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.
The sequence from the gentleman's perspective is given below. The lady dances opposite.
The Five-Step Boston or Five-Step Waltz
(start: ballroom position, gentleman facing wall and lady center of room, joined hands toward line of dance)
1b Slide left foot to side, along line of dance (1); close right foot slowly to left (2,3)
1b Shift so the gentleman's back is to line of dance and perform a half-turn (clockwise/natural) of the new waltz (4,5,6)
(end with gentleman facing center of room and lady facing wall, elbows aimed along line of dance)
1b Slide right foot to side (1); close left foot slowly to right (2,3)
1b Shift so the lady's back is to line of dance and perform a second clockwise half-turn of waltz (4,5,6)
(returning dancers to starting position ready to repeat)
The "new" waltz in this case is the gliding waltz of the late 19th-century, with the step sequence for the gentleman of "back, side, close; forward, side, close" with all steps being along the line of dance. Before the first step of the second and fourth bars above, the dancers must swing lightly from facing the wall/center of the room to facing against/along line of dance. Taking the slide-close of the first and third bars at a slight angle and having the lady (first bar) or the gentleman (third bar) shorten their initial slide and so fall slightly behind will make this easier to accomplish.
The mnemonic for the sequence is "sliiiiide-close, waltz-two-three; sliiiiide-close, waltz-two-three."
Those who enjoy dancing of the 1880s and 1890s will find something very familiar about this sequence. It is in fact exactly the same as that described by M.B. Gilbert in 1890 in Round Dancing as Le Metropole, where it is published "by permission of H. Fletcher Rivers." Newman takes the possibilities of the variation further than Gilbert, however, by suggesting that the dancers may also reverse the turn or simply waltz forward or backward. To accomplish the reverse turn, rather than the gentleman swinging around to put his back to the line of dance for a step back on the left foot at the beginning of the second bar, he must instead swing the lady around in front of him so that she may step back on the right foot directly along the line of dance while he steps forward on the left foot, initiating a reverse (counter-clockwise) turn. It is critical for the gentleman's initial slide in the first bar to be short, as this is a more difficult turn than the natural turn. On the fourth bar, the gentleman will step back right to complete the turn.
By comparison, waltzing forward or backward is fairly easy. To waltz backward (meaning the gentleman moves backwards on the second and fourth bars), the gentleman swings around to put his back to line of dance on both the second and fourth bars, each time stepping directly back along line of dance on "4" followed by a diagonal step backward along line of dance on "5" with the final close on "6." On the first beat of the next bar, shift slightly so that the "slide" on the first count is once more along the line of dance. Instead of turning completely, the dancers make, over the course of the four bars, a half-turn clockwise followed by a half-turn counter-clockwise. To waltz forward (gentleman forward), the lady always swings around to place her back to line of dance and step directly back on the first count of the second and fourth bars while the man steps forward. The dancers thus perform a half-turn counter-clockwise followed by a half-turn clockwise. In either case, the partner of the person taking the strong backwards step on the second and fourth bars must be careful to shorten their sliding steps on the first and third bars to allow their partner to move slightly ahead of them, especially on the counter-clockwise parts (second half when the gentleman steps back, first half when the lady steps back).
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