Capering & Kickery

The Mid-Twentieth-Century Virginia Reel

"The chief trouble, as I said, with the Virginia Reel is the monotonous repetition and waiting for your turn on the corners. This can be obviated by a new form of the dance which is gradually growing in favor. In this form, instead of having corners bow, turn, etc., each gentleman, and all at once, crosses directly over and does all the moves with his own partner. Done carelessly, this leads to wild confusion (but fun). However, if the line of men all advance as a straight line, the ladies the same, and all return to places in straight lines it can be very effective. And everyone is active all the time up to the point when the head couple reels the set."
        -- Lloyd Shaw, in Cowboy Dances: A Collection of Western Square Dances (1939)

It's unclear among whom, exactly, this version was "gradually growing in favor", since one page earlier Shaw had also noted that he had "never seen it with the country folk.  It has strangely survived in schools and in society groups..."  Shaw's mention is the earliest reference I have to this "all-active" (for the opening figures, anyway) version of the Virginia Reel.  The earliest descriptions I have are from somewhat later, though I wouldn't want to make any promises about these being the earliest; my collection of mid-twentieth century dance books is fairly thin.  But by the 1950s, this style of dancing the Virginia Reel seems to have become well-established. 

How's that Rye Waltz revival working out?

I was fishing around in back issues of the Chicago Tribune (temporarily available online for free in beta test mode) and came across an amusing little report on the twenty-fourth annual normal school of the Chicago Association of Dancing Masters.  On Tuesday, August 10, 1937, the Tribune (then known as the Chicago Daily Tribune) duly noted that in between the lessons, the dancing masters were speculating about the future of ballroom dance:

"While some instructors at the dancing school predicted the return of old-fashioned dances, the demise of the fox trot and the rhumba and even the reappearance of the gavotte and minuet on the dance floor, others disagreed."

Yeah, I'd have disagreed too, even without the benefit of hindsight. 

Unsurprisingly, the teachers were all promoting their own particular favorites; in particular, Clement O. Browne, of Akron, Ohio, "described the grace and beauty of the Rye waltz, an old fashioned dance which originated in the nineties."

Image © 1937 Tribune Publishing Company

Now, the nineteenth-century Rye Waltz, which I described several years ago, certainly had a healthy life into the twentieth century (possibly all the way to the present day) in folk dance circles and as part of deliberate revivals of old-fashioned dance forms.  There was even a hesitation waltz version created in the 1910s, which doesn't seem to have caught on.  But I have a hard time imagining it as part of the modern ballroom dance repertoire.  Happily, the paper provided a delightful photomontage, shown at left (click to enlarge) of Mr. Browne performing the first few steps with Betty Harris of Danville, Illinois.  I'm sorry about the poor quality; I suspect it's a scan of a microfilm of newsprint. 

In classic sequence dance style, the first part travels along the line of dance with a point-close, point-close, "chassee" (slide-close-slide) sequence, followed by repeating all of that against the line of dance, then by a second part consisting entirely of waltzing.  The "chassee" depicted above is, not shall we say, typical style of the 1890s.  It looks more like a lunge; one has to wonder if the reporter or editor mislabeled a photo-friendly dramatic pose as an actual part of the dance. 

I'm fairly certain the Tribune also got the photo caption slightly wrong by stating that the Rye Waltz as a whole "used to be known as the old fashioned waltz".  I'm pretty sure that the dance teacher meant the "chassee" only.  The actual report describes that step properly as a "slide, cut, slide, or just the one, two, three", and goes on to note that it actually is:

"...just the same old waltz step, which every good dancer knows without knowing how he does it, one teacher said.  Or, it was explained, it is the polka step without the hop, or the skip step without much of the skip."

Now that is interesting. 

The "same old waltz step" being described here is actually the valse à deux temps, the two-movement or two-step waltz, which spread across ballrooms in the mid-nineteenth century and, with a slight change of accent and time signature, became wildly popular in the 1890s as the two-step.  That's an interesting choice for the "old waltz step"; my first two guesses would have been the earlier valse à trois temps or the leaping "new waltz" of the later nineteenth century which, tamed significantly, was the close ancestor of today's ballroom waltzes.

It's impossible at this distance in time to tell whether the deux-temps form of waltzing was the dominant style in Chicago (or Akron, or the midwest in general) in the late nineteenth century or whether it was just the one that lingered a little longer and survived into living memory.  Or perhaps the teacher was simply not well-informed about the dances of a previous generation.  (Think quickly: what social dances were popular in 1972?)  At the least, it's a little something to keep in mind when looking at midwestern dance manuals and dance cards from the 1890s onward.

