Three Chairs: A Genre of Civil War Era Dance Games

• Era: America, 1840s into early 20th century

My friend Patricia asks in email:

Do you know of any documentation for a dance that is known to many as the "hat", "flower", "broom", "paddle", or "fan" dance?

It is described as having two lines of people (usually men in one line and ladies in the other). At the top of the set, one person holds one of the above items and two people of the opposite sex come and stand on either side of the person. He/she looks back & forth between them, hands the item to one of them and sashays or dances down the between the lines with the other person. Sometimes it's done with three chairs, sometimes with no chairs.

I know several dances with most of those names (all but paddle), none of them what Patricia had in mind.  The dance she's describing is a variation on several of the mid-19th century cotillion figures also known as "Germans".  These were not cotillions in the 18th-century sense of a chorus/verse-structured dance for couples in a square.  Instead they were party games with dancing, some of which were quite silly and seem to us today more like children's games than pastimes for a formal ballroom.  By the end of the 19th century, the role of these games had evolved from an amusing way to end a ball into the entire point of the evening, and hostesses vied to run the best "Favor-Germans", with elaborate trinkets as game props and party favors for their guests.

American dancing master Allen Dodworth, writing in 1885, explained the nomenclature of these dance games as follows:

This dance was introduced in New York about the year 1844. At that time the quadrille was the fashionable dance, but was known as the cotillion. To make a distinction between that and this dance, which was known in Europe by the same name, this was called the "German Cotillion;" gradually the word cotillion was dropped, the dance becoming simply "The German."

The German connection is not fantasy: the earliest definitive source I have for the this sort of dance game is an 1820 manual published in Berlin and does include a version of what I call the "three chairs" genre of figures as part of a larger list of figures under the heading "Cotillion" or "Codillon".

Given Dodworth's dating of their introduction, these games are appropriate for Americans reenacting the mid-19th century (Civil War era) and later 19th century.  While many of the games used in Germans were probably in existence earlier (musical chairs, blind man's buff, etc.), there is no evidence of their incorporation into ballrooms of earlier eras outside of Germany.  Their history there, to the best of my knowledge, awaits further research.

The hat - or other object - dance as described above is clearly folk-processed.  19th-century dancers would not have lined up like that for a German; they would have waited patiently in their chairs for the dance leader to direct them a few at a time.   Sashaying down the room would not have been used; couples would have taken the opportunity to really waltz or polka.  Dance manuals from the 1840s onward often contained lists of cotillion figures, sometimes hundreds of them, often identical from manual to manual.  I don't pretend to have done a comprehensive survey, but there are clear roots for the hat dance in at least four different Germans, all of which use three chairs as a setup, as shown at right in an illustration from Coulon.  Note that the outer chairs face in the opposite direction from the middle one.  This is also specified in some of the descriptions below.

All the dancers would be seated in a large circle.  The dance leader, or conductor, selects the figures and directs the dancers, choosing a small group (as few as two, depending on the figure) to start each figure, which is then repeated until everyone in the company has had a chance to participate to the extent practical given size, balance of ladies and gentlemen, etc.  Each figure is done to music - polka, waltz, and mazurka were common - and involves actual dancing around the room with whatever dance fits the music.

The Three Chairs
This figure is a simple one with no props:

The leading couple make a tour round the room with Polka or Valse. The gentleman then seats his partner on the middle chair of three that are placed in the centre of the room, after which he selects two gentlemen to occupy the other two chairs, and he returns to his place. The lady chooses one of the two gentlemen, and dances with him; the other gentleman remains sitting in the middle of the room. The next couple commence while the former one is dancing. It must be observed that only one gentleman is required to fill the vacant chair after the first time. If the same gentleman remains sitting for some length of time, one of the ladies not engaged with the figure may relieve the monotony and dance with him.  (Coulon's Hand Book of Dancing, by Eugène Coulon, London, 1873 edition expanded from 1866 original; also found in an Australian source)

