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.
The turn is done on the second of two bars. On the first bar, both face line of dance (keeping their hands joined in front) and promenade forward with the standard half and half step pattern, a fuller description of which may be found in my previous post, here, The steps given below are for the lady:
1
Step right (forward along line of dance)
2
3
4 Step left (forward along line of dance)
5 Step right (forward along line of dance)
The gentleman dances the same steps but on the opposite foot. On the second bar, the gentleman continues forward with the same promenade step (now starting on the right foot, exactly as given above), while raising his left hand high so that the lady may do a pair of traveling pivot steps under their joined hands on steps four and five of the second bar:
1
Step left (forward along line of dance)
2
3
4 Step right (forward along line of dance, pivoting 180 degrees to face against line of dance)
5 Step left (backward along line of dance, pivoting 180 degrees to face line of dance again)
The key to making this work is for the lady to not begin her turn until count four of the second bar and then turn rapidly on four and five. The pivot steps must travel as well as turn, since the gentleman is still moving forward along the line of dance, but he should also restrict the length of his steps so as not to outpace the lady.
The description in Dance Mad is part of a sequence and calls for a series of these turns done in rapid succession: sixteen bars encompassing eight underarm turns for the lady while the gentleman just promenades merrily along.
Source for this underarm turn
Dance Mad, [edited] by F. Leslie Clendenen, St. Louis, 1914
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