Basic Walking & Trotting Patterns in the 1910s Foxtrot

"What particular resemblance does the gait of a fox have to this dance?"
      -- spectator watching trotters, as quoted in Maurice's Art of Dancing, 1915

It's a reasonable question.  The foxtrot evolved so rapidly after its debut in 1913-1914 that it can be difficult to sort out the earliest versions of the dance and derive an accurate picture of the foxtrot as danced in the 1910s.

Directions for dancing the foxtrot first began appearing in print in 1914.  While it did not appear in Vernon and Irene Castle's 1914 work, Modern Dancing, the Castles did include it that year in the booklet Victor Records for Dancing.  Two brief descriptions were also published in F. L. Clenenden's compendium, Dance Mad, also published in 1914, in St. Louis.  In 1915, Maurice Mouvet published his description of the foxtrot in Maurice's Art of Dancing, followed in 1919 by Charles Coll in Dancing Made Easy (link is to the 1922 reprint).

In addition to these written sources, a brief silent film clip dated 1916 shows dance instructors Clay Bassett and Catherine Elliott demonstrating "The Much Talked About 'Fox Trot'."

In its earliest form, the foxtrot was primarily a series of simple alternations between various quantities of walks ("slow") and trots ("quick-quick").  "Quicks" are twice as fast as "slows".  In the following descriptions, the steps will be abbreviated as "S" and "Q".

1.  SS-SS.  Four or eight slow walking steps.  Bassett & Elliott begin with four walking steps and return to them later as well.  Coll starts off two of his three sequences with four slow walks.  Mouvet starts off with no fewer than eight walking steps and uses sequences of eight or four elsewhere.  He is also unique in this group in having the man start on his right foot; all the others use the left.  The Castles use only two walking steps at the beginning of their description.  All descriptions have the man walking forward and the woman backwards.

2. QQQQ-QQQQ.  Eight trots.  Maurice describes this as "the  real fox trot step" and is strict in his style notes:

"Do not lift your feet from the floor or kick violently backward.  Just run smoothly on your toes as quickly as the music takes you and as evenly as you can.  Some very ugly dancing has resulted from this fox trot step solely because it as done by persons who fancied themselves free to indulge in any light-hearted antics which suited the quickened beat of the music."

This is, presumably, the most fox-like of the patterns, though whether it is more like the gait of an actual wild fox or vaudeville performer Harry Fox (debatably the originator or namesake of the dance) is open to question.

3. SS-QQQQ.  Dance Mad describes "Fox Trot No. 2 (As danced by Mr. Fox)" as primarily repetitions of two slow walking steps followed by four quick trots (SS-QQQQ).  It is also seen in the Bassett/Elliott filmstrip, which has three consecutive repetitions of the SS-QQQQ pattern.  Dance Mad has the man moving backward and the woman forward; Bassett & Elliott show the opposite. 

4. SS-SS-QQQQ-QQQQ. The other description in Dance Mad ("Fox Trot") gives a longer pattern of four slow steps followed by eight trots.  In this description, the man starts out going forward, but there is a half-turn after the first full sequence, so that the man goes backward and the lady forward the second time.

These early patterns have the virtue of utter simplicity - the only real "figure" is the half turn in the longest of the patterns.  Each sequence is always started on the same foot (usually the man's left, woman's right).  For getting around the floor for a first foxtrot or for learning simply to lead and follow straight steps in different rhythms, these patterns are easy to learn and perform successfully and can be varied enough to get through a piece of music.  Changing patterns is a must, as each pattern is short and the dance will feel overly repetitive, especially if no turn is made and one or the other dancer (usually the woman) is stuck endlessly trotting backwards.

