women, of course -- for its dance references.  But I was nonetheless quite intrigued to read last month that a newly-discovered early story fragment by Alcott, dated 1849, when she was only seventeen, and containing a masquerade ball scene, would be published in the next issue of Strand Magazine, dated February-May 2020 but being released, no doubt for pandemic-related reasons, in late June.  I promptly ordered a copy, which finally turned up in the mail this week.  

As noted, Aunt Nellie's Diary is only a fragment, around nine thousand words, and ending, literally, in mid-sentence: "I begged and prayed she would..."  The story is set up fully, however, and the general direction is clear: the orphaned Annie and her friend Isabel come to stay with Annie's Aunt Nellie, along with the handsome Edward, who is recovering from illness.  Annie is gentle and innocent; Isabel is both colder and more flirtatious.  Edward is too good to be true.  Isabel is interested in Edward, but he is clearly smitten by Annie. It seems obvious that they would have ended up together, while Isabel likely would have repented of her less-than-perfect ways and wound up with the fiancé she had jilted before the story began, who reappears dramatically at the masquerade ball just before the fragment ends.  This is very like far too much of the other nineteenth-century women's fiction I periodically wade through looking for dance references, though even at seventeen, Alcott is a noticeably better writer than most.

May 2020 Gig Calendar

As I slowly regain my footing in this new pandemic world, I am beginning to schedule online events of various sorts.  It's not as rewarding as teaching or lecturing in person, but given the worldwide emergency and the extreme risk of in-person dancing right now, it's the best we can do.

Note that the events below are being hosted in different cities (and countries!) in different time zones - please remember to adjust times for your own time zone before planning online attendance!

There will be some updates to the events below and possibly a couple of other events added later in the month; check back mid-month for more information!

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Saturday, May 16th ~ ONLINE / California-based
"5 Things...inside the Dancing Mind of Susan de Guardiola"
for the Historical Tea and Dance Society (group Facebook page)
10:00am-12:00pm (California time).  Online interview (one hour) then post-interview discussion.  Interview hosted on Zoom and Facebook Live; discussion on Zoom.  Preregistration required for Zoom.  Details are posted on Facebook here!  No set price, but donations (Paypal) are requested.

Sunday, May 17th ~ ONLINE / Ukraine-based
Онлайн-пікнік зі Сьюзан де Гуардіола та історії ампірної доби (Facebook event)
Online Regency Picnic and StoryTime with Susan de Guardiola
19:00-21:30 (Kyiv time).  Dress up in Regency costume and take tea with me online!  The first hour will be story time on the theme of "Regency Dancers Behaving Badly" with time for questions.  This will be followed by tea (make your own!) and social time, during which I will take and answer random dance questions as best I can.  Questions submitted in advance via the Facebook event will have the best chance of getting good answers!  Regency costume is admired but not required - other historical or fantastical costume, or simply nice modern clothes are also fine.  Language: English from Susan, translation to Ukrainian/Russian as needed.  No set price, but donations (Paypal) are happily accepted.  Arrangements are being made for Ukrainians to donate by credit/debit card.

Saturday-Sunday, May 23rd-24th ~ ONLINE / Russia-based
Historical Dance Festival Online (Facebook - English)  (VK-Russian)
for Международный фестиваль"Анно Домини"
10:00-18:00 (Moscow time) Saturday / 10:00-19:00 (Moscow time) Sunday.  An online festival of classes and lectures with teachers from Russia, France, England, and the USA!  Material will range from the early 17th century through the 1920s.  I will deliver a lecture/class (Facebook link-English, VK link-Russian)  intended as a pair, though each also stands alone.  The lecture (in English with Russian translation) will be on the ballroom gavottes of the 1910s.  This will be from 18:00-19:00 Moscow time on Saturday.  The class will be on a specific gavotte recital piece which can be danced solo - perfect for quarantined individuals! - though it was also noted as possible for four or eight dancers.  This class will be in some mixture of English and Russian, with translation as needed in both directions, and will be held from 15:00-16:00 Moscow time on Sunday.  Full weekend price: 10 Euros through May 15, then 15 after.

Sunday, May 24th ~ ONLINE / Maryland-based
Balticon 54 (Facebook)
A Zoom-hosted workshop and a DJ'ed dance party!  11:00-11:50am, basic hand jive movements and practice time.  10-11pm (or midnight if interest is high!) DJ'ed blues/slow dance music.  Video optional for both - watch/listen privately or turn on the camera so we can see your moves.  Misbehavior on camera or mic will get you booted!  Free, but pre-registration for each is required.  Open the drop-down menu for Sunday, May 24th, on this page and register for each item individually.

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Coming in June: online classes on dance reconstruction and composing/calling Regency-era country dances!

I am also available for private online lessons via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice); please email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

The Vienna (La Viennoise)

The Vienna, or La Viennoise, is a late nineteenth century schottische variant which originated in America and traveled to France with the inimitable George Washington Lopp, though it's not clear to me whether it had much (or any) popularity there or, for that matter, in America. 

My first American source for the dance was, unsurprisingly, M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), which collected a wide assortment of the couple dances of the 1870s and 1880s.  Gilbert and Lopp (in La Danse, 1903) agreed on how the Vienna was danced.  Going with Gilbert's description, giving the gentleman's steps (lady dances opposite):

The Vienna (four measures of 4/4 schottische music)
(joining right hands with partner, facing the opposite direction)
1b   Slide-cut-leap-hop forward, starting left, raising right to fourth on the hop
1b   Repeat, starting on right foot

1b    Slide left to side (1), close right to left (2), leap back onto left (&), slide right to side (3), close left to right (4)
1b    Repeat, starting on right foot, leaping forward

Lopp mostly agreed, though he had the final repeat also leaping backward, which I believe to have been an editing error, since his instructions are otherwise almost word-for-word from Gilbert, translated into French.

There are...some problems with this.

Two Walker Editions

One of the dull but necessary tasks I do as a dance historian, right up/down there with reading terrible Victorian novels for their dance references, is comparing different editions of the same book to see what changed over time.  Most of these comparisons aren't as exciting as, say, Dance Mad, which underwent enormous changes in less than a year in its second edition.  But they're still useful for very fine-grained dance tracking, particularly in 1914 when things were changing very rapidly and the tango, maxixe, foxtrot, and half and half either originated or were enjoying bursts of popularity.  And that's before even getting to the fad dances like the Lulu Fado, the Ta Tao, and the Furlana.

Comparing two editions of Caroline Walker's The Modern Dances is pretty tame in comparison, since the changes are mostly just in pagination and arrangement of photos, but it's still a useful window into how rapidly things were changing in 1914.