Doin' the Lambeth Walk, 1938

The Lambeth Walk was the first of the "romping" sequence dances that became popular in England between the first and second World Wars.  Referring to a particular street in the Lambeth section of London, the song and dance number originated in the successful 1937 musical Me and My Girl.  When Noel Gay's music was published with dance instructions included, a fad was born which remains a living tradition today.  The dance turns up in all sorts of odd places, and the song is still traditional in the Pearly community of charitable organizations.  A quick search on the term "Lambeth walk" will turn up plenty of metaphorical usages along with references to the street, which still exists, though mostly rebuilt after being bombed in during World War II.

The musical itself has been revived several times, though the Broadway choreography of the Lambeth Walk scene in the 1980s revival was only loosely inspired by the original dance.  Follow that link for the wonderful performance by Robert Lindsay and Maryann Plunkett, and to get a a feel for the tune.

1930s Waltz Variations: The Pivot Spin

This move comes from an undated source, a short pamphlet called The Dancing Master, by K.E. Graham, "as approved and recommended by the leading teacher of ballroom dancing Santos Casani," published in London.  Casani was active at least from the late 1920s onward, but the long, bias-cut style of the evening dress on the cover suggests to me that this source is from the 1930s.

Only four waltz variations are included in the pamphlet, and three of them are the standard natural turn, revese turn, and "change step," meaning a waltz forward along line of dance, all in the "new waltz" pattern of the late nineteenth-century, step-side-close, which is by the 1930s established in England as the standard ballroom style. 

The only unusual move included is the pivot spin, in which the dancers first pivot quickly clockwise then suddenly reverse direction and end facing in the opposite direction from which they started.  Specifically, on count one the gentleman steps straight back left along the line of dance, followed by pivoting clockwise to step right forward along line of dance then left backward.  He then steps backward on the righ foot towards the center of the room, turning a quarter counter-clockwise, then turns another quarter to step left along line of dance, followed by closing the right foot with weight.  The gentleman is then ready to step forward with the left foot.  The whole sequence could be regarded as a particularly elaborate method of changing the direction the dancers are facing.

1930s Waltz Variations: The Waltz Balance Step

Moving right along with my series of short descriptions of 1930s waltz variations, here's an easy one that appeared in the first (1930) edition of Lillian Ray's Modern Ballroom Dancing, reappearing in the next five editions (through 1935) and then vanishing from the revamped seventh edition (1936).  Other posts in this series may be found in the 1930s category archive.  See the first 1930s waltz post for a brief description of the basic waltz of this era.

The Waltz Balance Step is essentially a series of four quarter-turns counter-clockwise which bring a couple around 360 degrees over four bars.  This leaves the dancers making a little four-bar eddy in their travel, actually stepping against line of dance on the second bar, so it should be done carefully on the actual dance floor -- either moving a bit towards the center and out of the "fast lane" before performing it or at least checking carefully for traffic immediately behind.

Rather than performing a box step (step-side-close) sequence on each bar and quarter-turn, however, the Waltz Balance Step is a series of "step-point..." sequences, making the turn on the first beat and then pointing the free foot, without weight, in the direction stepped on the second and third beats.

1930s Waltz Variations: The Promenade Waltz

Continuing my series of short descriptions of 1930s waltz variations, here is the fourth and final variation from the 1936 edition of Lillian Ray's Modern Ballroom Dancing, which harks back to the Military Waltz of the last decades of the nineteenth century (described here), though the partners never open up fully in the manner of fifty years earlier.  Other posts in this series may be found in the 1930s category archive.  See the first 1930s waltz post for a brief description of the basic waltz of this era.

The Promenade Waltz (steps shown in the diagram at left; click to enlarge) is begun and ended with the partners facing each other across the line of dance, the man's left and woman's right shoulder facing line of dance.  This position may easily be achieved by underturning the half of a natural turn: the man steps right forward, makes the quarter turn, and does the side-close along the line of dance rather than continuing to turn.  It also follows nicely from the About Face Waltz if the dancers do only a quarter-turn rather than a half turn at the end of the sequence.

1930s Waltz Variations: About Face Waltz

This is the third in an occasional series of short descriptions of waltz variations taken from 1930s sources, specifically, in this case, the 1936 edition of Lillian Ray's Modern Ballroom Dancing.  See the first post in this series for a quick note about the basic waltz of this era as well as descriptions of two variations.  The second post, describing a hesitation, is here.

