Capering & Kickery

Valencia!

"Valencia (A Song of Spain)" was a popular tune by José Padilla, apparently imported from Paris to England and thence to America in 1926.  Accompanying the American sheet music was a brief set of dance instructions which could be done to "Valencia" or any other foxtrot.

Interspersed with walking steps are four specific moves:

(1) The Balance: step forward on one foot then back onto the other (count 1, 2)

(2) The Strike: step, usually to the side, with one foot, then strike the other foot lightly against it (count 1, 2)

(3) The Catch: a two-step; step-close-step (count 1&2).

(4) The Round: a rond de jambe; this is described as pointing the left toe and describing a small, fast circle.  The instructions suggest that it moves clockwise ("point toe of left foot to left side...start to rear") but the illustration of the move, shown at left, contradicts this, the arrows clearly showing counter-clockwise circles, which also work much more smoothly with the flow of the dance; the Round is invariably followed by a step forward on the left foot.  This move is very fast and takes some practice for two people to perform smoothly in unison, with their feet equidistant throughout.

These moves are combined into four short routines, which may be mixed and matched at will:

Arbeau's Tourdion

Arbeau speaks relatively briefly about the tourdion (often anglicized to "tordion"), the dance that followed the basse danse as the galliard follows the pavane, in his 1589 work Orchésographie.  But he does give two variations, which I am covering for the sake of completeness.  For details of the rhythm of the tourdion, please see the first post in my galliard series.  Music for the tourdion is played more quickly than that of the galliard and the steps, as a result, are performed closer to the ground and less vigorously:

...the said movement must be performed barely off the ground and gently as a damsel might do it; it is thus the steps and movements are made in dancing the tordion.

There is a textual hint that partners stay together in the tourdion, rather than separating and performing fancy solo steps as in the galliard:

Because in dancing the tordion, one always holds the damsel by the hand and he who dances it boisterously causes needless discomfort and jolting to said damsel.

Along with the older low/high pairing of basse danse/tourdion having gone out of fashion by the time of his writing in favor of the pavane/galliard, this implication of continuous contact might account for the limited repertoire of variations.  There is only so much one can comfortably vary one's steps while attached to a partner.

(The quotes above are from Mary Stewart Evans' English translation of Arbeau.)

The Royal Gallopade

The Royal Gallopade is an interesting mix of popular 1830s dances, with elements borrowed from country dances, galopades, and quadrilles, plus a concluding sauteuse waltz.  My only source for it is the Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (Second Edition) by J. S. Pollock, London (see update at end of post).  It is undated, but the mix of dances and a textual reference to an 1829 event suggests the early 1830s.  Pollock claims that gallopades "appear" to be of Russian origin.  Among those he credits with their introduction is the sixth Duke of Devonshire, who was a close friend of both the Prince Regent (later George IV) and Czar Nicholas I and had traveled to the Russian court.

Pollock depicts the original gallopade as a choreographed sequence dance for a circle of couples with gallop interspersed with short dance figures and gives not only this original but gallopades in country dance and quadrille form.  Fittingly, the Royal Gallopade is given a separate section of its own between the quadrille and country dance gallopades.

My photocopy of the Pollock book is at least third-generation and extremely blurry, but as best I can make it out (I make no guarantees on the punctuation) the description of the dance sequence is as follows:

Gallopade (as described in the original Gallopade) straight forward to the top of the room the lady crossing the gent at the end of each four bars; on arriving at the top, the first couple in one set, faces the first couple of the other set; the second couples faces the second, and so on to the bottom of the dance, then each four perform the figure of Le Pantalon -- the whole of the party then face the bottom of the room, and gallopade as before -- then perform La Poule -- gallopade to the top of the room, and finish with the sauteuse round the room.

While given as a social dance, this makes a spectacular performance piece as well.

Go to the side couples and chassé out

My description of this relatively obscure Regency quadrille figure sequence was originally buried deep within a lengthy post on reconstructing an American Civil War-era quadrille, Wrestling with Belle Brandon.  I'm pulling it out separately here for those whose interests are primarily in the earlier era and adding a clearer explanation of the step-sequences needed.

The figure in question is known in French as a combination of Figurer à Droite sur les Côtés (four bars) followed by Chassé Ouvert  (four bars).  Typically, this is followed by En Avant Les Huit (four bars) and a final Tour des Mains (four bars).  In English, this is usually described as the head couples lead to the right(-hand) side couples and chassé out to form lines across the set, with the follow-up figure being forward and back in lines and turn partners two hands to places. 

What Did Jane Austen Dance?

Since early 19th century ("Regency") dance is one of my particular specialties, I get many questions that boil down to either "what did Jane Austen dance?" or "did Jane Austen dance _____?"  So let's see what I can do for a general answer. 

I can divide things loosely into three categories: what we know she danced, what she might have danced, and what she didn't dance.