The instructions spelled out in detail:

• One couple (chosen by the conductor) dances.
• The gentleman seats the lady in the center chair and selects two other gentlemen for the other chairs then sits down.
• The lady chooses one gentleman to dance with, and as they dance, another couple is chosen by the conductor and also begins to dance.  It's not clear whether the first lady and her partner retire to places at some point or just keep dancing; I lean toward the former, since after a few repeats the number of couples dancing would be a real distraction to the central game of each lady making her choice.
• The gentleman of the new couple seats his lady in the middle chair, next to the gentleman who has already been rejected once, and fetches another gentleman to fill the other seat before retiring to his own place.
• The lady chooses a partner, and the sequence repeats again.  If one poor gentleman is rejected repeatedly, another lady not participating in the figure might intervene to rescue him, but repeated rejections are not really in the spirit of the game, so it shouldn't have to come to that!

Note that this figure is irredeemably sexist: the ladies always do the choosing from among two gentlemen.  This isn't unusual in Germans, which often have an element of humiliation for gentlemen in them.  It is not universal, however: there is also a figure (simply called "The Chair") in which only one chair is used and after a lady selects from two gentleman (selected and brought forward for her review by the conductor), the unselected gentleman chooses between two ladies, and the leftover lady waltzes with the conductor.  This may be more enjoyable for the modern reenactor as it enables the gentlemen to participate more actively and avoids any problem of repeated rejection.

The basic "Three Chairs" figure quickly acquired variations which livened it up even further:

The Glass of Champagne
This figure is listed as suitable for a waltz, polka, or mazurka step.

Three chairs are placed in a line, the two outer chairs being turned another way from that in the middle. The first couple sets off; the gentleman seats his lady in the middle chair, gives her a glass of champagne, and goes for two other gentlemen, whom he places on the other chairs. The lady gives the champagne to one of the gentlemen to drink, and regains her place with the other, either in dancing or in waltzing.  (Complete Ball-Room Hand Book, attrib to Elias Howe, Boston, c1858; also in numerous other sources)

The figure works no differently than "The Three Chairs", but the rejected gentleman gets to console himself with drinking.  Repeated rejections could lead to an entirely new set of problems, if the conductor refills the glass generously each time.

An entirely new element is added in another variation in which the gentlemen, for once, get to do the choosing:

Blind Man's Buff
While no dance is specified in this description, other sources specifically use "waltzes" rather than "dances".

Three chairs are placed in a line in the centre of the room. First couple lead off. The gentleman leader selects another gentleman, and seats him on the centre chair after having blindfolded him. The lady selects another gentleman, whom she leads on tip-toe to one of the chairs, the lady seating herself on the remaining chair. The leader then invites the blindfolded gentleman to select from the left or the right; the bandage is then removed. If he selects the lady, he dances with her; if the gentleman, he dances with him, and the leader dances with the lady.  (Brookes on Modern Dancing, Laurence De Garmo Brookes, New York, 1867; also in many other sources)

The description is straightforward enough; after the first round of dancing, the conductor would select another couple to lead off, and so forth.  A version of this figure reconstructed by Elizabeth Aldrich and performed at the Library of Congress in 1997 may be viewed here on video.  The setup differs slightly - the gentleman is originally given two ladies to choose from, but one switches for a gentleman while he's blindfolded.

Finally, to make the poor gentlemen's evening complete, here is yet another variation of the "Three Chairs", this one actually incorporating a fan, though it is used a bit more interestingly...

The Fan
The description below specifies a waltz internally; other sources also offer polka and mazurka as options.

