Capering & Kickery

Regency & Ragtime Dance Workshops, NYC (Saturday, October 2, 2010)

I will be teaching a pair of workshops sponsored by Specialty Productions in New York City on Saturday, October 2nd.  Both workshops will be at the Sandra Cameron Dance Studio, 199 Lafayette Street (one block south of Spring Street, between Kenmare and Broome).  No experience is necessary and no partner is needed.  The cost is $10 per workshop or $15 for both.  No advance registration -- just show up!

Ballroom Dances of the Jane Austen Era
12:00-1:45pm
Learn the beautiful dances of the style of the early 19th century, the era of Jane Austen and the English Regency! Romantic waltzes, lively quadrilles and cotillions. Flat shoes -- no high heels, please.
Download workshop flyer.

Classic Ballroom Dances of the Ragtime Era
2:15-4:00pm
Learn some of the history of contemporary ballroom dance with the one-step, foxtrot, and tango of the pre-World War I era.  Easy dances done to the wonderful music of the early 20th century.
Download workshop flyer.

For more information about either workshop, post questions here; call Marc Casslar at (860) 286-9191; or email.

Le Triangle

Subtitled Nouveau Quadrille, Le Triangle is not actually a quadrille in the literal sense of a dance involving facing couples.  It was composed by F. Paul and published in his manual, Le Cotillon, in Paris in 1877 and is danced by three couples rather than four, arranged in the form of a triangle.  Paul composed it to address the difficulty of finding four couples for the quadrille croisé of the time.  He adds modestly that he does not intend to impose it upon dancers, but gives the description only as a proposal.  I have never seen Le Triangle in any other source; it may never have been danced outside of Paul's immediate circles.

1930s Waltz Variations: The Pivot Spin

This move comes from an undated source, a short pamphlet called The Dancing Master, by K.E. Graham, "as approved and recommended by the leading teacher of ballroom dancing Santos Casani," published in London.  Casani was active at least from the late 1920s onward, but the long, bias-cut style of the evening dress on the cover suggests to me that this source is from the 1930s.

Only four waltz variations are included in the pamphlet, and three of them are the standard natural turn, revese turn, and "change step," meaning a waltz forward along line of dance, all in the "new waltz" pattern of the late nineteenth-century, step-side-close, which is by the 1930s established in England as the standard ballroom style. 

The only unusual move included is the pivot spin, in which the dancers first pivot quickly clockwise then suddenly reverse direction and end facing in the opposite direction from which they started.  Specifically, on count one the gentleman steps straight back left along the line of dance, followed by pivoting clockwise to step right forward along line of dance then left backward.  He then steps backward on the righ foot towards the center of the room, turning a quarter counter-clockwise, then turns another quarter to step left along line of dance, followed by closing the right foot with weight.  The gentleman is then ready to step forward with the left foot.  The whole sequence could be regarded as a particularly elaborate method of changing the direction the dancers are facing.

Eighth Annual Regency Assembly (October 16-17, New Haven, CT)

Coming up on October 16 & 17 in New Haven, Connecticut, is my eighth annual Regency Assembly, an opportunity to try the kind of dances discussed in my posts on the dancing of Jane Austen's era and the Regency era in the context of a formal evening ball.

Saturday's events include a dance workshop followed by a formal evening ball with live music by Spare Parts, as heard in the film Bright Star and on The Regency Ballroom CD.

Sunday, stroll in the park before retiring to the parlor for tea and Regency gaming, including card games such as picquet and whist as well as board games, dominos, and spillikins.

Full details and registration information is available at the event website.