Capering & Kickery

Skeleton Dance

   A bit of Halloween silliness and a reminder that dance reconstruction is a broader field than one might think:

 

Fashioned by Sargent: Fancy Dress Costumes at the MFA in Boston

I have a special treat this month that I've been saving for almost a year.  Last December, I was able to attend the astonishing exhibit Fashioned by Sargent at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.  The exhibit paired paintings by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) with actual clothing of the period for comparison, including many of the actual items worn in the paintings.  This was heaven for a costume person like me!  The clothing and artwork were each astonishing individually.  But being able to compare clothing side by side with Sargent's paintings of it made it obvious how much Sargent tweaked the look of things and how cautious one should be using paintings as a source to reconstruct costumes.  I spent several hours in the exhibit just staring intently at everything.  And to add dance historian rapture to costume rapture and art rapture, two of the costume/painting pairs were of fancy dress costumes!

I took extensive photos, but I am not the world's best photographer, nor is my camera all that special.  And the lighting in the exhibit was kept low to protect the paintings and textiles, with lots of little sparkly indirect lights that twinkled oddly off the protective cases in which the costumes were displayed.  All of this adds up to photos which are not the greatest quality, but which I hope will communicate the beauty of the garments and the excitement of comparing them to the original paintings.  There are much better lit photos of some of the paintings and clothing on the exhibit website, a couple of which I have borrowed for this post.

A Halloween Dance, 1919

Dennison's Bogie Book was a series of Halloween decoration and party guides published by the Dennison Manufacturing Company, whose primary business was paper products (including plain crepe paper and a variety of specific decorative items) beginning in 1909 and continuing near-annually for at least a couple of decades.  The contents are somewhat hilarious by modern standards, but one has to admire the creativity of the company's marketing staff in adapting paper products for everything from table decorations to hats to entire costumes. 

The original books are collector's items now, and quite expensive, but several of them are freely available online. 

The 1919 edition, whose cover is shown at left (click to enlarge), features a whole page of "Innovations for the Dancing Party" on page 26.  Some of them are quite clever while some are quietly horrifying in a grimly amusing way.  But if you want to put on a Halloween dance in the style of the late 1910s, there are enough tidbits here to make it work.  The rest of the book is also a helpful guide to decorating a room or a refreshment table, making party hats for one's guests, and creating invitations.  There's even a short ghost story.  I'm just going to stick to the dance-specific parts, but the entire book may be seen at Hathitrust for those who wish to delve into the rest of it.

Foxtrot Post Index

(Edited 7/18/24 to add: having had a Better Idea, this post is now superseded by this shiny new index page and will no longer be updated.)

I've written a great deal about recorded variations for the foxtrot in its early years.  It can be hard to locate all these posts or to navigate them using subject categories.  So, by request, here is a "mothership" post indexing all of my foxtrot material, sorted into categories in what seems to me to be the most useful way and in chronological order within the categories.  I'll continue to add to it as I write new posts on the foxtrot or find other ones that I had not properly tagged or that are useful in dancing early foxtrot.

Enjoy!

1. 1910s: foxtrot basics
These posts cover the main repertoire of the early foxtrot and some easy variations

04/19/08    Basic Walking & Trotting Patterns in the 1910s Foxtrot
    the absolute basics: walks, trots, walk/trot combinations, and side-slides (galop)

04/25/08    Quick-Quick-Slow: The Two-Step Infiltrates the Foxtrot
    moves in QQS rhythm: two-step, rocking hesitations, trots, and a lovely sequence with a reverse pivot

08/04/09    Sliding Along in the Foxtrot
    repeated diagonal four-slides (galops) without turning

05/12/14    Twinkle, Twinkle: Fast and Slow
    rocking hesitations, either slow or quick

10/09/14    Basic Foxtrots from Edna Lee
    simple sequences found in other sources

02/18/17    Early foxtrot: the drag step
    a simple slide-close followed by trots

 

2. 1910s: fun with foxtrot
Interesting moves for when one is ready to go beyond the basics.

05/02/08    Fancy Little Foxtrot
    a great little sequence with a hop and fast pomander walk

08/08/09    Foxes in Boxes
    traveling and turning box-steps in QQS timing

05/15/14    Two Easy Foxtrot Hesitations
    the Rock-a-bye and the Trot des Artistes; fancy names for a single hesitation and a drag step

06/05/14    Early Foxtrot: Slides & Glides, 1916
    two asymmetrical variations with three or four slides (galop)

07/21/14    Hop, hop, foxtrotters!
    two more hop-turn sequences

06/08/17    Early Foxtrot: Catch Steps
    using a single two-step to switch lead foot

12/26/20    Foxtrot Styling, c1920
    two English sources on "cross-steps", actually just an ornament for the two-step

06/03/21    Early Foxtrot: a bit of maxixe
   adding maxixe styling to the two-step in the foxtrot

06/13/22    Foxtrot in diagrams, 1919
    two basic walk/two-step patterns, a walk/waltz pattern, and an interesting syncopated sequence

06/06/22    The Castle Fox Trot (1 of 2)
    the first three sequences given by the Castles in late 1914: basic walk-trot, step out and pomander walk, and hop-kick

06/09/22    The Castle Fox Trot (2 of 2)
    the fourth and fifth sequences: "Get over, Sal" and trot and reverse trots

11/06/23    Early Foxtrot: The Zig-Zag
    two combinations incorporating QQS zig-zag movements

 

3. 1910s: oddities
Uncommon or one-shot variations only useful if you want a lot of variety.

