The Twinkle Hesitation

The Twinkle Hesitation, attributed to S. Wallace Cortissoz, was published in Leslie Clendenen's collection, Dance Mad, in St. Louis in 1914.  I'd been looking at dances in that book that incorporated twinkle steps, and this one caught my eye as fun to dance.  The dance itself is a sixteen-bar, three-part sequence, but each part also makes a nifty independent addition to any hesitation waltz.

Steps are given for the gentleman; lady dances opposite.  Note that this entire sequence starts on the "second" foot (gent's right, lady's left).

Part One (8 bars)
This is a simple waltz walk with twinkle, backing the lady.
1b Walk forward right
1b Walk forward left
1b Walk forward right (1), close left to right (2-3)
1b Step back on right
4b Repeat on opposite foot (forward left, forward right, forward left & close right, back left)

Part Two (4 bars): Twinkle Balance
This move swirls rapidly back and forth in place with half a natural turn and half a reverse turn, and is great fun for the lady!
1b Step forward right, beginning to turn clockwise (1), close left beside right continuing the turn (2-3)
1b Step diagonally back right, left foot pointed forward, completing the half-turn
1b Step forward onto left, turning counter-clockwise (1), close right beside left, continuing the turn (2-3)
1b Step diagonally back left, right foot pointed forward, completing the half-turn

Part Three (4 bars)
This part is a classic hesitation waltz with a pause and direction change after each half-turn.
1b Waltz, starting forward right, making a half-turn to the right (natural turn)
1b Step to the left, pointing the right foot to the side (leader is facing against line of dance)
1b Waltz, starting back right, making a half-turn to the left (reverse turn)
1b Step to the left, pointing the right foot to the side (leader is facing along line of dance)

Some performance tips
Part One:  Lead the close of foot by "surging" slightly upward on the third step at a slight diagonal motion to indicate the closing of feet.

Part Two:  It is critical that the first step and close of the foot be very small moves in order to enable the fast spin.  The description of the close actually says "left toe to right toe" - almost a false (toes in) first position.  If the feet are separated, the turn will not work well.

Part Three:  This move requires excellent control in order to alternate the momentum of the half-turns with the pause-and-pose of the hesitations.  Again, keep the steps of the turn very small.

Incorporating the Twinkle Hesitation into a regular waltz
The entire sequence can easily be used as a long variation, or each part can be used individually.  Since the sequence starts on the right foot (and works better with this start; the turns in the second and third part are more difficult if done the other way), if the leader started off on the left foot (as is typically done), it will first be necessary to change feet.  My sequence for this, coming out of a normal turning waltz, is:

1b Waltz a half-turn, starting back left (natural turn)
1b Waltz straight forward starting right (forward, forward, close)
1b Step forward left (1) and close right foot (2-3)
1b Step back left

The last two bars are the twinkle part of Part One above.

At the end of the sequence, the leader can either continue onward with the lead on the right foot or can switch back by using the same twinkle movement.  At the end of Part Three, the leader will be facing line of dance, having just completed a step to the left, right foot pointed and free.  Continue on with:

1b Step forward right (1) and close left foot (2-3)
1b Step back right

This will reset to the standard starting foot.  The leader can then either go into a reverse turn (waltz, starting left foot forward) or can waltz straight forward (forward, forward, close) for one bar and then go into a natural turn (waltz, starting right foot forward).

Incorporating the second and third parts as individual pieces likewise requires the change of leading foot; if this is going to occur often, it's easier to just start the whole waltz off on the (leader's) right foot and not bother changing back and forth.  Part One, however, works just as well starting on either foot, and can easily be incorporated as a pleasant break from rapid turning.

Special thanks to Irene and Emily for patiently assisting me in working out the Twinkle Hesitation!

Comments

[Joshua Kronengold]

This sounds like fun.

A touch tricky to work out without instruction -- but still, fun!

[Susan de Guardiola]

Conveniently enough, I'll be teaching it at the August 3rd Ragtime class for the Elegant Arts Society in NYC!

[Marilee J. Layman]

If women were so much less able than the men, how come the instructions are always given for men with just a note that the women do opposite? You'd think they'd give the women one-syllable instructions and tell the men to do opposite.

[Susan de Guardiola]

On the dance floor, women on average are more able than men, and I suspect that was true for most of the last couple hundred years, at least.

But leaving that aside, one reason to direct the instructions toward the man is that he'd be leading the woman. She doesn't need instructions, she just needs to be able to follow his lead. And yes, that works with experienced, well-paired dancers, if the moves are leadable and generally within the dancers' repertoire. When I was working out this sequence, Irene (my regular practice and teaching partner) patiently followed me this way and that, letting me spin her back and forth while I tried to parse out the (less clear in the original) instructions. She has no particular interest in written dance directions, and since what I want is to be able to lead her through the moves, it serves me much better if she doesn't even look at them - I don't want her to move independently, since that proves nothing about whether the move is leadable by me or in general.

I do have one late 19thc dance manual in which all the instructions are directed at the woman with "the man dances opposite". It was written by (or at least attributed to) a woman. Interestingly, someone was plagiarizing - much of it matches word for word with another manual by a different (male) author, except for those dance descriptions, where all of the directions have been carefully reversed. I was most amused by this, but it actually made it harder for me to reconstruct from it, since I had to rethink or rewrite the instructions to figure out how to lead the moves.

[Bridget]

This may be slightly off topic, but I'm not sure where to post other q's. In the BBC series "The House of Elliott" set in the 20's, there is a dance instruction scene where the housegirl teaches one of the Elliott sisters a dance. It's 1920 and she mentions it might be the "jog-trot" or the "twinkle" which led me to your site. It doesn't seem to be the twinkle as the dancers were doing a sideways step-together(1,2), step-together(3-4), step-together(5-6), kick back/side and down (7-8) to very early jazz. Do you know of this series and might you know what the dance is? The series is fairly 'spot on' with most of their historical research, so I think this may be an actual dance.
I listen to a lot of late ragtime, early jazz and try to recreate the dances, vintage dancers seem to drop off around 1920 so it's harder to find info.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Bridget, I'm not a dancer, much less Susan, but she has a Question Thread permanently at the top of the home page for this kind of thing.