Capering & Kickery

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.

Pittsburgh Star, 1912

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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. 

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.

South Indian "Harem Tango"

And here it is: the last of the tiny Dance Mad tangos!  

The South Indian "Harem" Tango, like the others in this series of posts, is an American tango which appeared in both the first and second editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions compiled by F. Leslie Clendenen and published in 1914).  It is a very short sequence, only six measures (twelve steps or beats), and rather silly.  Clendenen attributes it to W. T. Kaserman, a dancing master who does not appear on Clendenen's lists of contributors in either edition.  Perhaps he was embarrassed?

I should state outright that there is nothing even slightly South Indian or harem-like about this sequence; it's utterly ordinary.  The name is pure exoticism.

While I haven't looked into Kaserman in depth, I believe he was from the Cleveland area.  He seems to have taught with his wife, since both of them appear (circled in red) in the picture at left of the "New Officers of International Asociation [sic] of Masters of Dancing for Season of 1906-1907 Just Chosen in Fort Wayne." taken from the June 13, 1906, edition of the Fort Wayne [Indiana] Weekly Sentinel.  Also in the picture: Montréal dancing master Frank H. Norman, at top right, whose Rocker Hesitation and Rag-Time Crawl I have previously discussed.  Click to enlarge the photo.

Zebley's Tango

Moving right along with my tiny tango post series, here's another sequence from F. Leslie Clendenen's two editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914).  This one is simply called "Tango" and was provided by T. Victor Zebley, a Washington, D.C., dancing master.  It isn't really a "tiny" tango; it's a full thirty-two measures, which is enough for a full-fledged sequence dance.

Zebley's tango is very straightforward to reconstruct and, provided one remembers the full sequence, easy to dance, with three points where the dancers can make some minor choices of their own.  I give my preferences, but also describe the other options in the performance notes below.

"Mixed Pickles" Tango

Continuing with my lengthening series of tiny tango sequences from the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914), here's another short (sixteen-bar) tango sequence.  If not performed by all the dancers on the floor in unison, it must be done with care, since the dancers move directly against line of dance at two separate points.

For such a short sequence, there are quite a few niggling little problems with the instructions and reconstruction, which I'll talk about a bit below.

The starting position for the dance is a regular ballroom hold with both dancers turned to face forward along line of dance, moving more-or-less side by side to start.  The gentleman starts on the left foot, the lady on the right.  Steps below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.  

"Mixed Pickles" Tango (sixteen measures/thirty-two beats)
1234    Four walking steps along line of dance, LRLR
5678    Cross left foot over right and do four walking steps against line of dance (over elbows), LRLR

12        Facing partner, point left foot along line of dance
3          Close left foot to right, rising on toes
4          Sink onto heels
5678    Grapevine along line of dance, LRLR (see performance notes below)

1234    "Scissors": Cross left foot over right, step side right, cross left over right, and point right (movement and point are against line of dance)
5678    "Scissors": Cross right foot over left, step side left, cross right over left, and point left (movement and point are along line of dance)

1234    Draw steps: slide left along line of dance, close right to left, repeat
5678    Spin turn clockwise, rocking left back/twice

Court Cotillion

Among the myriad ways of matching up couples in a mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century cotillion (meaning the dance party game, not the eighteenth-century square dance), using a deck of cards was an obvious choice.  Here, for example, is "The Cards", from the lengthy list of figures provided by New York City dancing master Allen Dodworth in his 1885 manual, Dancing and its relations to education and social life (the link is to the 1900 edition):

No. 180.
The Cards.

The conductor presents the four queens from a pack of cards to four ladies, and the four kings to four gentlemen; each gentleman then searches for the lady who holds the queen corresponding to his king; after dancing, each lady presents her queen to another lady, and the gentlemen present the kings to other gentlemen.  The process is repeated until all have participated.

This is simple and obvious, and it doesn't require a blog post to explain how to make it work if one understands the general concept of cotillions.

An interesting variation on the cards theme appears in H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Buffalo, New York, 1912).  This figure is actually a version of the Ninepins, a quadrille with an extra gentleman (or sometimes a lady) in the center who tries to steal a partner from one of the surrounding couples during the dance figures.  The Walker figure is called "Court Cotillion" and turns Ninepins into an ongoing game in which each bereft gentlemen goes to select another lady and gentleman to start off the next quadrille-plus-one.  It is to be done to waltz music. 