Three chairs are placed in the centre of the room on a line. The two at the extremities must be turned contrariwise to that in the centre. The first couple leads off in a waltz. The gentleman seats his lady on the centre chair, and gives her a fan; he proceeds to select two other gentlemen, whom he seats on the other two chairs. The lady offers the fan to one of the two gentlemen seated at her side, and waltzes with the other. The gentleman who holds the fan must follow the dancing couple, fanning them, while hopping on one leg. (The Art of Dancing, Edward Ferrero, New York, 1859; also in many other sources)

This figure may also be seen on video from the Library of Congress here.  The hopping is particularly priceless.  There is also a very similar figure known as "The Umbrella", in which the rejected gentleman must follow the couple around holding an umbrella over their head while they dance.

Some suggestions for reenactment ball preceptors:

• Substituting something nonalcoholic for the champagne in the drinking version might be socially safer (and less expensive).
• Adding a hat, fan, paddle, broom, or whatever object to the basic "Three Chairs" or "Chair" figure is a reasonable period way of varying a figure - one 1879 source actually recommends making such minor variations in order to create original figures to give dancers a change of pace.  Teaching people the concept of a German or cotillion figure and encouraging them to use the original name "Three Chairs" rather than calling it a hat (or whatever) dance would be a nice period touch as well.
• Different objects could also be employed in the "Fan" or "Umbrella" figure - the rejected gentleman could use a broom to sweep behind the couple, for example. 
• Varying the choosing so that a lady wears the blindfold or follows with a fan would not be good reenactment practice; the light humiliation elements in Germans were generally directed at the gentlemen.
• Sashaying should be avoided; should the abilities of the dancers not be up to an actual waltz or polka, a simple promenade around the room could be substituted.
• Finally, it is more work for the conductor, but much more accurate, to avoid having everyone line up, and instead seat the group in a circle, or perhaps two circles, with those not wishing to dance or already having danced moving to an outer circle so the leader may more easily select new participants on each round, if the group is large enough that keeping track is a challenge.

Comments

[Marc Hartstein]

I recently had the opportunity to watch people dance the Umbrella version of this German with a polka playing. Watching the poor young gentleman try to keep the umbrella over the dancing couple was quite amusing. He seemed to enjoy the amusement, himself.

If your group felt especially confident in their dancing, you could do the broom variation with the gentleman sweeping the floor ahead of the couple. It has a certain internal logic, but, again, one would have to be very confident in both the skill of the dancers and the sweeper's ability to stay sufficiently ahead.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Marc:
I thought of that, and almost put it into the post, but after some thought, I decided that while I don't think pre-sweeping is nonperiod in and of itself, the level of interference with the progress of the dancing couple would not be in the general spirit of these games.

[Marilee J. Layman]

I'd think a good dancer would do just as well with the fan or broom or whatever as the couple, and it would become almost a trio.

[joann]

Thank you for disentangling the German thing; I first read a couple of Alcott novels mentioning Germans when I was about six, and I've never been able to figure out what they were on about. Until now.

[Marnen Laibow-Koser]

Crazy left-field question: any demonstrable connection with such Renaissance oddities as Ballo del Fiore?

[Susan de Guardiola]

I don't think there's a direct and documentable line of descent, but dance games and mixers of various kinds seem to pop up in many different eras - in the Renaissance, there's Ballo del Fiore (flower dance) and the hachas/bransle de la torche (torch or candle dance), which are token mixers where one dancer hands off an item to the next. In the 17th and 18th century there's the infamous cushion dance. The 19th century "German cotillion" (later just called a German), which does seem to have German roots (my earliest source is from 1820 and is in fact German) has lots of variations which involve an object of some kind, though usually it's the consolation "prize" or method of mild humiliation for the dancer who doesn't get a partner.

[Valerie]

Good words.

[sarah]

Very interesting, indeed!

[Laurie Newton]

Do you know of any dances specifically done by the soldiers in the campgrounds during the Civil War? Are there any basic steps, or anything less formal than the ballroom dances of the time? Finally, what are the most common ballroom dances of the time during the Civil War- specifically the Battle of Gettysburg?

[Marilee J. Layman]

It's hard to imagine that men who are bloody and exhausted would be throwing dances.