For reference, here are the known editions with their very helpful specific dates:

First - January 27, 1914
Second - February 12,1914
Third - March 20, 1914

That's impressively fast!  The second and third editions were only five weeks apart, but apparently the major change, the addition of the Argentine Tango, was important enough to warrant not just an added section but also renumbering of the illustrations and having a few rephotographed completely to alter the recommended positions.

I own a copy of the second edition, and the third edition is available at the Library of Congress website.  I have never seen a copy of the first edition, so I will be comparing only the second and third.

Table Talk

Here's a 1966 sitting-down dance that is clearly a direct descendant of the late 1950s hand jive: Table Talk, published in a dance manual that was a tie-in to the musical variety television series Hullabaloo.  The series ran from 1965 to early 1966 on American television channel NBC, amassing an impressive lineup of stars as hosts and performances by major musical acts (including The Rolling Stones, Sonny and Cher, and The Supremes). 

An important element of the show was a dance troupe, choreographed by multi-talented actor-director-dancer-choreographer David Winters (among many other things, he originated the role of A-Rab in West Side Story (1957) and was recast in the 1961 film as well) called the Hullabaloo Dancers.  They were a talented group whose alumni included Michael Bennett and Donna McKechnie, choreographer/director and star (Cassie), respectively, of the 1975 Broadway musical, A Chorus Line.  There's a video of the Hullabaloo dancers here.  The video quality is poor, but their skill shines through.  They still have a dedicated Facebook fan page, and a "reconstruction" of Hullabaloo was briefly featured with Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - the clip may be seen here.

Unearthing a Moscow dance

(For those reading this after its original posting date: this was posted on APRIL FOOL'S DAY.  You may thereby deduce that it is an extended joke, not serious dance history!)

Over the last few years in Moscow, I've spent a fair amount of time at balls and parties outside the strictly-historical community and had a chance to observe, and occasionally dance, some of the choreographed dances developed during the Soviet era as well as some which were introduced in the 1990s and early 2000s, either by Russian choreographers or by foreign teachers, and adopted into the community culture of young Moscow dancers who mix historical, modern, and traditional dances at their balls.  It would be a fascinating project to try to determine the origins of all these dances, though I don't plan on taking it up myself, since my Russian language skills really aren't up to the task.  

One of the challenges in tracing such dances back very far is that over time they become folk-processed, evolving as they move through communities, until it can be difficult to determine which movements are native to the dance and which have merely accreted over time.  I've become intrigued enough with one dance to make some effort, however.  It appears to have originated in the late 1970s, though I haven't been able to discover the choreographer.  After some multilingual digging, I've been lucky enough to turn up three Soviet-era video recordings of performances outside the USSR which I believe depict the authentic dance, including the different steps and variations for men and women.  Ironically, the best sources appear to be in German, which is true for many nineteenth century dances as well.

I'm going to take a look here specifically at the women's steps, which can be performed solo or with a female partner, with or without a group of men dancing their steps simultaneously.  At some later point I might work on the men's footwork as well. 

April 2020 Gig Calendar

Perhaps this should be more accurately called the non-gig calendar.  Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, I am home from Moscow and back in Connecticut and, needless to say, all upcoming events and lessons are canceled.  Like everyone else, I've no idea when things will return to normal.

I am considering doing online lectures or short dance lessons once I figure out the technical issues.  Ideas for this, or specific requests, are welcome - leave them as a comment here.  If I plan anything like this in April, I'll update this post.  Edited to add: and I am teaching at an online dance festival!  See below!

Stay safe.  Stay healthy.

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Saturday-Sunday, April 18-19th ~ ONLINE / RUSSIA-BASED
Historical Dance Festival Online
for Международный фестиваль"Анно Домини"
(VK schedule - Russian)  (Facebook event - English)
An online festival!  A dozen or so Russian teachers and I, thirteen hours of classes and lectures over two days.  The times are 11:00-18:00 Moscow time, or 4:00-11:00am Eastern (NYC) time, daily.  Adjust for your time zone!  My particular items:

(1) Saturday, 17:00-18:00 (Moscow time), "The Hunting of the Panurge", a lecture on looking for the history of "La Nouvelle Panurge", published by Collinet c1823.  (Facebook link with a bit more detail.)

(2) Sunday, 14:00-15:00 (Moscow time), "Five-Step Schottische", a workshop on the connections between waltz and schottische in the late nineteenth century.  (Facebook link with a bit more detail.)

(3) Sunday, 15:00-16:00 (Moscow time), "Schottische in the Ragtime Era", a lecture on the schottische variants that originated in the late nineteenth century and persisted into the early twentieth.  (Facebook link with a bit more detail.)

The festival costs a nominal five euros or 500 rubles for the weekend; register and pay in advance to receive the Zoom conference link.  For more information about the festival and about the other ten hours of classes and teachers in English, please see the Facebook and VK links above.  Russian info about the classes and teachers here; registration, here; schedule, at the link above.

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Coming in May:  More online things - talks and classes.  Watch this blog!

Caroline Walker's Dream Waltz, 1914

The Dream Waltz appeared in Caroline Walker's book The Modern Dances, three editions of which appeared in the year 1914.  Her Dream Waltz appeared in at least the second and third editions; the latter is available online here.  Another Dream Waltz appeared in both editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's Dance Mad (also both 1914), but it is distinct enough to be considered a separate dance, which I will look at in some future post.

The Dream Waltz is a simple hesitation sequence.  The dancers take normal closed ballroom hold.  The gentleman starts on the left foot, the lady on the right.  Steps below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.
  

The Dream Waltz (16 bars of fast 3/4 waltz music)
1b    Slide left foot to the side (1), slowly closing right foot to left with weight on (3)
1b    Slide left foot to the side (1), swinging right foot to left (2) and away again (3)
            (making a quarter-turn)

1b    Step onto right foot (1), slowly closing left foot to right with weight on (3)
1b    Slide right foot to the side (1), swinging left foot to right (2) and away again (3)
            (making a quarter-turn)

4b    Four walking steps backward, one step per measure, starting left foot, dipping on fourth step
4b    Three walking steps forward, one step per measure, starting left foot, then shift weight back and dip backward on the fourth measure

4b    Balance forward onto left foot, back onto right, forward onto left, back onto right, rotating counter-clockwise (spin turn)

Repeat from the beginning.

Gaby Glide

"The Gaby Glide" was a piece of music written as a star turn for dancers Gaby Deslys and Harry Pilcer in the Broadway operetta Vera Violetta, which opened in New York in November, 1911. The famous and popular Deslys was its namesake:

Gaby brought the dance and it's got us all a going
Since she came no other twirl has had any showing
It's a music treat, for your dancing feet
It is flashy but neat

The tune was composed by Louis A. Hirsch, with lyrics attributed to Pilcer himself.  An original 1912 recording may be heard via the Library of Congress archives here., and a lovely modern performance by Mark Nadler may be seen and heard here:

Sadly, tempo changes and pauses make Nadler's version more difficult to dance to than the original.  If one has live musicians, the sheet music, from which the image at the top was taken, may be found here. 

