Over a year ago I discussed some of the earliest walking and trotting patterns found in the earliest sources describing the foxtrot. Among other moves, I touched on the gliding series of chassé steps given in the two sequences in F. L. Clendenen's Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914). The sideways glides were done in quick-quick rhythm for each slide-close. The two sequences were:
1. SS-SS-QQQQ-QQQQ twice, followed by four glides (step-closes) QQQQ-QQQQ
2. SS-QQQQ, followed by four glides QQQQ-QQQQ.
The man turns his left side toward the line of dance and the dancers execute a series of four sideways "step-closes" (QQ) along the line of dance. No turn is involved; the first part of the sequence (walking and trotting) restarts on the first foot moving along the line of dance as usual.
More interestingly, Maurice Mouvet in his Maurice's Art of Dancing (1915) suggests a series of four slides to the (man's) right and four to the left (the pattern beginning on the man's right foot and hence to the right). Mouvet does not specify whether the dancers make a half-turn after each set of four sideways slides or merely change their angle, with the man moving forward first on the right diagonal and then the left, without a turn, similar to my preferred reconstruction of the racket. He also neglects to mention that the final close of each sideways sequence must be either skipped or a mere touch without weight in order to change feet for either the slide in the other direction or to restart normal walk-trot sequences on the leading foot.
If done turning, this series of slides would be very like the basic galop of the Victorian era. But I don't think it turns. Mouvet's right-foot start followed by a half-turn would have the couple turning in reverse, which seems mildly unlikely to me. But more importantly, when writing that earlier piece, I unaccountably blanked on the fact that we actually have actual filmstrip evidence for the sideways glides in a brief silent film clip dated 1916, which shows dance instructors Clay Bassett and Catherine Elliott demonstrating "The Much Talked About 'Fox Trot.'"
In the film, Bassett and Elliott dance just what Mouvet described, though they initiate moves, the slides included, on the gentleman's left foot. And they do not turn. With Bassett moving diagonally forward to the left along the line of dance (and Elliott perforce dancing backwards), they slide-close-slide-close-slide-close-slide, joined hands leading the way. Bassett then swings Elliott across his body (counter-clockwise) and leads "over elbows" another series of four slides starting on his right foot, angling his right shoulder diagonally forward. The rhythm overall is QQQQ-QQS QQQQ-QQS. The two dancers never make a turn; she merely switches from his right side to his left side. In the filmstrip, the pair of sliding sequences (left and right) is preceded by four slow walking steps and followed by a series of simple QQS hesitations as described here.
These slides are a good thirty years later than the racket, so their lack of turn doesn't really prove anything about the earlier dance, but it's an interesting late example of non-turning galop/slide sequences.
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