Proceeding through the Royal Lancers quadrille for sixteen, the third figure incorporates choreographic adaptations to the larger square similar to those made in the first two figures. Once again, moves that are usually done by the head or side couples together are divided, but this time in a way which harks back to the oldest form of the Lancers, with the figures led in turn by each lady and her opposite. The ladies chain for four couples is then modified into four ladies chains for two couples each, to suit the large-square formation.
A direct comparison with the third figure of the original Lancers may be made via my post on the third figure of the New York Lancers, here. The formation for the Royal Lancers is shown in the first post in this series, here.
8b Wait (not repeated)
4b First two ladies and their opposites forward and back
4b First two ladies and their opposites forward and salute (2b, extended) and back (2b)
8b Ladies chains at corners
The figure is repeated three more times; on the second iteration, the second ladies and their opposites perform the initial figures and the third and fourth iterations, the third and then fourth ladies and their opposites.
The music is stretched for a moment at the end of the second four bars for the dancers to perform a brief salute with their opposites, probably resembling the passing salute more than the full-scale bows and courtesies done at the beginning of the first figure of a quadrille.
Hillgrove is specific in his instructions for the ladies chain: it is performed as two separate halves, with each half ending with the dancers side by side facing the couple opposite them (the men flip around to face in at the end of the left-hand turn) rather than as a single flowing figure.
Reconstruction notes
I have added the standard eight-bar wait at the beginning of the figure, which is found in Koncen but not in Hillgrove. Salutations are not repeated on the second and following figures.
Figures one and two of the Royal Lancers may be found here and here. Figures four and five of the Royal Lancers will be examined in future posts in this series.
Comments