February 2020 Gig Calendar

I'm having a ball!  Literally, a ball!  In Moscow!  In Russian and English!  Mixing all sorts of crazy dancing together!

I'll be doing other things this month too, but holding a ball in Moscow is something I've wanted to do for years, so I'm dipping my toe in with a small, beginner-friendly event.  Details and links to the ball prep classes will appear later in the month - check back for updates! 

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Saturday, February 1st ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson.

Saturday, February 8th ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson.

Sunday, February 9th ~ Moscow
Birthday Party ~ N.N. Lukyanov-Razumovsky  (VK event)
16:00-21:00.  I am not the main ball leader, but will be teaching a dance or two during the evening - most likely the Ragtime Crawl and my own waltz mixer Маша, пока! (Bye, Masha!).  Otherwise, I'll just be enjoying myself dancing!

Friday, February 14th ~ Moscow
Masterclass: 19th Century American Social Dances (Valentine Party)
(VK announcement)  (Facebook announcement)
for the American Center in Moscow
18:30-20:00.  Free, beginner-friendly class on mid- to late nineteenth century contra dances and quadrilles.  No experience necessary, no partner needed.  Note that (1) we will be dancing on lightweight carpet, so the slipperiest possible shoes are encouraged (but dance-floor-restricted shoes are not necessary), and (2) embassy security procedures are in effect, so pre-registration is strongly encouraged; follow the class link above.  Part of a regular series happening roughly every other Friday.  This class includes a small St. Valentine's Day party with light refreshments!

Saturday, February 22nd ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson.

Saturday, February 22nd ~ Moscow
First Ball Prep Class for February 29th Ball
(VK class info link)  (VK event for ball) 
19:30-21:30.  First prep class for this ball.  See the class info link above for full details.  Note that security procedures are in effect, so names for the class are needed in advance, or pre-arrangement to meet someone to be taken through security.

Tuesday, February 25th ~ Moscow
Second Ball Prep Class for February 29th Ball
(VK class info link)  (VK event for ball) 
19:00-20:00.  Second prep class for this ball.  See the class info link above for full details.  Security procedures are in effect, so names for the class are needed in advance, or pre-arrangement to meet someone to be taken through security.  Anyone who attends the first class will receive an access pass there that will admit you to the complex for this class.  Note that this class is in a different studio than the first one!

Saturday, February 29th ~ Moscow
Masquerade Ball "Evening of Friendship"  (VK event)
16:00-20:15 (arrive 17:15, hall closes 21:00).  A lighthearted evening mixing American dances from the mid-nineteenth through the twenty-first century.  Contra dances, cotillion (game) figures, sequences, Steampunk dances, and lots of waltz!  This is beginner-oriented; most dances will be taught briefly, but see the listings above for two pre-ball prep classes.  Registration and all other pertinent information is available in both Russian and English at the VK link above.

 

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I am available for private lessons in Moscow (primarily Thursday nights and irregular weekends) or while on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

Moscow, Russia: February 1-29

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Coming in March: more public classes in Moscow and a weekend of historical dance in Vladimir!

January 2020 Gig Calendar

Happy new year!  January is going to be a tough month, as I'm having to move to a new flat, which is a challenging task in Moscow.  But I'll still have a few events here and there!  Hopefully normal life will return in February!

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Monday, January 6th ~ Moscow, Russia
Festival-Competition Planet of the Arts-Moscow "Christmas Stars" (Festival website - in Russian)
10:00-18:00 (approximate).  Dance school contest and showcase.  I am serving as a judge.

Saturday, January 11th ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson.

Friday, January 17th ~ Moscow
Masterclass: 19th Century American Social Dances
    (Facebook announcement) (VK announcement - in Russian)
for the American Center in Moscow
18:30-20:00.  Free, beginner-friendly class on mid- to late nineteenth century contra dances and quadrilles.  No experience necessary, no partner needed.  Note that (1) we will be dancing on lightweight carpet, so the slipperiest possible shoes are encouraged (but dance-floor-restricted shoes are not necessary), and (2) embassy security procedures are in effect, so pre-registration is strongly encouraged; follow the class link above.  Part of a regular series happening roughly every other Friday.

Saturday, January 18th ~ Moscow
18:00-20:00.  Private lesson.

Saturday, January 25th ~ Moscow
Black & White Chess Ball (in Russian)
for Ballroom Dance Studio "Ларец"
15:00-18:00 (arrival 14:00).  I am attending this primarily as a social event, but I will briefly teach the mid- to late-19th century American version of the Spanish Dance.  Dress code: black and white.  Tickets 700 rubles in advance, 900 at door.  See link above (in Russian) for ball program, location, etc.

Saturday, January 25th ~ Moscow
19:15-21:15.  Private lesson.

Friday, January 31st ~ Moscow
Masterclass: 19th Century American Social Dances
    (Facebook announcement) (VK announcement - in Russian)
for the American Center in Moscow
18:30-20:00.  Free, beginner-friendly class on mid- to late nineteenth century contra dances and quadrilles.  No experience necessary, no partner needed.  Note that (1) we will be dancing on lightweight carpet, so the slipperiest possible shoes are encouraged (but dance-floor-restricted shoes are not necessary), and (2) embassy security procedures are in effect, so pre-registration is strongly encouraged; follow the class link above.  Part of a regular series happening roughly every other Friday.

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I am available for private lessons in Moscow (primarily Thursday nights and irregular weekends) or while on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

Moscow, Russia: January 6-31

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Coming in February: public classes in Moscow, a Valentine dance at the American Center, and a ball!

Thinking about the Four Step

Original photo: Barry Lewis

The photo at left (click to enlarge) was taken in June, 2018, at the Laws Railroad Museum and Historic Site in Bishop, California.  I've cropped it to focus on the dance program board shown, which is hanging in the music room there.  It gives a program that probably dates from around 1910.  Most of the dances were well-known couple dances, plus (of course!) the quadrille, which was probably the first set or a called quadrille.  I've discussed some of the others, such as the Rye Waltz, the Newport, and some versions of the Paul Jones, on Kickery in the past.  There's some mystery about what exactly would have been danced for the minuet -- the Oxford Minuet?  One of the  choreographed "waltz minuets"?  A Menuet de la Cour? 

But to me, the most interesting puzzle on there is what exactly was meant by a "Four Step".

