Continuing on from my previous post covering the first figure of the Royal Lancers quadrille for sixteen, here is the second figure. Once again, moves that are usually done by the head or side couples together are divided so that the first couples move during the first time through, the second couples during the second, and so forth. A more substantial alteration is that rather than the side couples (in the first two repetitions) dividing to form lines of four at the heads and those lines going forward and back followed by a two-hand turn to places, the Royal Lancers takes advantage of the ready-made lines of four along each side of the set and allows both the head and side lines to advance and retire sequentially, skipping the two-hand turn to places entirely.
Comparison with the second figure of the original Lancers may be made via my post on the second figure of the New York Lancers, here.
8b Wait (not repeated)
4b First couples forward and back
4b First couples forward, leave ladies inside set facing partners; gentlemen retire to places
4b First couples chassez right and left
4b First couples turn two hands bringing ladies back to places
4b Head couples forward and back in lines of four
4b Side couples forward and back in lines of four
The figure is repeated three more times; on the second iteration, the second couples perform the initial figures and once more the lines at the top and bottom of the set go forward and back first. On the third and fourth iterations, the third and then fourth couples lead the figures and the side lines go forward and back first.
Reconstruction notes
I have added the standard eight-bar wait at the beginning of the figure. Salutations are not repeated on the second and following figures.
During the chassez, the first ladies and the third ladies are sliding toward each other as they move to the right and may actually cross each other, either facing or back to back. The sources do not mention this or specify exactly how it occurs, but my preference is for them to pass face to face and quickly acknowledge each other visually before sliding back to the left. This issue does not occur on the second and fourth repetitions of the figure.
Figure one of the Royal Lancers may be found here. Figures three through five of the Royal Lancers will be examined in future posts in this series.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.