Moving right along, today's step is known as the About Face Waltz and is a twelve-count (four-bar) sequence that travels strongly along the line of dance in alternating shoulder-to-shoulder positions.  The diagram at left (click to enlarge) shows both the man's and woman's steps.  Ray offers an aesthetic evaluation of the move:

While it borders on the exhibition it is not too difficult or conspicuous for the most conservative person to do.

The About Face Waltz breaks down into four parts: walking steps performed right shoulder to right shoulder, an about-face, walking steps performed left shoulder to left shoulder, and another about-face.  The about-face transitions are essentially the usual "step-side-close" pattern performed side-by-side, though that is somewhat disguised by the way the turning motion is distributed.

The Palais Glide

Between the two World Wars a fad for easy and often silly "romping" sequence dances swept Britain.  The Lambeth Walk is the best known of these, but many others survive.  Among them is the Palais Glide, which can be done by a couple or by an entire line of dancers side-by-side in a line, arms around each others' waists.  It is a living tradition in the British isles, having been danced continuously since the 1930s, and survives today as a ceilidh and party dance as well as being performed by World War II reenactors.

Most secondary sources consider the Lambeth Walk (1937) the first of the romping sequence dances and date the Palais Glide to 1938, but one of my sheet music sources for it is actually dated 1935.  This might be a misprint, or it might be that it took a few years to catch on or that it was not popularly accepted until after the Lambeth Walk.

The dance requires eight bars of 4/4 music and consists of a thrice-repeated short grapevine sequences in a slow-quick-quick-slow rhythm followed by a series of forward steps.  In 2001, Syd Bruce recalled dancing it during World War II:

I can remember as a teenager during the war, going to socials and dances in the school, attended by soldiers and land girls billeted in the village and sometimes sailors from Point Clear, which were very popular.  Seeing the Palais Glide, Waltz etc and even the Highland Fling performed in army boots was something to behold!

1930s Waltz Variations: The Dip Waltz

This is the second in a series of short descriptions of waltz variations taken from 1930s sources, specifically, in this case, the 1936 edition of Lillian Ray's Modern Ballroom Dancing.  See the previous post in this series for a quick note about the basic waltz of this era as well as descriptions of the Waltz Walking steps and Step Arch Waltz from the same source.

This time I will discuss an easy hesitation called the Dip Waltz, Ray's step diagram for which is shown at left (click to enlarge). The man's footwork is depicted; the woman dances opposite.  It's a six-count (two-bar) sequence that can be summarized as "step-step-cross, back-side-close," with the second bar effectively being a backward box step.  The first bar consists of two walking steps forward (left, right; the woman dances backwards right, left) and then a cross of the left foot in front of the right, described in detail as:

Cross the left foot over and in front of the right foot with a pronounced dip or bend of the right knee, at the same time lift the right foot to the left of the left foot slightly and sharply off the floor.

After the crossing step, the fourth step is simply replacing the right foot (woman's left) where it was before and then continuing with a side-close as in a normal backward box step.

Two Easy 1930s Waltz Variations

I've been looking through quite a few 1920s and 1930s sources lately.  This is the era when modern ballroom dances were starting to take their current forms but the syllabus had not yet been standardized, so the waltz was relatively simple with fewer variations which differed from one teacher or manual to another.

The basic waltz of this era was the direct descendant of the "new waltz" of the later nineteenth century, with "step-side-close" as its basic structure.  This could be danced progressing along the line of dance (the leader always stepping forward on one), done as a "box step" in place by alternating forward and backward steps on the first beat of each bar, or used for quarter-turns (four bars to make a full turn) and half-turns (two bars to make a full turn) in the natural or reverse directions.  All of these use that same basic step sequence with only minor variations of angle and direction.

The 1936 edition of Lillian Ray's Modern Ballroom Dancing is the sixth edition of a work originally published in 1930 in Chicago.  A publisher's note states that this edition has been revised to add new steps and the latest exhibition dances and to make instructions and diagrams clearer.  Apparently this revision was substantial enough to require a title page credit: "Revised by Billie and Earl of Billie's Dancing School."

Along with the basic progressive, in-place, and turning movements using the basic step, this edition includes five easy variations that break the step-side-close pattern but are very accessible to the beginning waltzer.  I'll look at the two simplest of them in this post and the other three in future posts.