In the 1900s and early 1910s, there were sequences called the four-step in several different dances -- a four-step Boston, a four-step grapevine, a four-step in the tango, etc.  I don't really envision any of those to have been listed as a separate dance, however.  Noted dance historian Richard Powers stated in a Facebook comment on the photo that the four-step was an early name for the one-step, though I don't know how common that usage was, since I have not come across it myself.  But it's not the only possibility.  Let's look at a few of the others!

A shorter Victorian "Sir Roger de Coverley"

Over the twelve years I've been writing Kickery, I've twice discussed versions of Sir Roger de Coverley, the English "finishing dance" that was the direct ancestor of America's Virginia Reel: a Regency-era version from Thomas Wilson and a Victorian-era version probably originated by Mrs. Nicholas Henderson.  The latter version of the dance, which shortened the figures and added an introductory figure for all the dancers, appeared in several English sources from around 1850 to 1870.  But it was not the only version in mid-nineteenth century England; at least two variations of a full version more like the Regency one continued to appear in dance manuals, and a fourth version, shortened even further, turned up occasionally as well. 

 

The dance being strongly associated with Christmas due to its appearance at Mr. Fezziwig's ball in Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol, Christmas Eve seems an appropriate time to discuss this extremely short version.

Over the twelve years I've been writing Kickery, I've twice discussed versions of Sir Roger de Coverley, the English "finishing dance" that was the direct ancestor of America's Virginia Reel: a Regency-era version from Thomas Wilson and a Victorian-era version probably originated by Mrs. Nicholas Henderson.  The latter version of the dance, which shortened the figures and added an introductory figure for all the dancers, appeared in several English sources from around 1850 to 1870.  But it was not the only version in mid-nineteenth century England; at least two variations of a full version more like the Regency one continued to appear in dance manuals, and a fourth version, shortened even further, turned up occasionally as well. 

 

The dance being strongly associated with Christmas due to its appearance at Mr. Fezziwig's ball in Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol, Christmas Eve seems an appropriate time to discuss this extremely short version.

Chivers' Second Set of Caledonians (1 of 2)

In the mid-1820s, London dancing master G. M. S. Chivers published two additional sets of "Caledonians" figures, over and above his first set of Caledonians, which became the standard nineteenth-century version.  The second set has some appealing variations in the figures: alternating half-figures for head and side couples; solos for both gentlemen and ladies in separate figures; a "meanwhile" figure to occupy the less-active couples; and a demi-grande-chaîne figure broken into quarters by extra full turns.  There's nothing too exotic, but it's a fun little set, fairly straightforward to reconstruct and easy to dance for anyone with general experience with Regency-era quadrille steps and figures.  I'll include the first couple of figures below and follow up with the remainder in a second post.

A note about music: my only source for Chivers' Second Set of Caledonians is his Dancing Master in Miniature (c1825), which gave figures only, no music.  I have not, so far, found the specifically published sheet music for them.  Given the degree to which sets of quadrille figures were recycled for different sets of tunes during the nineteenth century, I would not feel at all uncomfortable about dancing them to more-or-less random sets of Scottish music, either from another published set of Scottish-themed quadrilles or assembled from period Scottish tunes.  The length and repeat structure of the figures matches the standard "first set" of quadrilles.

On to the figures!

December 2019 Gig Calendar

December will be a quite month of hibernation, research, and private lessons and classes.  The dance series at the American Center at the U. S. Embassy will continue with one regular dance and a holiday party!

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Sunday, December 1st ~ Moscow
16:00-18:00.  Private lesson.

Tuesday, December 3rd ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class.

Friday, December 6th ~ Moscow
Masterclass: 19th Century American Social Dances
for the American Center in Moscow
18:30-20:00.  Free, beginner-friendly class on mid- to late nineteenth century contra dances and quadrilles.  No experience necessary, no partner needed.  Note that (1) we will be dancing on lightweight carpet, so the slipperiest possible shoes are encouraged (but dance-floor-restricted shoes are not necessary), and (2) embassy security procedures are in effect, so pre-registration is strongly encouraged; follow the class link above.  Part of a regular series happening roughly every other Friday.

Saturday, December 7th ~ Moscow
20:00-22:00.  Private lesson.        Cancelled

Tuesday, December 10th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class.

Tuesday, December 17th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class.

Friday, December 20th ~ Moscow
Masterclass: 19th Century American Social Dances
for the American Center in Moscow
18:30-20:00.  Holiday party!  Free, beginner-friendly class on mid- to late nineteenth century contra dances and quadrilles.  No experience necessary, no partner needed.  Note that (1) we will be dancing on lightweight carpet, so the slipperiest possible shoes are encouraged (but dance-floor-restricted shoes are not necessary), and (2) embassy security procedures are in effect, so pre-registration is strongly encouraged; follow the class link above.  Part of a regular series happening roughly every other Friday.  This week will be an informal party - light refreshments will be served and festive attire is encouraged (but not required).

 

Saturday, December 14th ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson.

Saturday, December 21st ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson.

Tuesday, December 24th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class.

Sunday, December 29th ~ Moscow
19:00-21:00.  Private lesson.

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I am available for private lessons in Moscow (primarily Thursday nights and irregular weekends) or while on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

Moscow, Russia: December 1-31

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Coming in January: public classes in Moscow and more dances at the American Center!

Professor Asher's Polacca Quadrille, Figure 1

Late nineteenth-century American dance manuals are littered with Polacca quadrilles, comprising at least three distinct sets of figures plus variations.  For this series of posts, I'm going to focus on the set of figures advertised as taught by Professor Asher of Philadelphia.  I have at least six sources for this set of figures, none of which are completely consistent with each other, which makes it difficult to come up with an absolutely definitive reconstruction.  

The music for this Polacca set was composed by William Coleman and published as early as 1857, when it appeared in Shuster's flute music, published in Philadelphia, which is online here.  That is considerably earlier than any evidence I have for Asher's figures; the earliest source I have for any version of them is dated 1870.  A Polacca appeared on dance cards from Professor Asher's academy in late 1878 and early 1879.  It seems likely that the figures danced were Asher's own, but the first definitive source I have for them is a Boston reprint of Coleman's music, dated 1881, on which the figures actually appear with a credit to Asher.  I've treated this as my primary source for the figures.  A detail from the cover of this music is above at left; click to enlarge.

Coleman's music was also printed in J. W. Pepper's Universal Dancing Master (1882), appearing on pages 60-62.  Asher's figures, more or less, appeared separately on page 13.  Variant versions of the figures also appeared in The amateur's vademecum by E. B. Reilly (Philadelphia, 1870), A treatise on the elements of dancing by the anonymous T. Erp. Sichore (San Francisco, 1891), The American prompter and guide to etiquette by E. H. Kopp (Cincinnati, 1896), and A complete practical guide to modern society dancing by Albert W. Newman (Philadelphia, 1903).  Given the date of the Reilly manual, I think it possible that this variant is actually a separate version of the figures, existing in parallel with Asher's, but it's similar enough that I can't be quite certain.