"Tango No. 1"

Continuing on with the tiny traveling tango sequences from 1914, here's one that's a bit less tiny than the Two-Step Tango.  "Tango No. 1" is listed in both editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) with the note "As taught in our classes.", which presumably meant the classes of F. Leslie Clendenen's own academy.  That means that this is as much a class practice sequence as a social dance.  As I reconstruct it -- and see the reconstruction notes below -- it is a reasonable sixteen bars (thirty-two beats) in length, and suitably easy for a class, as it only involves four basic moves - walking, a spin turn, draw steps, and grapevine.

The starting position is a closed ballroom hold with the gentleman's back to line of dance and the lady facing line of dance.  The gentleman starts on the left foot, the lady on the right.  Steps are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

Tango No. 1 (16 bars/32 beats of tango music)
1234    Walk backward four steps
(half-turn counter-clockwise)
5678    Walk forward four steps 

1234    Fast clockwise spin turn, ending with gentleman facing wall
5678    Draw steps: side-close-side-close

1234    Grapevine: side-cross behind-side-cross in front (lady does opposite cross, not mirror!)
5678    Repeat grapevine

1234    Repeat draw steps
5678    Repeat clockwise fast spin turn, ending with gentleman's back to line of dance

The overall mnemonic: back, forward, spin, draw; grapevine, grapevine, draw, spin.  It would be nice if it were perfectly regular, with each half ending with either spin-draw or draw-spin.  But, alas, it is not, so the dancers must pay attention!

Two-Step Tango

The Two-Step Tango is an anonymous eight-bar sequence published in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914).  There are several of these tiny "tango" sequences that travel decorously around the room without much tango feel to them -- see the similar Butterfly Tango and Dixie Swirl.  These short progressive sequences all appeared in the first edition, along with the somewhat better-composed and more tango-like ones (including a "Tango Two-Step") from Albert Newman.  The impression I get from this is that the more authentic tango was still making its way across the country in early 1914, so the authors of these sequences were still interpreting it as "slow one-step to tango music".  The second edition of Dance Mad expanded the tango section enormously, retaining the short sequences but adding twenty-two pages of more authentic Argentinian and Parisian tango steps.

The Two-Step Tango is basically a promenade, performed with both partners facing line of dance, side by side, holding inside hands.  The gentleman begins on the left foot, the lady on the right.  The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances opposite.

Two-Step Tango (eight bars/sixteen beats of tango music)
1        Forward left
2        Forward right, turning slightly outward
3        Back left, making a slight dip (against line of dance, back to back with partner)
4        Side right (along line of dance, still back to back with partner)
5        Side left (along line of dance, swinging to face partner)
6        Back right, making a slight dip (against line of dance) 
7        Side left (along line of dance, facing partner again)
8        Forward right

1, 2    Forward left, slowly
3        Close right to left
4        Forward left
5, 6    Forward right, slowly
7        Close left to right
8        Forward right

Humming Bird Dance

"Humming Bird Dance" is a hesitation waltz sequence which appeared in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914).  It is attributed to "Mr. Menancon", who appears in the list of credits at the end of the second edition as "Elmond Menancon, 909 Elm Street, Manchester, N[ew] H[ampshire]".  I believe the first name ought to be "Edmond", since a dancing master of that name is listed in Manchester city directories from 1906 and 1918.  In the 1906 Manchester Directory, Edmond Menancon is listed separately as an artist, dancing master, and, interestingly, the sexton of a church.  Here's Menancon's advertisement from page 819 of the 1906 directory:

The sexton position seems a somewhat odd fit for an artist-photographer-dance teacher; the triple career doesn't seem to leave much time for a day job.  Perhaps it was his father?

In the 1918 residential directory, as transcribed here, he is listed as an "artist/teacher [of] dancing" having "rms" (presumably "rooms") at 318 Pearl. 

The Humming Bird Dance itself is a sixteen-bar sequence done in "one-step waltz" style, one step (sometimes with embellishments) per bar of waltz music.  The instructions in Dance Mad list it as for "Any waltz music."  Whichever piece is used, it will need to be at a fast hesitation waltz tempo, or the dance will drag.