05/19/14    Cross Steps in the Early Foxtrot
    two variations where you cross one foot over the other

06/09/14    Early Foxtrot: The Newburgh
    a long step-sequence with two-steps and cross steps

06/08/15    One for the ponies!
    a long sequence with lots of walks and hops

07/27/15    Early Foxtrot: The Castle Favorite
    walks, trots, and hops

06/10/19    Early Foxtrot: Quick Dips
    two sequences with ornamental dipping

06/18/20    Early Foxtrot: The Pavlowa Extension
    a long sequence with some especially graceful elements

06/22/20    Early Foxtrot: The Minuet Turn
    weird perpendicular promenades; nothing to do with minuet

06/07/21    Early Foxtrot: the St. Denis Spiral
    more maxixe styling and a spiral track

 

4. 1910s: miscellaneous
A few related posts.

05/31/08    Another Note on the Early Foxtrot
    a newspaper article briefly mentions several of the variations previously described

06/16/14    The Castles' Paul Jones
    a simple mixer that optionally uses the foxtrot for the couple dance part

12/11/14    Fox Trot Hats
    recommendations for the fashionable lady foxtrotter

03/21/24    Suspiciously similar
    did the dancing masters crib from Joan Sawyer?

 

5. Later foxtrot
I rarely go past 1920 in my foxtrot research, since my interest is primarily in the earliest form of the dance, but here are a few posts that touch on the foxtrot of the 1920s:

08/18/09    At the Prom: Yale 1921
        a dance card featuring a ridiculous number of foxtrots

11/25/09    Valencia!
        a novelty dance from 1926 with sequences that can be danced to the name tune or used in the foxtrot

02/07/10    A 1920s Medley Paul Jones
        a simple mixer which incorporates foxtrot as one of several couple dances

Suspiciously similar?

In late 1914, the Columbia Graphophone Company published How to Dance the Fox Trot by the noted dancer Joan Sawyer, a little promotional booklet whose cover is shown at left.  Columbia's goal was to promote record sales, but the booklet is a well-written source for early foxtrot. 

An introductory note from Ms. Sawyer dated November 23, 1914, declared:

The Fox-trot was originated and danced first by me at my Persian Garden in New York and later in vaudeville.

I have no particular desire to delve into the eternal dispute over who, exactly, created the foxtrot, but Sawyer was certainly one of the earliest to popularize it and to publish a coherent set of sequences for dancing it.  I've already written about three of her four sequences (the first is a standard one) and will not repeat all the descriptions, but here is the list with the names given by Sawyer:

1. The Walk and Trot.
2. The Drag Step and Trot.  
3. The Maxixe Glide and Trot. 
4. The Zig-Zag Step and Trot.

It was not until relatively recently, when I was working on the Zig-Zag Step, that I realized that another source gave a list of four sequences suspiciously similar to Sawyer's: a booklet with the unwieldy title Description of Modern Dances as Standardized by the New York Society Teachers of Dancing and approved by the Congress of Dancing Societies of America at meeting held December 27th, 1914, in New York City, N. Y. (American National Association Masters of Dancing, Pittsburgh, 1915).  The dancing masters didn't give their variations names, but the list taken as a whole looks awfully familiar:

Spanish Waltz (sequence dance), 1918

No, not that Spanish Waltz!  This Spanish Waltz is a sixteen-bar sequence dance.  According to a short article published September 19, 1918, in The Lima Times-Democrat (Lima, Ohio), it was introduced at the recent meetings of the Ohio and International Associations of Dancing Teachers in Columbus, Ohio.  Instructions for the dance seem to have been published in full by the Springfield School of Dancing in The Daily Morning Sun of Springfield, Ohio.  I don't have a copy of that publication, but the directions and illustrations were reprinted in The Two Step, Volume XXIX, No. 3, dated March, 1919, with a reference to The Daily Morning Sun publication. 

The Spanish Waltz was credited to W. D. Lynch of Akron, Ohio, head of both the Ohio and international associations, who self-interestedly assured readers of The Times-Democrat article that it was one of three new dances that would be popular during the upcoming season, along with the old standbys the one-step, waltz, and foxtrot.  The Two-Step, which apparently copied the Springfield article verbatim, included a note that the dance would be taught at a lesson series by a Mr. and Mrs. Goodfellow at the Springfield School of Dancing beginning January 8th, 1919, which would not have been the most useful information by the March issue!

The Two-Step/Daily Morning Sun introduction to the dance was:

A Simplified Ballroom Dance Novelty adapted after the Attractive and Beautiful Spanish Dancing which has been and is yet the rage in the larger eastern cities.

The article in The Times-Democrat described it as follows:

"The Spanish waltz is a simplified version of the Spanish dances seen on the stage with partners facing each other.  Any Spanish music, played a trifle fast, may be used.  The dance is somewhat complicated."

Standards vary, and I can't speak to what the stage versions were like, but along with being simplified, I would call the Spanish Waltz simple rather than complicated.  Judge for yourself!

