Light Dragoon

• Era: 1850s-1860s America

"Light Dragoon" is an easy mid-19th century American country (contra) dance, one of a lengthy list of contra/country dances given in two manuals written by Elias Howe.  In one of the two, it is cryptically labeled "Pinkerton;" possibly this is the name of the choreographer of the dance.  It is performed in a longways set of any length, though four to six couples is easiest.  All couples are "proper," with the men standing to the left of their partners when all are facing the top of the room.

Music
While any country dance tune of 32 bars (ideally two eight-bar phrases played AABB) will fit this dance, Howe specifically gives the tune "Miss McLeod's Reel," which is a traditional tune known by a variety of names.  Some useful reference pages for this tune are here (tune written out with tips for playing it, WMA files), here (YouTube video of a fiddler playing the tune), and here (a list of recordings).  A search on the tune name will turn up MP3 files that include it as part of various medleys.

Figures
4b   Active couple take inside hands, go down the center, & turn halfway as a couple
(the gentleman is now on lady's side and vice-versa)
4b  Back up the center and cast off to second place, next couple moving up (progression)
8b   First four ladies chain across the set
8b   First four promenade quite round across the set
4b   First four forward and back
4b   Active couple cross over to original sides, passing right shoulders & curving right to face in again
Repeat to the bottom of the set, each couple becoming active at the top.

Performance notes
Down the center takes two bars (four steps); turning as a couple two more bars (four steps). After turning as a couple, leading back up (four steps), and casting off (four steps), the active lady will be on the men's side and the active gentleman on the lady's side, both in second place.

The ladies chain and promenade are both done across the set; in effect, the couples have switched partners temporarily.  Each lady is standing to the right of the neighboring gentleman rather than her original partner.  To perform the ladies chain, they cross giving right hands, then turn their original partners by the left hands, and repeat this back across the set giving right hands to each other and left to their original neighbors.  As the couples complete the left-hand turn, the man turns quickly and gives his right hand to the lady under the left hands for the promenade round the set.  "Courtesy turning," where the man walks backward to place with his hand on the woman's back or hovering behind her, is not period style and should be avoided; left hand turns are done with both partners walking forward around each other.

After the promenade, the four dancers should hold inside hands briefly with their neighbors while going forward and back across the set, then drop hands to permit the active couple to cross back to their original sides.

Progression/number of repeats
While the dance is longways for as many as will, if a standard historical progression is followed, I recommend limiting the length of the set to no more than six couples at the most; the requirements for repeats are 6x (three couples), 9x (four couples), 12x (five couples), and 15x (six couples).  Longer sets will feel tedious to modern dancers.  

The dance begins with the couple at the top of the set being active and dancing with the second couple as described above.  After one time through the dance and one progression, the active couple will be dancing with couple three, while couple two waits at the top.  After that repetition, the original active couple will be dancing with couple four while couple two becomes active and begins the dance with couple three.  As each couple in turn reaches the top of the set, they will wait out once and then reenter the dance as an active couple.  Likewise, upon arriving at the bottom of the set, each couple ceases to be active (though they still dance with the active couples), waits out once and then reenters the dance.  The dance ends when all couples are back to where they started.  For a bit of extra dancing, the original top couple may start down the dance once again, but it still ends when the bottom couple is back where they started.  For more  information regarding historical country dance progression, please see this post.

Sources for "Light Dragoon"
Howe, Elias. American dancing master, and ball-room prompter.  Boston, 1862.

Howe, Elias. Howe's complete ball-room handbook.  Boston, 1858.

Comments

[Marilee J. Layman]

I thought that said "Light Dragon." I'm not getting the ladies chain.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Marilee, here are some pages illustrating the ladies' chain:

The instructions start at the bottom of this page.

The pictures on this page show each movement.

The instructions finish at the top of this page.

[Marilee J. Layman]

Oh, I see. I guess I was thinking of rows of ladies with crossed hands clasping those of the ladies next to them.