Musically, "alla polacca" means in the manner of a polonaise, but the music is more waltz than polonaise.  The 1881 printing is labeled "Glide, or Polacca Quadrilles", referring to a glide waltz, and the T. Erp. Sichore source called it "The Polacca or Glide Waltz Quadrille".  Reilly (1870) declared that it was danced with "plain waltz step" although he stated that it required mazurka steps in two of the figures.  I don't recommend actual polonaise steps for the walked part of Asher's Polacca, just small walking steps counted in threes, and, despite Reilly's comment, do not suggest mazurka steps.

Highland Glide

Photo: Andrew Trembley

The Highland Glide was the very last schottische given in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890).  It reappeared in George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903) under the name La Highland Glide (Schottisch).  The dance was created by Chicago dancing master C. A. Carr, who published sheet music advertising the dance, though the copy I have scans of does not include the dance instructions.  Part of the cover of the sheet music may be seen at left; click to enlarge.  It is dated 1890.  Carr advertised himself as the creator of the "popular" Carlton (a polka sequence which appeared in Gilbert and Lopp) as well as "famous" Newports (plural), by which I suspect he means he composed music for dancing the Newport, rather than the dance itself.  Gilbert and Lopp also credited him with the Ashland (another polka), Le Beau (a galop), and the America (a mazurka).

The Highland Glide follows the common "double" schottische pattern of four measures of slow steps followed by four of faster steps, the first part with minimal turning and the second turning continuously using the typical late-nineteenth century waltz-galop step (explained here).  The measure count presents a minor reconstruction issue, since the steps are notated by Gilbert and Lopp in 4/4, but the sheet music is notated in 2/4.  It is fairly obvious from the rhythm and tempo given that two measures of the sheet music are what Gilbert and Lopp considered a single measure.

November 2019 Gig Calendar

I'll be juggling two big trips in November - to Kyiv, Ukraine, for a ball and a day of classes, then back to the USA in November for the Remembrance Day Weekend balls and a country dance evening in Chicago!  In Moscow, I'll be continuing some private lessons and doing another public dance at the American Center at the U. S. Embassy.

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Friday, November 1st ~ Moscow
Masterclass: 19th Century American Social Dances
for the American Center in Moscow
6:30-8:00pm.  Free, beginner-friendly class on mid- to late nineteenth century contra dances and quadrilles.  No experience necessary, no partner needed.  Note that (1) we will be dancing on lightweight carpet, so the slipperiest possible shoes are encouraged (but dance-floor-restricted shoes are not necessary), and (2) embassy security procedures are in effect, so pre-registration is strongly encouraged; form link to follow.  Part of a regular series happening roughly every other Friday.

Saturday, November 2nd ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson

Tuesday, November 5th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Saturday & Sunday, November 9th & 10th ~ Kyiv, Ukraine
Gala Vampiria Ball & Master Classes (Facebook events, in Ukrainian: ball and classes)
Attending the ball on Saturday and teaching classes on Sunday.  The classes will include advanced nineteenth-century improvisation (rackets and Newport/Pasadena), cross-step waltz (shadow variations, including four different ways to do windmills, and tango-inspired variations), and new steampunk choreography.  Yes, this is an odd combination of themes!

Tuesday, November 12th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Saturday, November 16th ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson

Tuesday, November 19th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Friday & Saturday, November 22nd & 23rd ~ Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
The 17th Annual Remembrance Day Dinner & Ball (Facebook community) 
5:30pm-midnight each day.  TWO nights!  TWO formal dinners!  TWO balls!  Both evenings are 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's ball is Fancy Dress/Masquerade with a Scottish/Tartan theme, complete with a piper to lead the Grand March.  Saturday will feature a Patriotic theme.  I will be calling both evenings this year, with live music both nights by the Fleeting Moments Waltz & Quickstep Orchestra and different beginner-friendly dance programs!

Monday, November 25th ~ Oak Park, Illinois (Chicago area)
From Jane Austen to Queen Victoria and Beyond! (Facebook announcement/flyer)
for Chicagoland English Country Dance
7:00-10:00pm.  An evening of country dances and quadrille figures tracing the evolution of group dances from the late eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century.  Beginner-friendly; no experience or partner needed.  This is a modern English country dance group, so only basic steps will be used; the emphasis will be on interesting figures.  Live music by Tim MacDonald and Jonathan Whitall!

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I am available for private lessons in Moscow (primarily Thursday nights and irregular weekends) or while on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

Moscow, Russia: November 1-20, 28-30
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: November 21-23
Chicago, Illinois: November 25-26

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Coming in December: more dances at the American Center!

A Ballroom Basilisk, 1897

I'm just going to leave this story here without any commentary.

Happy Halloween!

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GONE WITH A BASILISK.

A LURID SHORT STORY.

BY G. L. Calderon

Reginald passed his hand wearily over his aching brow, and glided languishing between the purple portières.  Within was a chaos of whirling muslin and hungry faces swimming on a sea of passionate, throbbing music.  There was a mist before his eyes; grinning heads floated restlessly by, gibbering in the shell-like ears of painted women.  Amid the fevered maelstrom, one figure loomed large and close upon his attention.  It was the hostess.  A hot wet hand pressed his.  “Law! what a squash!” he murmured in her ear, then plunged into the stream, and was borne away to the other side of the room.

"The Fancy Ball", 1837: the tableaux vivants

So turns my memory to that brilliant sight
When wit and beauty held their festal night;
When the thronged hall its glittering groups displayed
Of Nature’s loveliness, by art arrayed;
Of graceful forms that mocked the sculptor’s art,
And eyes whose glances reached the coldest heart,
Of all that beauty loves or taste admires,
Of all that valor warms or genius fires.

While ideas for tableaux vivants, the "living pictures" that often opened a ball in the nineteenth century (or interrupted it, as at this ball in Heidelberg in the 1840s) are easy to come by, it's rare to find a detailed description of a whole series of them at a ball.  The poem "The Fancy Ball", from which the above lines are excerpted, devotes over half its length to poetic descriptions of the tableaux vivants performed at a ball held in Savannah, Georgia, in 1837, three of which are easily identifiable scenes from the works of Lord Byron or Sir Walter Scott.  I haven't been able to identify the other scenes, but hope to figure them out eventually.

