- 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.
From a normal one-step, backing the lady, the gentleman steps out with the left foot to Yale position, his right side to the lady's right side, angling to the left oblique so that the pair move in a diagonal line forward and across the line of dance, with him moving forward and her moving backwards. They take three steps along this diagonal then pivot, making a ninety-degree change of angle to put themselves left side to left side, with the gentleman stepping forward with his right foot to start the three steps to right oblique. The dancers continue alternating three steps to the left in right-side Yale position with three to the right in left-side Yale position indefinitely, though because this is a six-count move, "indefinitely" will be best concluded by doing it for either twelve or twenty-four counts in order to match the musical phrase.
The "dip" part of the Snake Dip comes on the second step of each three, during which the dancers should bend their knees and dip slightly. Think "step-dip-step, step-dip-step."
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