Capering & Kickery

A Scandalous Ball in Bohemia, New Haven, Connecticut (Saturday, March 27, 2010)

From the unpublished journals of J____ W______, M.D.

March 1, 188_

...after which unfortunate misadventure I arrived in his well-remembered chambers at a quarter to seven o'clock to find H_____ absent and an envelope to my address upon the mantel containing a  card of invitation for a most unusual ball:

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The honor of your presence is requested at

Eight o'clock P.M.
Saturday, March 27th
Pratt Hall

for an evening of Terpsichorean Delights in the company of

The most Bohemian citizens of London town, including 

EXPLORERS, Actors, Mesmerists, Gamblers, INVENTORS,
Artists, Opera-Dancers, WRITERS, Adventuresses,
Military Gentlemen, American Expatriates, and POETS. 

Fancy dress is Requested.

Absolute Discretion is assured to All in attendance.

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The Polish Galop

• Era: 1880s-early 1900s, New England & Paris

The so-called Polish Galop, which is neither Polish nor necessarily a galop, is one of those odd little variations that was the creation of a single dancing master and was not generally taken up by others.  It is not Polish in origin; the name comes from the heel-clicking move it incorporates, which is typical of Polish dances such as the mazurka.  Its creator, Maine dancing master and author M.B. Gilbert, explains in Round Dancing, published in 1890, that

The movements of this dance were arranged by me for special use in children's classes, and I found the combination a pleasant innovation.

I also found it pleasant; it's actually slightly less "busy" than a regular galop.  And its ambiguity on where the turn (if any) happens is interestingly similar to that of the racket.

Regency Tea Dance, Boston area (Sunday, February 21, 2010)

Along with Saturday's ragtime dance workshop, I will also be teaching Regency-era dancing at an afternoon tea dance in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area) this Sunday afternoon, February 21st, from 2:00 to 5:00pm, as part of Michael Bergman and CVD's Mostly Victorian Tea Dance series.  (This is the dance that accounts for the "mostly" in the title of the series!)

This is the era of Jane Austen, Lord Byron, and the Napoleonic Wars.  Dances will be drawn from the early nineteenth-century repertoire, including country dances of various kinds, quadrilles, oddities like Sir Roger de Coverley and La Boulanger, and perhaps a bit of the scandalous new couple dance of the era: the waltz!

Read about how we won't be dancing here or about actual dance in Jane Austen's era here.

No partner is needed and no experience is needed; the figures and the lively dance steps of the period will all be taught.  Period costume of the early 19th century is admired, but definitely not required.  The music will be recordings, primarily from the Spare Parts CD, The Regency Ballroom.  Tea and delicious refreshments prepared according to period recipes will be provided.  Admission is $9, or $5 for students.

Note this is in a different location from previous years' tea dance series!

An event flier is here.  For more information and directions, please see the tea dance website or contact Michael Bergman.

Ragtime Dance Workshop, Boston area (Saturday, February 20, 2010)

I will be in up in the Boston area this weekend and will be teaching a workshop on ragtime (1910s) era dance in Medford on Saturday from 2:00 to 4:30pm for Mostly Waltz Boston.  This will be an interesting workshop: officially, it's focusing on the one-step, the easiest ballroom dance ever.  (Some variations for the one-step are described in several posts here.)  But I'm also going to be looking at the American tango of the 1910s and the blues of the 1920s and how individual steps were used in several different dances by changing the tempo and style of movement.

The suggested donation for this workshop is $10, or $5 for students.  A flyer (pdf) is here.  The workshop will be held at Springstep (directions here).  See the Mostly Waltz Boston website for more details.

As always, I'd be delighted to say hello to Kickery readers at the break or afterwards.

Dance Flurry 2010 - Saratoga Springs, NY (February 12-14, 2010)

This weekend I'm off once again to the Dance Flurry in Saratoga Springs, New York, where I will be teaching four sessions which cover almost the entire range of historical dance: 1589 all the way to the present day.  Here's the list:

10:00-11:15am Saturday
Victorian Contras & Squares
By modern standards these are quite gentle dances with beautiful figures generally taken at a relaxed pace, though I have a couple of dances with galop segments on my list as well, time permitting.  Very beginner-friendly.  Musical accompaniment by Spare Parts.

3:15-4:15 Saturday
Having a Branle! French Circle Dances
I wish this one had been a little more helpfully labeled -- the era is relevant.  These are easy sixteenth-century (Renaissance) dances with simple steps, hops, and jumps and little "miming" segments.  A few of these have been discussed on Kickery and may be found in the Arbeau category.  Music will be provided by The Flying Romanos.