The poem was written by Henry Bowen Anthony, a Rhode Island politician who spent some time working in Savannah as a young man.  During that time, he attended a fancy dress ball held in mid-March of 1837 by Godfrey and Julia Barnsley at Scarborough House, Julia's family home, now in the possession of her and her husband.  The ball was an extravagant one, and is quite well-documented.  It certainly made an impression on Anthony!

After returning from Savannah, Anthony became a newspaper editor and eventually entered politics, serving as a U. S. Senator from Rhode Island for twenty-five years and dying in office.

"The Fancy Ball" was written when Anthony was only twenty-two and was privately published at the time.  It was reprinted, unrevised, in an edition of only one hundred copies in 1875.

Wings, 1912

Here's a costume-oriented cotillion figure from Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) that is missing its dance instructions:

Wings.
These are to be about two feet long and made on wire of crepe paper, painted with gold, and as they are made in all colors, it is intended that they should match the color of the gown of each dancer and so present a perfectly harmonious ensemble.  A heavy hook is fastened where the two wings join, so that they may be attached to the end of the decolletage of the black [sic] of the bodice of each terpsichorean flower, thus prematurely precipitating these mundane possessors into their angel (so-called) possessions.  Crimped paper in every shade is made to assimilate the neck ruches of liberty silk and mousseline de soie, now so much worn, and these also make a pleasing medium of exchange of friendliness, yes, of something stronger oftimes. among those participating in the dance.  Silver and gold pencil holders are also used for this purpose, making not only an ornamental but a useful present to ladies as well as to gentlemen.  The gold ones have a jewel in the end in place of the rubber, and the silver ones have rubber.  The latter are also made with the distinctive features of the colleges and universities.  Harvard to have a crimson enameled flag bearing the letter “H,” in white as its decoration.  Yale, the flag to be in blue and white, while Princeton, the black and orange colors, etc.

There's quite a bit to unpack here: what did the wings look like?  What were the crimped-paper neck ruches?  And the pencil holders?  How was the figure danced?  

Hygeia Hotel Grand Fancy Ball, 1858

"The Grand Fancy Ball at Old Point Comfort-- All the F. F. V.'s out in their Native Splender [sic]", an article covering a fancy dress ball held at the Hygeia Hotel in Old Point Comfort, a seaside town in Virginia, was published on page five of The New York Times on August 30, 1858.  The "F. F. V.'s" were the "First Families of Virginia," the wealthiest and most socially prominent families; more discussion of the term and its history may be found here.  All quotes below are from the Times article unless otherwise credited; a full transcription is at the end of the post.

The Hygeia Hotel, shown above in an image from c1861 (click to enlarge), courtesy of The Library of Congress.  (The Hygeia is the long building with the colonnades.)  It was originally built in 1822 as housing for construction workers at Fort Monroe.  The original hotel was razed during the Civil War and a new hotel built on the site, which was then demolished in 1902.

The original Hygeia grew and grew:

Over the following 25 years [after 1833], the owners constructed wings housing more than 200 rooms, as well as various detached buildings for billiards, pistol shooting and bowling. Guests such as President John Tyler and Edgar Allan Poe came for the healthful sea breezes, sea bathing and seafood, not to mention a social scene so fashionable that Old Point became a favorite setting for short stories and novels.

By 1858, the Hygeia was entertaining more than 5,000 guests a year.

-- "Hampton Archive: The South's Best Resort", October 4, 2009

Among its more famous guests was Edgar Allen Poe, who stayed there a month before his death in 1849, famously reciting his poems, "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", and "Ulalume" in the moonlight from the hotel veranda.

Mr. Palmer comes of age, Yarmouth, 1831

Moving a bit forward in time, the coming of age ball of Mr. Samuel Palmer, junior, on Tuesday, March 1st, 1831, was accorded detailed coverage the following Saturday, March 5th, in The Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette.  The family seems to have been a prominent one, since they convinced then-Mayor Edmund Preston to lend them a hall and the whole town to deck itself out in celebration of their son's birthday.  And, of course, they were wealthy enough to throw a ball for several hundred guests.  Piecing together public records, I am reasonably certain that the birthday boy's full name was Samuel Thurtell Palmer (c1810-1850), whose parents were probably Samuel and Susanna (Thurtell?) Palmer.

Most of the article was, as usual, devoted to lengthy lists of guests and their costumes, but there were some interesting tidbits here and there.  The transcriptions below include all of the article with the exception of the lists that just named the attendees and their outfits.

York Fancy Dress Ball, 1824

There were fewer detailed descriptions of masquerades and fancy dress balls published in the first few decades of the nineteenth century than there were during Victoria's long reign, when such balls became enormously popular.  But the fancy dress ball held in the York (England) Assembly Rooms on Tuesday, March 23rd, 1824, was given a substantial writeup the following Saturday, March 27th, in The Yorkshire Gazette.  Most of the coverage was reprinted exactly on Thursday, April 1st, in The Leeds Intelligencer and Yorkshire General Advertiser.  All excerpts below were transcribed from the article in The Yorkshire Gazette.

As, apparently, the first public fancy dress ball ever held in York, the preliminaries and the efforts of the ball's nervous organizing committee were described in unusual detail, along with much back-patting about the success of the event. 

This novel and anxiously expected entertainment, was held on Tuesday evening in our magnificent Assembly Rooms and was attended by upwards of five hundred persons.  It being the first public Fancy Ball that had ever taken place in this county, the Committee felt no little anxiety respecting the ultimate success of their undertaking, and exerted themselves to the utmost, in making all the fit and proper arrangements for the fairy scenes of the evening — the expectation that had been held out, did not fall short of the reality, and we are most happy to have it in our power to state, that, on no former occasion, as a more splendid, brilliant, and amusing assemblage been collected; there was a freshness and gaiety of appearance which delighted all, and the grotesqueness of the scene was irresistible.

Masquerade Prizes, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1882-1883

Once again, October is fancy dress ball, masquerade, and general costumed silliness month at Kickery!  

While digging through the Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers website at the Library of Congress for dance references, I came across an interesting announcement of a post-Easter masquerade ball held in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1883:

Masquerade Ball.
The union depot employes [sic] give a masquerade ball at Market hall on Tuesday evening next.  The remembrance of the great success of their ball last year will draw many new faces the current season.  There will be a grand street parade on Tuesday afternoon, which will be led by Prince Carnival and his cavaliers.  One of the features of the evening will be the awarding of the following prizes:

1. For the most graceful round dancing couple will be awarded the championship and two beautiful gold medals.
2. For the most elegantly dressed lady will be given a handsome silk plush dressing case.
3. For the most comic dressed lady will be given an elegant toilet set.
4. For the most elegantly dressed gent will be given a very rich hammered water pitcher set.
5. For the most comic dressed gent will be given a fine cut glass wine set.
6. For the best clown will be given a large cabinet mirror.
7. For the best masqued group, $10 gold piece.
8. For the most natural and complete animal masque, $5 gold piece.