Early Foxtrot: The Zig-Zag

I don't usually write about foxtrot in November, but I don't usually teach foxtrot in Ukraine in the middle of a war, either, and last month, the dancers of Kyiv's Vintage Dance Community wanted something for foxtrot that I hadn't previously described here on Kickery.  Here is the description for their future reference and that of others interested in the variations for the foxtrot of the 1910s.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At least two versions of a zig-zag sequence appeared in short booklets published in 1914 and 1915:

• The Zig-Zag Step and "Trot": Joan Sawyer's How to Dance the Fox Trot (Columbia Graphaphone Company, New York,1914)
  
  
• The Zig-Zag Run: Description of Modern Dances as Standardized by the New York Society Teachers of Dancing and approved by the Congress of Dancing Societies of America at meeting held December 27th, 1914, in New York City, N. Y. (American National Association Masters of Dancing, Pittsburgh, 1915)

Sawyer characterized the figure as a "hard one" but also "loads of fun".  Her description:

A Halloween Cotillon, 1910

Winding up October: a Halloween cotillon!

The short item at left appeared in the society column on page seven of The Indianapolis Star on Tuesday, November 1, 1910.  There are two particularly interesting things about this description of a small private Halloween dance party given by Mr. and Mrs. George C. Calvert:

1. "assisted by Miss Grace Cox of Tudor Hall" / "The figures arranged by the hostess" 
I believe it was more typical to have a gentleman or couple lead the cotillion, but it seems possible here that Miss Cox might have been the leader, or assisted in the Calverts in leading.  It is also unclear whether "arranged" meant planned (a more typical role for a hostess, who would have to assemble the props and favors) or actually led.

2. "members of a dance coterie of which they are members" 
There are nine members listed at the end of the description, plus the hosts, and perhaps the lady who assisted them.  That makes twelve, with an imbalance of five gentlemen and seven ladies.  Was that the entire attendance?  Did the two single ladies dance together or was the non-hostess left out whenever there was an "all couples" sort of figure?  Small groups are more practical than large ones for this kind of evening, but that's very small.

But, since neither issue can really be resolved from the limited information given, let's just talk about the dance figures!

The most comprehensive reference I have for cotillion figures in this period is H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912).  I have no idea what sort of figures the pipe dream and the witches' spell were and have not found any figures that seemed like they might be a match in Walker.  Perhaps those were truly original figures created by the hostess.  But for the others figures, Walker contains possible matches, or figures that might be variations of the ones danced at the Calverts' party.  Taking them one at a time:

Dorothea: a 1912 march figure

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

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

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

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

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

Ocean Waves, 1914

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lyra Figures, 1912

Image courtesy of The Graphics Fairy

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

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

Newman Hesitation Boston

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

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

Trouping the Colors

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

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

Foxtrot with diagrams, 1919

Once again, we return to the pages of H. Layton Walker's The Two Step for that rarity of the 1910s: helpful footprint diagrams!

The Springfield School of Dancing of Springfield, Ohio, advertised a basic set of four foxtrot sequences, complete with little footprint diagrams, in the January, 1919, issue (Buffalo, NY; Volume XXIX, No. 1, p. 11). 

These diagrams are particularly helpful for a dance like the foxtrot in which the speed of the steps varies ("quicks and slows") because the little feet are numbered, with "+" standing in for "&".  This makes it simple to understand the timing. 

The four sequences presented, going counter-clockwise from the upper right quarter, are:

A.    One Step and Two Step Combination

B.    One Step and Syncopated Combination

C.    One Step and Two Step or Jazz Combination

D.    One Step and Waltz Step Combination

The Castle Fox Trot (2 of 2)

Please see the previous post for the introduction to the Castle Fox Trot and the first three step-sequences.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moving right along with the Castle Fox Trot, the two photos below (click to enlarge) illustrate the fourth step-sequence:

4. "Get over, Sal" and trot.  This is an odd little sequence, with two movements on each of the slow steps.  Let's start with Vernon's description, with an advance apology for his use of a racial term which was polite at the time but is no longer considered so:

For the next step, instead of taking two slow steps forward we take two drags to the side.  This drag is a very old negro step, often called “Get over, Sal.  It is done this way: You first take a small hop on your left foot, then quickly throw the weight of the body on the right, dragging the left up to the right.  This should take up one long beat.  I realize how difficult it is to understand this, but I can think of no simpler way of explaining it, and the sixth photograph should help considerably.  In it my wife is just about to drag the left foot up to the right.

After this you do exactly the same step on the other side (see the seventh photograph). 

The Castle Fox Trot (1 of 2)

In previous discussions of early foxtrot, I've examined individual step-sequences across multiple sources, if I have them -- many variations were unique to a single source.  Taking a different approach, I'd also like to look at the published sets of step-sequences of some of the famous and accomplished dancers of the period and see what repertoire they recommended.  I'll begin with the most notable (then and now) of these dancers: the powerhouse couple Vernon and Irene Castle.

In the December, 2014, issue of The Ladies' Home Journal, the Castles published an article illustrated with a series of photos, beginning with the pair at left, of a set of five step-sequences which they labeled The Castle Fox Trot.  This article was the third in a series of dance descriptions which began with the Castle Polka (October) and continued with the Castle Gavotte (November). 

Vernon Castle wrote in first person, addressing the presumably female readers of the magazine directly.  His introduction to the foxtrot:

In presenting the last of our three modern dances I am obliged to revert to the very old and true saying that “There is no new thing under the sun.”  However in the present dance you will find it a pleasant change, and as it is very like the one-step I think it should become popular.  On and off for the last three months we have been introducing this dance at various parties, and it has always been received with a great deal of enthusiasm. 

