This is the final post in this month's little series of easy and useful late nineteenth century waltz variations from M.B. Gilbert's 1890 manual, Round Dancing. The first three posts in the series may be found here, here, and here.
Gilbert notes of the Bowdoin that he "applied these movements to the Waltz during the seasons of 1888-89, and found the application very pleasing."
Once again, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding the waltz steps, with my preference being for the smoother transitions allowed by the gliding version.
It's tempting to regard the Bowdoin as simply the pattern of Le Metropole turned around: "waltz, slide, waltz, slide." But the actual footwork is a little bit different. Instead of a two-count slide and a one-count close, the Bowdoin sequence is "point-pause-close." The distinction lies in when the change of weight is made. In Le Metropole, the weight changes onto the leading foot on one and then onto the closing foot on three. In The Bowdoin, the first count does not involve a weight transfer, simply a point of the foot. Weight is transferred to that foot between the second and third beats so that a close may be made on the third beat. The rhythm is more of a "1, 2&3," "point, pause-shift, close."
Other than this difference in the sideways slides, the Bowdoin is indeed merely a rearrangement of Le Metropole. It begins with the gentleman facing the wall and the lady the center, with him starting on the left foot and her on the right as usual. The gentleman must make a quarter-turn at the very beginning in order to begin the turn by stepping backward along line of dance.
Bar 1: Half a natural (right) turn of waltz, ending with the gentleman facing into the center. Starts gentleman back left, lady forward right along line of dance.
Bar 2: Point the free foot (gent's right, lady's left) sideways along the line of dance (1), pause (2), shift weight to the pointed foot (&), close the trailing foot with weight (3)
Bar 3: (Quarter-turn and) half a natural (right) turn of waltz, ending with the gentleman facing the wall. Starts gentleman forward right, lady back left along line of dance.
Bar 4: Repeat the point-pause-close from the second bar.
Repeat as many times as desired.
This sequence takes the leading difficulty up one notch from Le Metropole. Not only must the gentleman be careful to lead the distinction between quarter-turns and sliding sequences, as described in my previous post, he must also ensure that on the first count of each "sliding" bar, the lady merely points the foot rather than shifting her weight immediately. The gentleman should keep his weight firmly on the trailing foot and make the weight shift after the second beat very clear lest the second and fourth bars disintegrate into simple "slide-close" sequences.
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