Month: April 2009

  • Regency & Victorian Dance Workshops, NYC (Sunday, May 3, 2009)

    I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, May 3rd.  Logistical details are below.

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  • The Three-Step Boston or English Boston

    Concluding a trio of posts on easy hesitation waltzes, here is the simplest hesitation at all: a normal waltz sequence stretched over two bars of music.  Albert Newman succinctly described the dance in his 1914 manual, Dances of To-Day:

    In reality it is our Standard Waltz, but instead of taking two measures this Boston takes four measures.

    What this works out to in practice is that the first step (forward or backward) of each half-turn is held for an entire bar (three counts) and the step to the side and close are done on the first and third counts of the second bar of music, with the overall rhythm being ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-SIX.  The three steps taken over two measures give the variation one of its names; I see nothing especially English about this that would account for the other.

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  • The Pompadour Waltz

    The Pompadour Waltz is a minor but interesting variation on the five-step Boston or five-step waltz described by Albert Newman in 1914 (and by me here).  I have found it only in the collection Dance Mad, or the dances of the day, compiled by F. Leslie Clendenen and published in St. Louis in 1914.

    To perform the Pompadour, the dancers alternate brief hesitating grapevine sequences with the five-step Boston in an eight-bar sequence as described below.  The steps given are for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

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  • The Five-Step Boston or Five-Step Waltz, 1914

    In his 1914 manual, Dances of To-day, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman describes a four-bar waltz variation he calls the Five-Step Boston or Five-Step Waltz.  Unlike the five-step waltz of the mid-19th century or the half-and-half of the 1910s, this waltz is done in the usual 3/4 waltz time, spreading five movements out over the six counts of music.  This is a hesitation waltz movement, well-suited the fast waltzes of the early 20th century.   It is easy to learn and provides a pleasant break from constant fast spinning.

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  • Regency & Victorian Dance Workshops, NYC (Sunday, April 5, 2009)

    I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, April 5th.  Logistical details are below.

    (more…)