 

The Two-Step in Diagrams

Even rarer than clear descriptions of the two-step of the turn of beginning of the twentieth century are clear diagrams of the two-step.  The one below (click to enlarge), depicting the gentleman's steps, was provided by the Springfield School of Dancing (Springfield, Ohio) and published in the April, 1919, issue of H. Layton Walker's dance journal, The Two Step (Buffalo, NY; Volume XXIX, No. 4, p. 23.)  This is a very late description of the two-step, whose prime period of popularity was in the first decade of the twentieth century.  It does not appear to have evolved at all, at least not in Springfield, Ohio.

Sadly, it was not accompanied by a description of the dance, but the diagrams are very clear.  I'll break down the four variations shown, but first, let's look at the dance position.

Pittsburgh Star, 1912

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

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

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

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

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

The Canteen Canter, 1918

The Canteen Canter was a specialty dance choreographed by Oscar Duryea to the music of Case White and published in 1918 as a "cantonment one-step", a cantonment being a military camp or garrison.  (More information about cantonments in the United States during World War I may be found here.) 

The cover image, shown at left (click to enlarge) makes the association obvious, though there is nothing particularly military or terribly unusual about the dance itself.  Given its name, it is appropriate that it prominently features canter steps.

Rather than a fixed choreography, this is a set of, for want of a better term, figures, short sequences of four bars that can be repeated as often as one likes to fill up the music.  The sequences are simple - walking steps with the occasional cross of the foot, basic box-step and spin turns, and of course the "canter steps", essentially the lame duck.

The original sheet music, with dance instructions, is online here as part of the Lee Schreiner Sheet Music Collection at Northern Illinois University.

I don't have a proper recording of the music, but a computer-generated version of it has been uploaded by Dorian Henry to his YouTube channel (RagtimeDorianHenry), so one can at least get an idea of how the piece, written in 6/8, sounds:

It's a fun piece, and proper musicians could make much more of it.

On to the actual dance!

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

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

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

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

The Russian Boston (Newman's Boston Variations)

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

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

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

Early Foxtrot: the St. Denis Spiral

While thinking about mixing foxtrot and maxixe...

The St. Denis Spiral is a minor foxtrot variation from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) which, like the sequences in my previous post, incorporates maxixe styling in the two-step.  Like Lee's Pavlowa Extension, it is named for a famous dancer, in this case Ruth St. Denis.  I am not a scholar of modern dance (theatrical or otherwise), so I have only the most superficial knowledge of her career, but apparently she was indeed noted for incorporating spiral figures, as may be seen in "The Delirium of Senses" from Radha (1906), recorded at Jacob's Pillow in 1941.  I seriously doubt she had anything to do with this foxtrot variation, however; the name is most likely just an homage.

The sequence is just as easy as the other foxtrot-maxixe combinations:

3b    Six walking steps
6b    Six turning two-steps, bending and turning as in the maxixe
2b    Four walking steps

The gentleman starts on the left foot moving forward, the lady on the right moving backward.  During the two-steps, the dancers should "turn around to the right as far as possible with each step, advancing along the floor in a spiral fashion".  Normally when turning one spirals into the center of a ballroom accidentally, by underturning.  In this variation, attempting some overturn would keep the dancers moving more-or-less along the line of dance even while doing little spirals.

As is often the case with Lee's sequences, her sense of musicality, or lack of it, is just bizarre.  Six walking steps (three measures) of music to start?  An eleven-bar sequence?  Why???  I would entirely support altering the sequence to do four walking steps at the beginning.  With the six turning two-steps, that would make an eight-bar sequence, and the four at the end are just walking out of it into something else.

Lee's final comment on the step, and the maxixe:

"This is a vigorous and interesting step, with reminiscences of the departed maxixe, which apparently was too beautiful to live."

Early Foxtrot: a bit of maxixe

Maxixe in the foxtrot?  They mixed bits and pieces of every other dance of the ragtime era together, so why not jazz up your foxtrot with a little body sway?  

At least two different sources suggest using maxixe-styled two-step in the foxtrot: Joan Sawyer's How to Dance the Fox Trot (Columbia Graphaphone Company, New York,1914) and Description of Modern Dances, as Standardized by the New York Society Teachers of Dancing and approved by the Congress of Dancing Societies of America at meeting held December 27th, 1914, in New York City, N. Y. (American National Association Masters of Dancing, Pittsburgh, 1915).

I'll start with Sawyer, since her booklet (dated November 23, 1914), is chronologically earlier.  Her foxtrot figures all consist of a pattern of a unique step or sequence followed by eight trotting steps.  Her third figure, the Maxixe-Glide and "Trot", starts with four measures of "Maxixe two-step" done moving along the line of dance (gentleman forward, lady backward) without turning.  The two-steps begin with the gentleman's left foot, lady's right; feet then alternate as usual

Sawyer's illustration of the "very first motion of the Maxixe-glide", shown at left (click to enlarge), is missing the characteristic heel lead of the maxixe, but it does hint at the body sway in the bend of the dancers toward their lead feet.  I would expect them to bring their joined hands up during the remainder of the first two-step and ended it with their bodies bent the opposite way, then swaying the other way as they two-step "over elbows" toward their second foot, ending in about the position shown in the illustration.