9:00-10:15pm Saturday
Flashback to 1978 Line Dances
This is a repeat of the very successful session of disco line dances I did last year.  Perfect for anyone who still feels nostalgic about Saturday Night Fever, though last year I actually had plenty of attendees who were considerably younger than the film.  I've posted quite a few of these dances in the Disco category here on Kickery.  This session will use recorded music.

10:00-11:00am Sunday
Cross-Step Waltz
This is a beautiful, flowing modern waltz form that works best with slow music and incorporates moves from many different dance forms.  I mostly do historical dance, but I have a special love for cross-step and its immense variation.  Musical accompaniment by Mary Lea, Jacqueline Schwab, and Dan Beerbohm.

The Flurry is a huge, fabulous festival that takes over much of downtown Saratoga and covers a wide range of social and performance dance styles.  If I have enough energy between teaching sessions, I'm hoping to dance everything from contra to Texas two-step to Balboa to Hambo.  While it's not primarily focused on historical dance, I can't recommend it highly enough as an overall experience for general dance junkies like myself. 

Check out the Flurry website for the full program and the list of performers.  And if you read Kickery, please do say hello after one of my sessions!

A 1920s Medley Paul Jones

Most Paul Jones-style mixers are similar to the one found in the manual Dancing Made Easy (New York, c1919-1922): the dancers form a circle of couples, or possibly two concentric circles, each operating separately, if the numbers are too great.  They perform a grand right and left, then at the leader's signal dance a one-step with the next person in the chain.  The 1903 Round Two-Step (described here) is quite similar, except that the dance of choice is a two-step.

But in the mid-1920s English manual Foulsham's Modern Dancing, by Maxwell Stewart, a more elaborate version is described. 

To initiate the dance, the band plays a march and the dancers begin the grand right and left as usual.  The signal to change to dancing in pairs is given by a change of music: the band switches to a foxtrot tune.  Each dancer takes the next partner in the chain, and they foxtrot, with Stewart noting that the steps used are "as a rule" limited to the walk and the "two-step Chassé to right," though the latter is not actually given in his list of foxtrot steps earlier in the book and is more reminiscent of 1910s foxtrot style (see my previous post on this here) than the steps he does give, which look more towards later style.  Perhaps that is intentional, on the assumption that everyone knows the "old-fashioned" steps but is less likely to know the newer ones.

At some point, the music changes back to a march, and they resume the grand right and left.  Once again the music changes, this time to a one-step, and the dancers take next partners for that dance.  The music shifts back to a march a final time for a third grand right and left until finally the band begins to play a waltz and the dancers each take the next partner and end the Paul Jones by waltzing.

Stewart positively burbles with enthusiasm about the medley aspect:

It is a very jolly affair for those who can execute the steps of the three present-day dances.  It is a pot-pourri of all that is best at the moment, and our only wonder is that more medley dances are not evolved.

His initial description of the dance is dryer and more humorous, possibly unintentionally:

It is the nearest thing we have now to the old square dances, with just this difference: that it is round.

Indeed it is.

Schottische à Pas Sauté

By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, as the standard Victorian couple dances were becoming somewhat stale, there was a flurry of innovation among dancing masters attempting to come up with new variations, most of which do not appear to have caught on widely.  In M.B. Gilbert's 1890 tome, Round Dancing, he describes a variation, the Schottische à Pas Sauté, which resembles the old "doubling" of the schottische parts (as described in my review of the early schottische) in consisting only of "step-hops" but employs the recently stylish "military position", as described in my previous post, "À la Militaire", rather than using the closed position of the earlier era throughout.  Gilbert footnotes this variation as the Hop Waltz, harking back to the jeté waltz of the Regency era.

Both the first and second parts of the Schottische à Pas Sauté consist entirely of step-hops.  The steps below are described for the gentleman; the lady dances on the opposite foot.

First Part (two bars of four beats each)
(take military position, side by side)
1. Step forward left
2. Hop on left extending right to fourth position forward
3. Step forward right
4. Hop on right extending left to fourth position forward

Repeat all of the above.

Second Part (two bars of four beats each)
(close into a normal ballroom hold)
1. Step left across line of dance (lady steps right along line of dance, between gent's feet)
2. Hop on left foot, tucking the right foot behind the left in third position raised, finishing a half-turn
3. Step right along line of dance, between lady's feet (lady steps left across line of dance)
4. Hop on right foot, tucking the left foot behind as before, to complete the turn

Repeat all of the above for a second complete turn.

The word "step" rather than "leap" is used throughout; perhaps leaping was considered unnecessary with so much hopping involved.