To start, both dancers face line of dance, the gentleman behind and to the left of the lady.  The lady's right arm makes a semi-circle so that her right hand is over her head, palm up.  The gentleman takes the tips of her fingers with his own right hand.  Left hands are joined and extended in front.  This is referred to as "a la minuet", which would no doubt have startled  dancers of the original minuet in the eighteenth century.  Both dancers begin with the left foot.  

The basic step is onto the toes with a slight dip.  There is also a repeated three-beat sequence of stepping with a stronger dip (1), striking the free foot on the floor as it swings forward (2), and hopping while extending the free foot into fourth position forward (3).  The latter will be listed below as a "step-strike-hop" for brevity.

The Rocker Hesitation Waltz

Montréal dancing master Frank H. Norman was last seen on Kickery when I discussed his description of the Rag-Time Crawl, from his Complete Dance Instructor (Ottawa, 1914).  The Rocker Hesitation, or Rocker Hesitation Waltz, is another easy sequence dance attributed to Norman and taken from the pages of The Two Step, a journal of "Dancing, Acting and Music" that in 1919 was based in Buffalo, New York, and edited by Layton Walker, whose delightful cotillion (German) figures have featured on Kickery several times.  The associate editors were a Who's Who list of American dancing masters with a few international names, including many well-known to dance historians today from their surviving works: F. Leslie Clendenen, Albert W. Newman, Jacob Mahler, Charles d'Albert, George Washington Lopp, Oscar Duryea, and Norman himself.

The Rocker Hesitation was published in Volume XXIX, No. 6, of The Two Step, dated September 1919.  That year, the dancing masters were still struggling with the aftermath of the first World War and the musical and terpsichorean innovations of "jazzification" and the "shimmy" vs. the more respectable waltz, one-step, and foxtrot.  Among the interesting tidbits in the pages of The Two Step that year were that the waltz was coming back at the "slow" tempo of 48 bars (144 beats) per minute, which gives you some idea of how fast they were dancing it before the war! 

In a conveniently self-serving column in the October issue (in which the Rocker Hesitation Waltz instructions were reprinted) Norman stated, while discussing the rebound of dancing after the war, that

...as we are always craving for [sic] something new, England sends us a very pretty and easy new dance, one that will, no doubt, figure on all the programs this season.  It is called the Rocker Hesitation and is an offshoot or a rebound from a dance of somewhat similar name that proved too difficult for the average dancer to master with grace.

He doesn't go into details about the antecedent dance, but a plain "Rocker", attributed to Oscar Duryea, appears on other "latest dances" lists that year and might be the basis for the hesitation version.

It was noted in the November issue that Professor Norman demonstrated the Rocker Hesitation with a Mrs. S. Wyness for the visiting Prince of Wales at the Grand Army Dance on October 30, 1919 (one of two balls the Prince attended that evening) and that the Prince remarked that it was "a dainty and pretty dance."

Maxixe Variations: Flirtation Step

Here's another easy maxixe variation: the Flirtation Step, with the gentleman shadowing the lady and peeking at her alternately from one side to the other.

The Flirtation Step appears most usefully in two sources: G. Hepburn Wilson's How to Dance the Modern Dances (New York, 1914) and in one of a series of flip-books published in 1914 by tobacco company Liggett & Myers to promote its cigarette brands, including Fatima and Sultan.  There was an entire series of ten of these, with figures for the one-step, tango, hesitation waltz, and maxixe.  These flip-books were reprinted in the 1990s, and the reprints can still be found for sale now and then.  

Wilson depicts his dancers with the lady's hands raised, elbows bent, and the gentleman behind her, as shown in the illustration at left (click to enlarge).  He describes the step thus:

As the lady and the gentleman two-step to the left, the gentleman is looking over the lady's left shoulder, and then in continuing the two-step movement to the right, the gentleman looks over the lady's right shoulder.  This step is termed the FLIRTATION STEP.

Maxixe Variations: a dip here, a heel tap there

Here's a quick pair of variations (well, a variation and an ornament) for the maxixe, both pulled from the maxixe descriptions in Albert Newman's Dances of to-day, published in Philadelphia in 1914. 

I don't use Newman as a maxixe source all that often because he really only offers a pair of possible sequences, his own and one from another instructor in his studio.  And he likes his body sway the opposite of the way I do it (toward the leading foot rather than away), so even if I were inclined to do his sequences, I'd be fighting muscle memory to do them in his style.   But even a minor source like Newman provides a few useful flourishes here and there.