Following four two-steps forward (counted 1&2 each) for four bars total, the dancers then do eight trotting steps (counted 1&2&3&4&) for two bars total.  The entire six bars is then repeated, making a twelve-bar sequence.  This is really a very standard mix of two-step and trotting steps, very much in the pattern of other two-step combinations in the foxtrot.  Its only point of distinction is the maxixe styling.

Similarly, the figure standardized by the New York Society Teachers of Dancing and eventually published in the proceedings of their convention is a very ordinary combination, though at least it includes turning.  The two-steps and the running steps (trots) alternate:

1b    one turning"Maxixe two-step" (half-turn) (QQS)
1b    four running steps (QQQQ)
1b    one turning "Maxixe two-step" (half-turn) (QQS)
1b    four running steps (QQQQ)
4b    repeat all of the above

This is a nice, straightforward, musically square eight-bar sequence.  The gentleman starts on the left foot, the lady on the right, they make a half turn so that the first four running steps have the gentleman going backwards, then finish the turn and run again with the lady going backwards.  The only thing indicating the maxixe styling is the word "Maxixe" attached to the two-step.

Of the two, I actually prefer the dancing-masters version.  It's better matched to musical patterns, it has shorter pieces with more frequent alternation -- I am not a fan of long sequences of backward trotting steps for ladies -- and it turns.  I would also consider it valid to break up the sequences and just mix maxixe-styled two-step into walking and trotting in the same way one can mix a plain two-step.

The Boston Spanish and the Herring Bone Boston (Newman's Boston Variations)

Continuing on with Boston variations from Albert W. Newman's Dances of to-day (Philadelphia, 1914), here are two that are both zigzags of sorts, similar to the Picket Fence in one-step, but with the hesitation elements that distinguish most of Newman's Bostons.  With those elements, they can be danced to much faster waltz music.  In the Dance Mad compendium, both the Boston Spanish and the Herring Bone Boston are credited to Newman himself, though in his own book he only takes credit for the latter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Newman described the Boston Spanish as a "design of steps or stairs" with the gentleman moving "down the stairs or obliquely to the rear and the lady going up the stairs or to the right obliquely forward".   It's actually much easier than that makes it sound: the gentleman steps back with his right foot and sideways with his left.  Over and over.  With closes without weight in between.

The Long Boston (Newman's Boston Variations)

"Boston" is a tremendously fuzzy term which meant several different things to different dancing masters at different times and in different places from the late nineteenth century all the way into the 1920s.  About all that is consistent among them is that they were in waltz time.  Bostons-as-a-whole are an enormous topic, so rather than try to cover it all at once, I'm going to take different authors' versions individually and eventually work my way to some sort of summary of the different meanings of the term, with whatever patterns (by time or geography or both) to those meanings emerges. 

I'm going to start with one of my favorite 1910s authors, Albert W. Newman, who, in his Dances of to-day (Philadelphia, 1914), published over a dozen different variations under the general term "Boston".  I long ago described the Three-Step Boston and the Five-Step Boston.  Now I'm planning to work through all the others.  First on that list is the first one Newman described with a whole list of names: the Philadelphia Boston, also known as the Long Boston, the One-Step Waltz, the Drop Step and, in England, the Berceuse or Cradle Boston.  Of all this collection, I prefer the Long Boston or One-Step Waltz, though Newman was evidently partial to Philadelphia Boston, under which name it appeared in the 1914 compendium Dance Mad, which collected variations from dancing masters all over the United States.  Newman described it there as "the form of Boston most popular in Philadelphia at present."

Cupid's Gavotte (5 of 6)

All right, it's time to put it all together!  I'm going to begin with the solo version.

The music for Cupid's Gavotte, as noted in the first post in this series, is in 4/4 and has a musical pattern of seven strains, some of which are duplicates, which fit the dance nicely:

Music                                          Dance                                                                                    
A      16 bars                                16 bars        #1 (4x to right, 4x to left)
B        8 bars                                  8 bars        #2 (4x alternating right and left)
C        8 bars                                  8 bars        #3 (4x alternating right and left)
D*      8 bars (vivace)                    8 bars        #4 (4x alternating right and left)
E         8 bars                                  8 bars        #5 (4x)
F         8 bars                                  8 bars        #6 (4x alternating right and left)
   *      8 bars (vivace)                    8 bars        #7 (4x alternating right and left)
G**  16 bars                                16 bars        #1 (4x to right), #7 (4x alt. right and left to exit
         80 bars                                80 bars

*    The D strain and the second half of the F strain are the same as the B strain
**  The G strain is the same as the A strain

My recording adds a four-bar introduction for practical reasons.

Cupid's Gavotte (4 of 6)

And, at last, here are the two final step-sequences for Cupid's Gavotte!

Step #6: Side Movement (two bars of 4/4 time)
1    Step right foot to side
2    Cross left foot behind right
3    Step right foot to side
4    Cross left in front of right, pirouetting halfway to right (clockwise)
12  Point left foot to side
34  (raising foot slightly to prepare) Point left foot again

The similarity among the various step sequences should quite obvious by now.  Here we have a grapevine ending in a half-pirouette, followed by two of the pointing-that-is-almost-tapping movements to the side.  The mnemonic for this one is "side-back-side-spin, point...point..."  In this direction, the dancer's back is to the audience during the pointing.

Cupid's Gavotte (3 of 6)

Moving right along: two more step-sequences for Cupid's Gavotte!

