A Promiscuous Figure: Flirtation

• Era: circa 1905

A while back I published a couple of posts on so-called "promiscuous figures," which may be substituted into the first set of quadrilles for variety.  The Flirtation figure is another of these, taken from English dancing master William Lamb's How and What to Dance (London, 1903), an undated New York edition of which was published in the first decade of the 20th century.

The figure is probably intended as a finale figure, replacing the usual fifth figure, since it is entirely full-set moves and finishes with a galopade, typically included in finale figures.

Flirtation Figure (8 bars + 32 bars x4 + 8 bars)
8b     Introduction (no bows if replacing a finale figure)

4b     Grand Circle (all take hands and forward and back twice)
4b     Turn partners two hands
4b     All four ladies forward and back
4b     All four gentlemen forward, turn, and bow to lady at their left (their corner lady)
4b     Chassez with corners; slide right and left, gents coming out of center and back in
4b     Turn corners two hands, ending in gentleman's original place
8b     All galopade around the set (four-slide galop to each position, alternating over hands/over elbows)

Repeat previous thirty-two bars three more times. After last repetition:
8b     Grand Circle and turn partners two hands

During each iteration of the figure, the ladies move one place counter-clockwise around the set.  The gentlemen all return to their own places, bringing a new lady with them each time.  After four times through the figure, all the ladies are back with their original partners.  There is a final eight-bar "tag" figure to end.

(Edited 7/6/2016 to add: see my later post on this figure for considerably more information!)

Comments

[Neal]

If I'm reading this correctly, the ladies progress counter-clockwise, not clockwise. Men take the left hand lady (corner) home; that would move women one spot to their right, counter-clockwise and along LOD.

Wonderful site; I have a friend who keeps requesting quadrilles at our square dances. Maybe if I send her here she'll understand the conplexity of what she's asking for!

(From Susan: fixed the post, thanks!)