------------------------------------------------

First, an interesting dip or, more accurately, a lunge.  It adds a little spice to the maxixe without any need for turning or changes of arm position.  It is easy to perform, but I would not consider it leadable unless the lady already knows the move.

Scotch, Hungarian, whatever (cotillion figure)

H. Layton Walker's Grand Scotch Chain, published in Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912), is only moderately interesting as a figure, but tracing its progress from a figure that was neither "grand" nor "Scotch" when it started out is an interesting illustration of how cotillion figures were transmitted across time and international borders in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The figure itself is quite simple:

• Two couples separate and select new partners
• They form a four-couple quadrille set
• Head gentlemen turn by right elbows once and a half round, then give left elbows to opposite ladies and turn to place with her
• Side gentlemen repeat
• Head ladies repeat
• Side ladies repeat
• All take partners and waltz

Not mentioned is that the two couples probably danced at the beginning before separating.  As is usual with cotillion figures, the music might be waltz or, for the early 1910s, two-step.  The timing of the figure is not given, but I would suggest allowing a generous eight bars for each of the four figures rather than trying to squeeze a turn and a half plus at least a half-turn into four.  It's easier to stretch the figures out than rush them that much.  This makes it a thirty-two bar figure, not counting the setup and the final waltz (or whatever).

Double Quadrille (cotillion figure)

Double Quadrille is a cotillion (dance party game) figure from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912), though the "game" element is extremely limited.  The original setup is not even a standard cotillion opening with couples dancing and then separating to find new partners; instead, each couple seeks another couple.

The language and timing of the figure are ambiguous, and I've found no other source to clarify things.  So I've had to make some guesses and minor tweaks in order to create something that actually works.

Here's the original language from Walker:

DOUBLE QUADRILLE.
Four couples perform a tour de valse. Each couple selects another couple and they form a double quadrille; the head couples right and left; half sides the same. Ladies chain; all the ladies forward four steps, turn and face partners; gentlemen take the right hand of partners and left hand of lady on their left; all balance; the ladies facing outward, gentlemen inward; turn partners to places. The figure is danced over to regain places. Signal for all to waltz to places.

Half & Half: Seven Steps

"Seven steps" is actually something of a misnomer for this variation, which actually involves eight steps taken over two measures of half and half (5/4) time.  Its original source, Frank H. Norman's Complete Dance Instructor (Ottawa, 1914) lists it only as step "No. 2" (out of two) for the half and half.  The Half and Half section of Norman's book is credited to George E Rutherford.

The basic principle of the step is to take a single slow hesitating step, lasting three counts as usual (1-2-3), and then take seven quick steps on the last two beats of the first measure and all five beats of the second (4-5-1-2-3-4-5).  Like the five-step variation, this is a very "busy" step that is best done to a very gentle tempo of half and half music.  

Rutherford's description has the gentleman starting on the right foot and going forward along line of dance while the lady goes backward.  He describes the seven quick steps as "Beginning l. take seven short running steps forward, forcing the Lady backward count 4-5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5."  That's clear enough, but not much fun to do repeatedly, even if one reverses the genders and has the man run backward.  But Rutherford gives three possible variations, one of which I want to cover here:

"The running steps may be taken -- four forward -- and three back..."

Half & Half: Pivot Turns

"If you wish to spin you must do so on the slow step, continuing forward on the last two counts."        -- from Modern Dancing by Vernon & Irene Castle, 1914

One of the basic half and half steps which I did not cover in my long-ago post on basic traveling steps for the dance was the pivot turn, as distinct from turning waltz in half and half time.  There aren't all that many sources for half and half, so it's mildly (very mildly) significant that this step is mentioned three different times.  There's the Castles' succinct description quoted above.  There's a mention of it in a list of steps, or possibly a choreography, where it is given without any detail as "No. 3. pivot turn, right and left, 8 measures."  (from "Half and Half" by J. E. Miles, in Dance Mad or the Dances of the Day, 2nd edition, F. Leslie Clendenen (editor), 1914.)  And there's a full description as part of a mini-sequence which doesn't actually work.  Here's the relevant part:

THE PIVOT TURN is made by stepping L. to side.  C. 1.
Pivot 1/2 on ball of L.  C. 2. 3.  Walk forward. 4. 5.  

(from "Half and Half" as taught by Castle Assistants, in Dance Mad or the Dances of the Day, 2nd edition, F. Leslie Clendenen (editor), 1914.)