Step #4: Forward Step and Turn (two bars of 4/4 time)
1         Step forward on right foot
&        Close left foot to right
2         Extend right foot forward, raised
3&4    Repeat all of the above with the same feet
1         Step right foot to side
2         Cross left foot over right making a complete pirouette to the right (clockwise)
3         Step right foot to side (completing pirouette)
4         Point left in front of right; raised fifth position

The first four beats are a sort of weird chassé step in which instead of stepping at the end, you simply cut the forward foot into the air and leave it so you can repeat on the same foot.  The pirouette is a bit difficult to accomplish in one beat of music, but keeping weight on the left foot and throwing the right foot out to the side for the following step helps carry one around.  The fifth position at the end was specified by Mr. Walters, though having it raised is my interpretation of his "Point L in front of R 5th Pos."

Cupid's Gavotte (2 of 6)

Continuing on with Cupid's Gavotte: once you have mastered the first step sequence, here are a couple more to work on!

Step #2: Forward Step Diagonally (two bars of 4/4 time)
1        Step right foot forward at slight diagonal
2        Hop on right foot and point left forward raised
3        Step left foot forward continuing on slight diagonal
4        Hop on left foot and point right forward raised
1        Step right foot forward continuing on slight diagonal
234    Hop on right foot three times, moving backward, retracing diagonal      

The step-sequence is performed alternately to the right and to the left; here's the reverse:

1        Step left foot forward at slight diagonal
2        Hop on left foot and point right forward raised
3        Step right foot forward continuing on slight diagonal
4        Hop on right foot and point left forward raised
1        Step left foot forward continuing on slight diagonal
234    Hop on left foot three times, moving backward, retracing diagonal

Happily, there are no problems with the transition; the opposite foot is always free at the end.  It hardly needs a mnemonic, but it would be "step-hop, step-hop, step-hop-hop-hop".

Cupid's Gavotte (1 of 6)

After a long hiatus, I return once more to the works of Massachusetts dancing master George F. Walters, creator of the Exeter Waltz and Exeter Caprice!  Cupid's Gavotte (1915) is something different, both for Mr. Walters and myself: rather than a social dance, it is intended as a performance piece for a group of four or eight girls, or as a solo.  Dance school recital pieces are not normally a major interest of mine, but since I happen to own the sheet music and social dancing continues to not be much of a thing due to the pandemic, well, here we are with something that can be danced entirely alone, though of course it's more impressive in a group. 

Over the course of this series of posts I'll cover the individual steps and then the full sequence with my reconstructions for solo or group performance.

The music of Cupid's Gavotte is notated in 4/4 and is essentially a schottische, but since the dance was created for a specific tune, I commissioned a basic piano recording to match my reconstruction from Alexandra Neronova, which may be purchased here.  (Edited 5/31/22 to add: payment for this recording goes to me; it does not benefit anyone in Russia.)

Foxtrot Styling, c1920

A nice little style detail for the foxtrot as danced in England in the years after World War I:

"A variation is also to be observed in the chassé done alternately to left and right, at an angle of 45 degrees to the line of the dance.  In the ordinary way of doing this, say, when the man is going forward, he slides the left foot forward to the left, and then brings the right foot up to the left, and again advances the left.  The new variation is to cross the right foot behind the left.  When the chassé is done to the right, it is of course the left foot which is crossed behind the right.  The lady (or the gentleman if he is going backwards), crosses her foot in front of the foot that is first moved."
        --- "The Sitter Out" (column) in The Dancing Times (London), January 1920, p.270.

By the "chassé", the writer means the two-step, as is clear from the description of the "ordinary way" of performing it.  The description is referenced again in March, 1920, issue (p. 439; the numbering is continuous across multiple issues).  In the "To-Day in the Ballroom" box shown at left (click to enlarge), under "Fox-Trot", there is a note that "The crossing of the feet (described in January) is popular and effective if the steps are kept small."

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:

Early Foxtrot: The Minuet Turn

Keeping with the foxtrot theme, here's one more little sequence for foxtrot or one-step from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916).  Despite its overt simplicity, it actually manages to present a minor reconstruction issue!  As for the name...well, to be perfectly honest, I see absolutely no connection here to the minuet, any more than I do with Newman's Minuet Tango.  There seems to have been some concept of "minuet" in the 1910s which I have completely failed to grasp.

The gentleman's steps are given; the lady dances opposite.  The dancers begin in normal ballroom hold, the gentleman facing forward along line of dance and the lady backward.

Early Foxtrot: The Pavlowa Extension

For no reason other than habit, June is always foxtrot month for me, and despite the general shutdown of dance classes, I'm lucky enough to have a convenient partner at hand for experimentation with new variations.  So let's look at yet another of the many step-sequences described in Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916)!

The Pavlowa Extension was, of course, named for the famous ballerina Anna Pavlowa (Pavlova), who toured America in the mid-1910s and dipped into social dance choreography with a music-composition contest resulting in a trio of dances published in The Ladies' Home Journal in early 1915.  She (or her ghostwriter) and (supposedly) members of her troupe also offered opinions and suggestions about dancing the one-step, Boston, and foxtrot.  This variation, however, is not among those even indirectly associated with Pavlova.  It probably was merely named in her honor, or perhaps was inspired by a characteristic movement in her dancing.

Lee described this as "an easy step, and very graceful, savoring a little of the stage."  She also connected it to the hesitation waltz which involved a similar slight lift while hesitating: "The hesitation, while it lasted, was full of such steps and they were much appreciated."  The half-and-half was another dance that used a similar technique to fill time.