One easy variation, found in both of the descriptions in Dance Mad, is a simple glide, or series of chassé steps counted as eight "quicks".  The man turns his left side toward the line of dance and the dancers execute a series of four sideways "step-closes" (QQ) along the line of dance.  Dance Mad works this into both sequences:

1. SS-SS-QQQQ-QQQQ twice, followed by four glides (step-closes) QQQQ-QQQQ

2. SS-QQQQ, followed by four glides QQQQ-QQQQ.

In each case there is no full turn described; at the end of the gliding sequence, the partners reorient along the line of dance and continue merrily walking and trotting along.  Mouvet suggests a series of four slides (his term) to the right and four to the left (remember that his pattern starts on the man's right foot), but gives no indication of whether there is an actual turn or merely a change of angle; in either case the final close of the four slides to the right must be a touch only in order to keep the foot free to start the slides to the left and the final close likewise a touch in order for the man to restart on the right foot again.  If done turning, this would be very like the basic galop of the Victorian era, though the lead with the man's right foot would lead, oddly, to a reverse (counter-clockwise) rather than a natural (clockwise) turn.

Leading slow and quick steps
Leading a trot from a walk (slow into quick): if the gentleman is moving forward, he needs only to lean slightly into the lady as he begins to trot.  If she is holding her arms in an appropriately firm frame, the increased pressure on her hand will cue her to move quickly backwards. If the gentleman is backing up,it is even easier, as he need merely pull his partner (gently) along with him.

Leading a walk from a trot (quick into slow): the gentleman need merely keep his frame firm.  If moving forwards, the lady will feel an increase in pressure on her back; if backwards, on her hand.  In either case, she will slow her pace to match.

A note on modern "vintage dance" practice
The SS-QQQQ rhythm has become very common among today's dancers who enjoy dancing in the style of the 1910s.  I have found no evidence, however, that it was used in other dance figures (grapevines etc.) or for anything other than moving in a straight line.  Rather than varying the figure and keeping the same rhythm pattern, it seems more accurate to vary the rhythm pattern and keep the figures to very simple walks, trots, glides, and half-turns.  If this feels limiting, fear not!  The real evolution of the foxtrot began very quickly, with the introduction of rhythm changes as early as 1914 and the beginning of the transformation into the foxtrot done by today's ballroom dancers.  A second post will address the rapid changes in rhythm and figures that within ten years would take the dance completely away from its trotting roots.

Comments

[Marilee J. Layman]

It definitely doesn't sound like a fox trots.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Marilee:
The logistics of managing four legs attached to two bodies are very different from the logistics of managing four legs attached to one body. In the equine sense, the trot involves moving diagonally opposite legs at the same time. I think that would apply to other four-legged animals like foxes as well. But with two dancers, you want to move the two legs on one side at the same time, as otherwise, lacking the inherent sense of where one's legs are which is presumably innate in the naturally four-legged, you would kick or step on your partner. In a horse, this would be the "pace" gait used in harness racing. Camels pace naturally. I don't know about foxes.

[Bridget]

I have come across sheet music with the words fox-trot as early as 1905, including In My Merry Oldsmobile 1906, usually a waltz, with a variation printed in the music for a fox-trot. This leads me to think fox-trot was around long before 1914, but no one ever acknowledges this. What do you think??

[Susan de Guardiola]

Hi Bridget,
My best guess is that there were quite a number of "animal dances" (turkey trot, grizzly bear, etc.) in the pre-WWI era, and that there might well have been a "fox-trot" among them that predated the dance that became popular in 1914. It's also possible that the 1914 version of the dance or its immediate ancestor was indeed around earlier and simply never appears on the radar before 1914 because it wasn't that popular until then. Unless you can find some sheet music with dance instructions or some other documentation turns up, this is going to remain one of those little mysteries!

[Bridget]

I actually have learned from a musician/historian friend, that sheet music was often reprinted at a later date with the initial publishing date on it, so may not be an accurate way to date dances after all! Confounding!

[Forrest Outman]

Bridget you are correct, the music wasn't simply reprinted it was re-copywritten with new arrangements of old tunes into the newer dance time signatures. This was, if you will, the idea of the dance remix done all the way back in the Ragtime era. So a song that was previously a popular Two-Step or Turkey Trot in 2/4 time would be arranged in 4/4 time and reprinted now as a Fox Trot. If they released the work without first having secured the new copyright then it would have the original arrangements copyright date, sometimes up to a decade prior.
I've checked every known sheet with such dating and found this to be true, they are all republished reworked pieces. The earliest true Fox Trot music dates to July of 1914 "Carolina Fox Trot".