Capering & Kickery

Mr. Saracco's Five-Step Waltz

 

• Era: 1840s-1890s America

In the 1840s, two separate dances known as the "Five-Step Waltz," "Cinq Temps Valse," or "Valse à Cinq Temps" arose, one from Paris and one, apparently, from New York.  The latter dance was described in 1854 by D.L. Carpenter in The Amateur's Preceptor on Dancing and Etiquette as follows:

This very beautiful Waltz was first introduced in New York, by that able master, Mr. Saracco; every movement being so exact and pointed, and of which is different from the Cellarious five time Waltz, being too much in the style of a gallop...

Mr. Saracco himself is shown at left.  His dance and the Cellarius version are sufficiently distinct in their movements that I will address only Saracco's five-step waltz in this post.

(Edited 11/25/2013 to add: more information about the origin of this dance has come to light; see my later post Mademoiselle Angelina for details.)

How to Harvard

This post is for Antonia, a superb 19th-century reenactor and dancer who has just completed her freshman year at that Ivy League school up in Boston.  Congratulations from a Yalie!

• Era: 1880s-1890s (America)
• Dances: Schottische, Polka, Galop

I have a strong but unsupported suspicion that the dance variation called the Harvard is some sort of Victorian joke playing off the turn-of-the-century dance known as the Boston.  The characteristic step is a long slide forward or backward along the line of dance, similar to the step of the Boston, combined with a sequence of three measures of waltz-galop.

The Harvard was described by prominent late 19th-century dancing master M.B. Gilbert in his collection of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) as a variation for the schottische, though the timing is more that of a polka or galop.  It is attributed by Gilbert to the late Professor Vegas of New Orleans.

Gavotte: Not

• Era: 1880s-1890s (America)
• Dance: schottische

The term "gavotte" has referred to a number of different dances since its earliest appearance in the 16th century.  In this post, it refers not to any of these specific dances, but to a pair of schottische variations described by noted 19th-century dancing master M.B. Gilbert in his manual of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890).  As far as I can tell they have neither anything in particular to do with the earlier dances known as the Gavotte (or the mid-19th century promiscuous quadrille figure of the same name, described here), nor any distinctive choreographic feature that might supply some reason for the use of the term in their names.  Nor are these variations common in other dance manuals, suggesting that they were rarely if ever danced outside the studio.

Edited 12/4/14 to add:  The gavotte connection seems to be in the music, rather than the choreography.  The gavotte-schottische link is found in a number of other dances of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

I nonetheless find them worthy of writeup not because they are particularly compelling sequences but because of what they reveal about approaches to varying the schottische at the end of the nineteenth century, approaches that might be exploited by the experienced late Victorian dance reenactor.

Five Step Schottische

• Era: 1870s(?)-1890s (America)

The Five Step Schottische, as described by prominent late 19th-century dancing master M.B. Gilbert in his tome of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and later by Marguerite Wilson in her oft-reprinted Dancing (Philadelphia, 1899),  squeezes five movements, rather than the standard four, into each bar of schottische for an interesting variation which alternates sideways slides and half-turns for a sequence similar to that of waltz variations such as the contemporary Le Metropole (also included in Gilbert's manual) or the later Five-Step Boston described by Philadelphian Albert Newman in 1914.  Putting this combination into schottische rhythm makes for an interesting but not overly complicated dance worth resurrecting by the modern late-19th-century dance reenactor.

Of the dance's name, Gilbert complains that:

Some more appropriate name might have been given to this dance, but I think it best to adhere to the phrase, rather than take upon myself a lingual reform.

This does not stop him for long.  A few pages later, he lists "Redowa Schottische" and "New Schottische" as alternate titles for the variation.  He attributes the former name to E.W. Masters, whom he claims originated it in 1871 (pushing the date of the dance back significantly), and feels that

Although this dance is better known as the Five Step Schottische, the name given above [Redowa Schottische] is far more appropriate.

The name Five Step Schottische, however, is more straightforwardly descriptive and thus more useful.

The Snake Dip

• Era: 1910s
• Dance: One-Step

Like the Pomander Walk, the Snake Dip is a one-step variation found in Albert Newman's Dances of to-day, published in Philadelphia in 1914, in which the dancers take, alternately, right- and left-side Yale position.  In the Snake Dip, however, the dancers make a continuous zigzag pattern along the line of dance rather than alternating travel with making circles in place. 

Newman somewhat imaginatively suggests of this sequence that "when well done it resembles the movement of the snake."

His diagram of the gentleman's steps is at left.

An Easy One-Step Sequence

F. Leslie Clendenen's 1914 compilation, Dance Mad, is full of sequences of varying levels of difficulty for many of the popular dances of the 1910s.  This one caught my eye as being a short (sixteen beats) and simple introductory one-step suitable for getting beginners dancing quickly and for teaching the lead for rhythm changes between one-step and two-step.  Clendenen gives it no special name or attribution, just "One Step."

Directions are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.  Starting foot is left for the gentleman and right for the lady.  Begin in normal ballroom position, with the gentleman facing along the line of dance.

Counts      Steps
1-2-3-4      Back the lady four steps
1&2           Two-step (step-close-step), angling diagonally forward to the left
3&4           Two-step (step-close-step), angling diagonally forward to the right
1-2-3-4      Back the lady four steps
(Turn a quarter clockwise)
1-2-3-4      Slide left foot along line of dance (1) close right to it with weight (2); repeat
(Turn a quarter counter-clockwise so gentleman faces line of dance, ready to repeat)

The angling to the left and right on the two-steps rather than moving straight forward along the line of dance cues the lady to perform a two-step rather than simply walking.  Clendenen describes this as "throwing [the] body slightly to [the] side on the 2 step" and moving "quite freely at left and right of partner."

An interesting variation, not given in the source but compatible with period practice, would be to turn clockwise rather than counter-clockwise at the end so that the sequence is then repeated with the gentleman backing up.  The mid-sequence turn will then be counter-clockwise.  This will not result in full turns, but the dancers could alternate backing the lady and backing the gentleman.

International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (May 7-8, 2009)

I will be attending the International Congress on Medieval Studies this Thursday and Friday and presenting a paper on step variation in the 15th-century saltarello at 1:30 Friday afternoon, session 301, "Riverenze e Spezzati: Challenges in Early Dance Research and Reconstruction."

I also expect to check in at the DISTAFF display/demo Thursday night at 5:45 to see the nifty textiles, but I haven't got a firm plan for anything else.  I'm flying out Friday night.

I would enjoy meeting any Kickery readers who might be attending the Congress, especially those who might be interested in furthering the study of dance history in academic settings.