The variation is done in a normal closed ballroom hold, facing line of dance.  The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances opposite except as noted.  

One-Step Variations: Picket Fence

Here's an easy little one-step variation taken from Albert Newman's Dances of to-day, (Philadelphia, 1914).  The Picket Fence is loosely related to the grapevine in that it sends the dancers sideways along the line of dance though with much more back-and-forth travel in the process.  Newman's diagram for it is shown at left; click to enlarge.

The Picket Fence is actually taken from a section on Turkey Trot, so Newman had it performed with trotting steps, but the plain walking step of the normal one-step works just as well.

Newman's description:

"...four trots directly to the left rear oblique, then the same number of steps forward left oblique; in this forward movement have the lady to the right side in Yale position.  This backward and forward movement is in V formation, or zigzag, which is repeated several times and which is to represent, in design, the top of a picket fence, hence its name."

Well, that's straightforward enough!  The dancers begin in standard closed hold, facing each other.  The gentleman backs diagonally toward the center of the room, beginning with his left foot.  The lady moves forward, starting on her right foot.  After four steps, they individually turn one-quarter counter-clockwise and take four steps toward the wall on the new diagonal, the lady backing, starting with her right foot, and the gentleman moving forward on his left.  This moves them slowly along the line of dance.  To repeat the variation, they individually turn one quarter clockwise and again move toward the center of the room.

The only element of note is that in the second half (toward the wall), the dancers are in Yale position, right side to right side, as shown and described here.  The shift of position does not require any particular effort; the relative positions of the dancers makes it happen automatically.  If the entire sequence is repeated, the dancers will shift back to facing quite naturally.

At the end of the Picket Fence, however many times it has been repeated (or not), the dancers are situated perfectly to go into a Pomander Walk, to quarter-turn clockwise and back the gentleman more-or-less along the line of dance, or (with a quarter-turn the other way) to transition into a basic one-step backing the lady in Yale position and eventually transitioning smoothly into a Yale grapevine.  If one were feeling radical, or needed to be more toward the center of the room, one might even stop at the halfway point and switch a basic one-step or other variation (there are many others) there instead.

Edited 12/8/22 to add:
The Picket Fence in waltz time was used in the Newman Hesitation Boston, described here, under the name "Stroll".  At one step per measure  is a lovely move in hesitation waltz as well as one-step or turkey trot.

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.

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.

Leap Year Cotillion Figure

For a change of pace, here's a leap year-themed cotillion (dance party game) figure from H. Layton Walker's  Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912).  I think the only "leap year" element in it is that the ladies pursue the gentlemen, rather than the reverse. 

Here's the original text:

LEAP YEAR FIGURE
For this figure you will require one more gentleman than you do ladies.  An extra man is required to put on a paper shroud.  This figure can be used for any number of couples, but it is always necessary to have an extra gentleman up.  Couples up and dance.  When they have danced a little while, form a circle, and grand right and left, the leader getting into the circle and when all dance the leader must secure one of the ladies.  This will leave one of the gents out.  He is "It," and goes to the centre to receive this paper suit.  The ladies all receive a large ring having a tissue covering over it.  Get another lady who is not in the figure, so that you will also have an odd lady up.  She also receives one of the hoops.  Now ask the ladies to catch a man.  As there are not enough men for all the ladies the one who does not succeed in getting a man will have to contend [sic] herself by dancing with the dummy.

It took me a moment to sort this out because of how badly written the instructions are.  The first three sentences can be ignored.  Here's how it works:

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?  

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.

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.

Maxina, 1917

On Thursday, July 26th, 1917, as part of its annual conference, the British Association of Teachers of Dancing held a competition for "round dances", which in this context means couple sequences.  The "first certificate" (winner) was "Maxina", by Madame Low Hurndall of London.  The choreography was published in The Dancing Times in September, 1917 (issue numbered New Series No. 84) as well as with the sheet music for the dance, composed by Marguerite Boissonade and W. F. Hurndall (husband of the choreographer).  The cover of my copy of the sheet music is shown at left; click to enlarge. 

The Maxina spread quickly, and not only within the British Empire; there is also a 1917 French translation of this "nouvelle danse qui fait fureur a Londres" online at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.  Sequence dances, however, were not considered quite as à la mode as regular couple dancing.  In 1919, Gregory D'Egville, in the first edition of How and What to Dance, reported haughtily that "Although not 'fashionable' in the ordinary sense of the word, the Maxina is danced a good deal at small dances outside London."  This did not stop him from publishing a version of the instructions with a slightly different ending. 

The Maxina continues to be danced as a living tradition dance and has acquired several significant variations over the years.  My reconstruction is based on the earliest sources for the dance: the description published in The Dancing Times and the instructions on the sheet music.

Early Foxtrot: Quick Dips

Ah, June, when one turns one's thoughts (and feet) to...weird little foxtrot variations! 

This time around, let's look at a pair of steps, or rather step-sequences, from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) that both involve quick dips.  These are actually ever-so-slightly harder to do than the usually run of walks, trots, glides, and two-steps that make up a great deal of the 1910s foxtrot repertoire.  Lee noted that the first of these, The Coney Island Dip, is "very exhilarating and excellent exercise for the lungs."

The gentleman's steps are given; the lady dances opposite.