The prince and princess will be appointed and are not entitled to a prize.

--- from The St. Paul Sunday Globe, Sunday Morning, April 1, 1883, p. 5, under "Social World"  (original page at Chronicling America)

The timing of this ball is interesting, as it took place nine days after Easter, which was on March 25th that year, rather than before Lent like a traditional Carnival event.  

More intriguing was that the ball incorporated a costume contest, which is something I don't recall seeing before, and something of a dance contest as well, with a prize for "the most graceful round dancing couple".

October 2019 Gig Calendar

I am once more happily ensconced in Russia!  I am not launching a full public schedule this month, but I will be experimenting with teaching a short class at the American Center in Moscow (part of the U.S. Embassy); if it goes well, it will become a regular series.  And I may throw a small party at the end of the month - watch this post for updates!  (Edited to add - but I decided not to!  Maybe later in the autumn!)

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Tuesday, October 1st ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Tuesday, October 8th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Saturday, October 12th ~ Moscow
17:15-19:15.  Private lesson

Tuesday, October 15th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Friday, October 18th ~ Moscow
Masterclass: 19th Century American Social Dances
for the American Center in Moscow (VK post)  (Facebook post)
18:30-20:00.  Free, beginner-friendly class on mid- to late nineteenth century contra dances and quadrilles.  No experience necessary, no partner needed.  Note that (1) we will be dancing on lightweight carpet, so the slipperiest possible shoes are encouraged (but dance-floor-restricted shoes are not necessary), and (2) embassy security procedures are in effect, so pre-registration is required; see the form here (in Russian).  If all goes well, this will be the first class in a regular series in November and December.

Saturday, October 19th ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson

Tuesday, October 22nd ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Saturday, October 26th ~ Moscow
Festival-Competition Planet of the Arts-Moscow (Event website - in Russian)
11:00-18:30.  Dance school contest and showcase.  I am serving as a judge and offering a short class on a couple of historical American contra dances.

Tuesday, October 29th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

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I am available for private lessons in Moscow (primarily Thursday nights and irregular weekends) or while on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

Moscow, Russia: October 1-31

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Coming in November: classes in Kyiv, Ukraine, and back to the USA for Remembrance Day Weekend!

Wilson's "Maze" figure

Stating that Regency-era dancing master Thomas Wilson's personally created new figure, "The Maze", appeared in published country dance figures is a bit of an exaggeration: I've found it exactly twice, once in Thompson's 24 Country Dances For the Year 1814 and once in L'Assemblée, the latter being a book of forty-eight country dance tunes with figures by Wilson which was published in 1819.  (The Thompson book also noted prominently on its cover that its figures were by Wilson.) 

I can't rule out other appearances of the figure, but after skimming through most of my Wilson sources with no further luck, I'd say that The Maze, like True Lover's Knot (but unlike Double Triangle) qualifies as a genuine rarity.  That means that it's not a typical Regency dance figure, the odds of anyone other than Wilson's own students knowing it were fairly low, and one shouldn't call it today unless certain one's set already knows it or prepared to explain or teach it.  I'll provide a simple explanation below.

Like Wilson's other new figures, The Maze appeared in at least three of in Wilson's country dance figure books, the earliest of which I've found it in is the 1811 third edition of An Analysis of Country Dancing.  It also appears in the fourth edition of Analysis (1822) and in  The Complete System of English Country Dancing (c1820).  Happily, the diagram shown at left (click to enlarge) is the same in all three sources and the description varies only in the location of the line breaks.  This particular image is taken from Complete System.

Wilson's "Double Triangle" figure

Like the True Lover's Knot, the Double Triangle is another of Regency-era dancing master Thomas Wilson's personally-created country dance figures, used, as far as I can tell, exclusively by Wilson himself.  Since it is not a standard Regency figure, it is of limited utility.  I myself would use it only if, for some reason, I were doing a very Wilson-focused workshop or event.  In general country dancing, a lady calling "double triangle" will simply create confusion, since no one but a serious scholar of Wilson's work is likely to have the slightest idea what it is.  

One reason to look at it in a bit more detail, however, is that Wilson himself seems to have been fond of it.  It appears over and over in Wilson's own country dance figures.  While I haven't made an exhaustive survey, it would not surprise me if he used it more than any other of his new figures.  It appeared in numerous figures in Wilson's enormous compilation of country dance tunes, A Companion to the Ball Room (London, c1820) and in L'Assemblée (London, 1819), a book of forty-eight country dance tunes with accompanying figures.  But it also turned up in figures Wilson did for books published by others.  There are several occurrences of it in, for example, Thompson's 24 Country Dances For the Year 1813 and Thompson's 24 Country Dances For the Year 1817, both of which are advertised on their covers as including figures by Wilson. 

Since this makes it a figure which dancers looking for country dance figures might come across and be puzzled by, and, I suppose, slightly more likely than most of Wilson's new figures to have filtered out into the world beyond his studio, it seems useful to talk a little about how to dance it and how to explain and teach it efficiently.

At left is the diagram of the Double Triangle as it appeared in the third (1811) and fourth (1822) editions of Wilson's An Analysis of Country Dancing.  The 1811 edition is the earliest source I have for the figure.

This particular image (click to enlarge) is taken from the fourth edition.  Calling the dancers' paths triangles involves a bit of artistic license, given the loops on the corners, but the connection between name and figure is clear. 

Wilson's text, unfortunately, is not only completely dependent on the diagram, it's also confusing in referring to the active gentleman in two different ways:

CD Review: The Ragtime Women

The Ragtime Women is an old recording -- it's dated 1977 and was originally issued as a vinyl LP.  But it's a new acquisition for me, the third and last of the albums expanding my ragtime music collection this summer.  The theme is, obviously, female ragtime composers, and the liner notes give some interesting background on how a smattering of women (and middle-class white women, at that) contributed to a field primarily (and properly) associated with black composers.  The short answer: upright pianos in the home, access to plenty of ragtime sheet music, and the huge number of female home pianists created the conditions for some successful composers to emerge.  Resurrected from historical obscurity on this album are Julia Niebergall, Gladys Yelvington, Muriel Pollock, May Aufderheide, Mabel Tilton, Charlotte Blake, Louise V. Gustin, and Adeline Shepherd.  The liner notes include as much biographical information as was available at the time for each.

The album was assembled by pianist Max Morath (1926-), an accomplished performer as well as an author and a composer in his own right who is something of a modern legend himself as "Mr. Ragtime".  More information about his career and huge backlist of recordings may be found here and here.  His musical quintet for this album also includes Ruth Alsop (cello), Allen Hanlon (guitar, banjo, mandolin), Lynn Milano (bass), and Remo Palmier (guitar).  The sound of the album varies from pure piano-rag to more of a southern string band sound.

