Capering & Kickery

One-Step Variations: Zig Zag

I'll wind up this little mini-series of one-step posts with an easy variation from Vernon and Irene Castle's manual, Modern Dancing, (New York, 1914).  The zig zag is very similar to the snake dip described by Philadelphia dancing master Albert Newman (discussed by me here).  The oscillation from right Yale position (the two dancers' right sides together) to left Yale position (left sides together), with the lady backing up while the gentleman moves forward, is the same, with the differences found only in the starting foot and the placement of the dip.  I have no doubt that these are simply regional variations of the same step, but they do have a slightly different effect when danced.

While the snake dip begins with the gentleman stepping to the left (right Yale position) with his left foot, the zig zag begins a beat later.  After one walking step forward on the left foot (lady backing on the right), the gentleman crosses his right foot in front of the left to step out to right Yale position, taking three steps in that position (right-left-right) before crossing his left foot in front of the right to shift to left Yale position and take three steps (left-right-left) thus.  The lady is dancing opposite, crossing her left foot behind her right to start the move and continuing on the opposite foot from the gentleman, always crossing behind.

The zig zag may be continued indefinitely, exited most easily after any trio of left Yale position steps by the gentleman simply not crossing his right foot over, instead stepping straight forward toward the lady and resuming backing her up for as many steps as needed to round out the musical phrase.

The Castles suggest ornamenting the step with a slight dip:

To make it more effective, the dancers can bend on the first step.  That is when the man crosses the right over the left and when he crosses the left over the right.

This bend is actually on the same foot as in Newman's snake dip -- he places the dip on the second step of every three-step diagonal, which is effectively a crossing step.

Skipping Through the One-Step: Polka Skips and Pony Steps

There's a perception that doing the 1910s one-step is always a matter of stepping precisely once per beat, no more and no less.  As can be seen in the half fade-away, which leaves one foot in the air for a beat, that isn't always strictly true.  And while that sort of pause is unusual, the one-step also incorporates skipping steps of various kinds in moves like the polka skip and pony step, as described by the leading dancers of the era, Vernon and Irene Castle, and other dancing masters in dance manuals published in 1914.

One-Step Variations: Half Fade-Away

It's been quite a while since I got back to the plain old 1910s one-step, so here's a quick and easy sequence from Albert Newman's Dances of to-day, published in Philadelphia in 1914.  It's an interesting little combination of side steps and natural and reverse half-pivots that I've never seen anywhere else.

Half & Half Variations: The Scroll

Winding up this month's little half and half miniseries, here's another variation from the Castle Assistants, as published in Dance Mad in 1914.  This one even has a name, the scroll, as well as a number ("Step 2").  It's essentially a slow-motion grapevine step changing once per bar rather than on every beat, very similar in conception to the 1930s "about face waltz" described here, which has the pattern of one bar of traveling followed by one bar to change the direction each dancer is facing, with the lady and gentleman always facing opposite directions.

The scroll uses the basic half and half step sequence (stepping on the first, fourth, and fifth beats of each bar) done in promenade position, as described in my half and half overview here, with the dancers facing opposite directions and traveling for two bars before pivoting.  The change of direction occupies only a partial bar rather than the full bar of the about face waltz.

An Underarm Turn for the Half and Half

I'm on a bit of a roll lately with variations for the 5/4 time waltz of the mid-1910s known as the half and half.  Here's another easy one: an underarm turn for the lady, pulled once more from Dance Mad (1914), where it is included in a list taught by the "Castle Assistants" and prosaically labeled "Step 4." The Castle Assistants are presumably associated with one of Vernon and Irene Castle's dance studios.

This is not the only variety of underarm turn in the half and half, but it's the simplest of the variations I have come across other than the one found in a small 1914 book of sheet music by Malvin Franklin, illustrated at left (click to enlarge), where the gentleman just stands completely still while the lady makes her turn.  That doesn't flow nearly as well as the Castle Assistants' version.

Five Steps in the Half and Half

• Era: 1910s

Among the variations listed for the half and half in the 1914 collection Dance Mad is an interesting waltz which, unusually for the half and half, involves stepping on all five beats of the bar rather than on the usual first, fourth, and fifth beats.  It doesn't have a name; the description is simply labeled "Sixth Figure" and is one of eight figures credited to "Quinlan Twins."  For lack of any better name, I refer to it as the five-step variation.

Background information and basic traveling steps for the half and half may be found in my previous post here.

The Invention of the York?

A couple of months ago I described the late 19th-century waltz-time move known as the York, which incorporated mazurka-style heel-clicks and was considered a variation of the polka mazurka.  At the time, the earliest source I had located was M.B. Gilbert's Round Dancing, published in 1890, where the dance was included "by permission of E.W. Masters," possibly its creator.  An interesting article from The New York Times, dated September 9, 1885, both brings the date of the dance back a few years and provides an amusing anecdote about the dance's possible origin.

(Edited 6/3/24 to add: more information about the meeting described in the article and the possible origin of the York are included in my post, "Revisiting La Russe")

New Blog: Historical Fancy Dress

This is a bit premature, since there is as yet no actual content up, but after considering the quantity of information I've been accumulating regarding nineteenth- and twentieth-century fancy dress balls, I've decided it's too much to just be a category here and have thus started a sister blog, Historical Fancy Dress, to accommodate it all.

The main content of the HFD blog will be short descriptions and sometimes illustrations of costumes for fancy dress balls, all taken from period sources.  I'll also touch on hair and makeup, accessories, types of fancy dress balls, and so forth.  Pure dance content will stay here on Kickery, and I may cross-post things of interest occasionally.  But if you have a special interest in fancy dress costumes or fancy dress balls, or even historical costume in general, HFD will be the place to be.

Posts will start going up there early next week.