CD Review: Kitten on the Keys

Kitten On the Keys is an album of "Ragtime, Novelty, and Stride Classics" from famed concert pianist Frederick Hodges, previously noted here as part of the Crown Syncopators, whose album Ragtime Dance Party I heartily recommend for both dancers and listeners.  Kitten on the Keys is more of a listening album, with enough musical flourishes that the dance beat on some pieces can be hard to track.  I wouldn't necessarily suggest using many of these pieces for newer dancers, but it's a treat for listeners and more experienced dancers should be able to manage fairly well.  

The brief liner notes explain Hodges' approach: 

The professional pianist, however, correctly understood that sheet music was to be used as a guide or a blueprint for constructing a full and satisfying piano solo...the professional pianist strove to create a unique and special arrangement that gave the piano roll and record buying public a good reason to buy yet another record of the rag hit of the day.  

Employing this historically correct approach, I have taken delight in creating my own arrangements of the rags on this CD.  Only in rare instances do my arrangements reflect the published sheet music, and then only when the published arrangement or sections thereof were so musically satisfying that little embellishment or expansion was required.  Nevertheless, my goal has been to perform these rags in an authentic manner, fully consistent with the performance styles of their composers and of the best professional pianists of the ragtime era.

More information about Hodges' substantial accomplishments may be found on his own website (warning: music autoplays!)

This is a piano-only recording, which is appropriate for the ragtime era.  Most of the music is best suited to one or more of the two-step/one-step/foxtrot family of dances, but the highlight of the album for me is a rare half-and-half track, "Drawing Room Echoes".  The liner notes are brief, but interesting.  

"La Contre Danse", cotillion figure (1900)

There are plenty of cotillions - in the sense of "nineteenth-century dance games", not "eighteenth-century French square dances" - that are some variation on "form a square or longways set and do a quadrille figure or country dance".  "La Contre Danse" is an interesting take on this theme from W. Gilbert Newell, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was published in St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler's compilation, Original Cotillion Figures (St. Louis, 1900).  It caught my eye because of the unusual formation: couple facing couple across a longways set, as in the American contra "The Tempest", the English "Polka Contre Danse", or quadrille figures done in columns rather than squares.  I can't be certain that this is the only cotillion figure using this formation -- hundreds of them were published from the early nineteenth into the early twentieth century, and I can't claim to have looked at them all -- but it's the only one I've found so far.

"La Contre Danse" is relatively complicated as figures done in sets go.  It opens and closes with two-step done in couples, and in between there is a brief march to set up the longways set before the actual contra/country/contre danse figures begin.  Here's how it works:

Halloween Cotillion Figures

I'd previously avoided posting any of the actual Halloween figures given in H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912), simply because each one is so short that any one didn't seem like enough material to make a decent blog post.  But in combination, these four figures actually touch on different elements that might be useful for anyone planning an early twentieth century Halloween-themed event.

Taking the four figures in the order in which they appear in Walker:

Rothard's One-Step

This one-step sequence appears in the second edition of F. Leslie Clendenen's 1914 compilation, Dance Mad.  It is titled simply "One Step" with the attribution "by E. Clarence Rothard".  Rothard is listed in the thank-you credits in the back of the second edition, but his location is not given and a cursory search has not turned up any specific information about him.  An "Edna Rothard Passapae" was teaching dance in Newark, New Jersey, by at least 1918 and might have been the daughter of E. Clarence, since it was not unusual for daughters to follow their parents as dance teachers.  But even if she was, that doesn't necessarily mean that E. Clarence Rothard was also based in New Jersey.

Rothard's one-step is quite a lengthy sequence.  There are eight separate sections of the dance, some of which are repeated.  The overall pattern of the dance segments is ABCCDEFGHDH, each letter representing four bars of 2/4 music (eight beats) for a 44-bar (88-beat) dance.

The specified tune is "Hungarian Rag" (left; click to enlarge), a popular 1913 composition by German-American composer Julius Lenzberg adapted from Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies.  The piece is still well-known; period recordings of it may be found here and here, and a modern version here.  The sheet music is available online at the Charles Templeton Sheet Music Collection of Mississippi State University.

The sheet music is notated as 16b (repeated), 16b (repeated), 20b, 16b, and 16b.  How exactly this is supposed match up with a 44b dance is an interesting question, but since the dance is broken into four-bar units, one can make it fit by adding another repeat of one of the 16b strains for a total of 132 bars, which allows for three times through the dance.

Exeter Waltz

Last year I wrote up Massachusetts dancing master George F. Walters' Exeter Caprice, one of two Walters dances that appeared in the second edition of F. Leslie Clendenen's 1914 compilation, Dance Mad.  The other was the Exeter Waltz, a hesitation waltz sequence which, at sixteen bars, is long enough to function as a standalone sequence dance or, if the surrounding dancers are accustomed to accommodating hesitations, used as a puzzle-piece for improvisation.  There is no choreographic connection between the Exeter Waltz and the Exeter Caprice.

There were some difficulties in reconstructing the Exeter Waltz (see the Reconstruction Notes below); the following version is what I came up with after some experimentation with different possibilities.

Starting position: normal ballroom hold, gentleman's back to line of dance and lady facing line of dance.  Gentleman starts left foot, lady right.  The instructions below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

The dance consists of sixteen measures of waltz music divided into two eight-bar sections.  Turns to the right are clockwise or natural; turns to the left are counter-clockwise or reverse.