All the pieces except one on The Ragtime Women date from 1899 to 1917, with the exception being a modern composition by Kathy Craig, "Romantic Rag", which has some issues with danceability but an authentic feel that will fit in just fine as background music at a 1910s event.

Lawn Tennis Quadrille (3 of 3)

Winding up my Lawn Tennis Quadrille mini-series (see here for the introduction and first figure and here for figures two and three), here are the final two figures.

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Figure Four: The Double Pastourelle
Music: A=8b, B=40b, played A+ (BA x4)

8b   Introduction (not repeated)

4b   Six (along top/bottom of set) forward and back
4b   Two raise arms and side lady (on left) passes under; ladies cross to side gentlemen
4b   Six (along sides of set) forward and back
4b   Two raise arms and side lady (on left)  passes under; ladies cross to head gentlemen
4b   Six (along top/bottom of set) forward and back
4b  Two raise arms and side lady (on left)  passes under; ladies cross to side gentlemen
4b   Six (along sides of set) forward and back
4b  Two raise arms and side lady (on left) passes under; ladies return to original places
4b   All four ladies forward and back
4b   All four gentlemen forward and back
8b   All forward and back to partners and turn by two hands

Repeat all of the above as written once more.
Repeat all of the above twice more with side couples leading.

Lawn Tennis Quadrille (2 of 3)

Continuing my short series on Lawn Tennis (see here for the introduction and first figure), here are figure two and the very exciting figure three!

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Figure Two: The Varied Chains
Music: A=8b, B=16b, played A+ (BA x4)

8b   Introduction (not repeated)

8b    Head couples turn to right diagonal, sides to left; right and left (chaîne anglaise)
4b   With same couples, half ladies' chain
(Pairs are now: 1st lady/3rd gent, 2nd lady/4th gent, 3rd lady/1st gent, 4th lady/2nd gent)
4b   All turn new partners
8b   All balance to corners and turn corners

8b    Head couples turn to left diagonal, sides to right; right and left (chaîne anglaise)
4b   With same couples, half ladies' chain
(Ladies are now opposite their original places)
4b   All turn new partners
8b   All forward and back at corners and turn corners

Repeat all of the above to bring ladies back to original places.

Lawn Tennis Quadrille (1 of 3)

This is the week of the U. S. Open, one of the four major tennis tournaments, so it's a perfect time for Lawn Tennis!

The Lawn Tennis Quadrille, usually referred to just as "Lawn Tennis", was published in 1881 as sheet music by George W. Allen with figures "composed by the society of Professors of Dancing, New York".  This raises the frightening specter of a quadrille composed by committee, which is unusual but not unprecedented in the nineteenth century. 

New York dancing master and author William De Garmo, in the third edition of The Dance of Society (reprinted exactly in the fourth and fifth editions) added some detail, noting that Lawn Tennis was introduced on January 2, 1881, and attributing it specifically to Lawrence De Garmo Brookes, it merely having been "accepted" by The American Society of Professors of Dancing, New York.  The cover image at left (click to enlarge), from a copy online at IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana at Indiana University, shows a nice mixed doubles set with a trio of spectators, the ladies in lovely "natural form" gowns.  Only one of them is actually watching the game.

Lawn Tennis pops up in a number of American dance manuals and call books during the 1880s, but it's difficult to say how popular it was with the general public.  Dancing masters would certainly have tried to push it with their students; it was advertised, for example, on the list of dances taught for the 1882-1883 season by A. J. Webster in Wilmington, Delaware (Daily Gazette, September 16, 1882).  It turns up now and then in newspaper coverage of balls -- for example, on a list of dances from a children's recital in St. Paul Minnesota in 1883 (covered in the Daily Globe).  There was enough general awareness of its existence for it to have appeared on a sort of hypothetical program from 1888 that was never actually danced (more about this program here) and in a rather gooey romantic tale in 1886, "Love to Rescue", that appeared in The Butler [Missouri] Weekly Times on March 10, 1886:

He was a fine fellow, and Betty knew it.  He had never looked nobler than he did at that moment; but De Vaux was a gentleman with invisible means of support; his hands were white, and he could dance the lawn tennis quadrilles beautifully.

September 2019 Gig Calendar

One last non-gig calendar for my extended summer vacation!  This month I am moving back to Russia, and starting in October there will once more be classes, parties, and the occasional weekend of travel.  I don't expect any public events this month.  In the meantime, I am still available for private lessons in Connecticut before I leave (though I will be super-busy packing!)  and in Moscow once I arrive.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

See you in October!

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Saturday, September 21st ~ Moscow
17:30-18:30.  Private lesson

Saturday, September 28th ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson

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Connecticut: September 1-14
Moscow, Russia: September 17-30

CD Review: Hello, Frisco!

Hello, Frisco! (2007) is an album of vocal ragtime music featuring singer Ann Gibson and, once again, pianist Frederick Hodges (of Kitten on the Keys and Ragtime Dance Party).  As with Kitten on the Keys, this is a more of a listening album, but most of it still works well for dancing if, and only if, one likes dancing to music with lyrics.  Personally, I love it, but those who do not should avoid this album, since every single track has vocals.  For those who want to listen before (or instead of) buying, the entire album may be heard via a YouTube playlist here.

I've talked about Frederick Hodges before, and don't want to repeat myself, but his improvisational piano style (authentic for ragtime) is always a treat.  His full bio may be found on his website.  Ann Gibson does not appear to have a website, but here's her brief bio from the liner notes:

Singer Ann Gibson, who has been crowned by her fans as “The Duchess of Ragtime,” has been gracing Bay Area stages for over ten years with her velvety voiced renditions of songs from the ragtime era through the 1930s. She has worked as vocalist for the Black Tie Jazz Orchestra and the California Pops Orchestra. She has also produced music reviews for the Art Deco Society of California acclaimed for their originality of content and attention to authentic detail in presenting popular music from the Art Deco Era. Miss Gibson was classically trained as a child on piano, French horn, and also sang with several local choirs. Her father, local band leader and composer Bob Soder, was instrumental in her development as he exposed her to many different forms of music, from classical to jazz.

Keep in mind that this was written in 2007.  A longer but equally out-of-date bio may be found here.

August 2019 Gig Calendar

I probably should start calling these summer calendars non-gig calendars, since I'm having a quiet summer dance-wise.  I don't have anything planned this month, nor am I planning to change that.  I am still available for private lessons in Connecticut when I'm there.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

See you in September!

Connecticut: August 1-12, 20-31
Dublin, Ireland: August 13-18