Green Mountain Volunteers

Green Mountain Volunteers is currently fourth on my list of go-to contra dances for the 1910s, after the Circle; Hull's Victory; and Lady of the Lake.  It really ought to be sixth, after Boston Fancy and Portland Fancy as well, but the former is too much like Lady of the Lake, and the latter I'm still thinking about. 

Unlike the five dances listed above, which appear on a pair of Maine dance cards from 1918-1919, I do not have dance card evidence for this one.  The only pre-1937 source for it, in fact, is Elizabeth Burchenal's American Country-Dances, Volume I (New York & Boston, 1918), in which she lists it among the dances "half-forgotten or less used" by the late 1910s:

Some of the most widely used of the contra-dances to-day in New England are The Circle, Lady of the Lake, Boston Fancy, Portland Fancy, Hull's Victory, Soldier's Joy, and Old Zip Coon (or, the Morning Star); while among the half-forgotten or less used ones are Chorus Jig, Green Mountain Volunteers, and Fisher's Hornpipe.

This is a category distinct from dances which are "obsolete" and which she reconstructed herself from old books.  I don't consider those latter ones to be sufficiently documented for my taste.

But, frankly, I include Green Mountain Volunteers in my repertoire for 1910s primarily because it's a neat dance by virtue of its unusual figures.  Contra dances, then and now, can get somewhat monotonous, so I appreciate the ones that stand out.

Green Mountain Volunteers is unusual among 1910s contra dances in having no obvious nineteenth-century pedigree.  The only potential connection, suggested by Ricky Holden in The Contra Dance Book (1956), lies in its loose resemblance to figures listed under "Beaux of Oak Hill" in some mid-nineteenth century manuals.  I'm not entirely convinced by the association, however, and the differences are substantial enough that "Beaux" warrants a separate post. 

Double Grand Chain (a march or cotillion figure)

I first came across Double Grand Chain when flipping through Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) for interesting cotillion (dance party game) figures.  Like Winthrope, Double Grand Chain is not terribly game-like beyond the basic cotillion setup of dancing with one person and then finding a new partner, but it would make an interesting addition to a grand march for a group of reasonably skilled dancers. 

Double Grand Chain was not original to Walker; it also appeared in all the editions of Allen Dodworth's Dancing and its relations to education and social life running from 1885 to 1913 (the link is to the 1900 edition), which puts it firmly in the "late Victorian" category.  Since it did reappear in 1912 separately from the Dodworth reprints, I'd still consider it legitimate for a ragtime-era event, and it is sufficiently innocuous in style that I wouldn't be bothered by its use at a mid-nineteenth-century event either.

Here's the version I found in Walker:

DOUBLE GRAND CHAIN.
Six couples dance and select other partners and the twenty-four form six lines of two couples each; one line behind another.  The lines march forward and when the first reaches the end of the room the right hand couple turns to the right and the left hand couple to the left, and the following lines divide in the same way.  The two columns march down the sides of the room to the other end, and when they meet each file in one column performs a grand chain with the opposite file in the other column.  When one column has thus passed entirely through the other, partners join for a general waltz.

I first came across Double Grand Chain when flipping through Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) for interesting cotillion (dance party game) figures.  Like Winthrope, Double Grand Chain is not terribly game-like beyond the basic cotillion setup of dancing with one person and then finding a new partner, but it would make an interesting addition to a grand march for a group of reasonably skilled dancers. 

Double Grand Chain was not original to Walker; it also appeared in all the editions of Allen Dodworth's Dancing and its relations to education and social life running from 1885 to 1913 (the link is to the 1900 edition), which puts it firmly in the "late Victorian" category.  Since it did reappear in 1912 separately from the Dodworth reprints, I'd still consider it legitimate for a ragtime-era event, and it is sufficiently innocuous in style that I wouldn't be bothered by its use at a mid-nineteenth-century event either.

Here's the version I found in Walker:

DOUBLE GRAND CHAIN.
Six couples dance and select other partners and the twenty-four form six lines of two couples each; one line behind another.  The lines march forward and when the first reaches the end of the room the right hand couple turns to the right and the left hand couple to the left, and the following lines divide in the same way.  The two columns march down the sides of the room to the other end, and when they meet each file in one column performs a grand chain with the opposite file in the other column.  When one column has thus passed entirely through the other, partners join for a general waltz.