The Original Gallopade

Like the Royal Gallopade, which I discussed here, the Original Gallopade was published in the Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (Second Edition) by J. S. Pollock (London, c1830) and is a specific choreography that combines galop round the room, short quadrille-like figures, and a final sauteuse waltz.  I'm not sure about the original part; I suspect that the original form of gallopade was nothing but galop.  But that's the title Pollock published it under.

Here is the general description of the dance, as given by Pollock:

La Gallopade may be danced with an unlimited number of persons, standing circularly in couples, following each other round the room.  In the first figure, the gent. passes his right arm round the waist of the lady, and with his left hand takes hold of the lady's right, the lady's left hand resting on the gent's. right shoulder -- the whole of the couples being thus placed, the ladies are all on the outside of the circle.  At the end of the first four bars, the lady crosses to the left of the gent. resting her right hand on the gent's. left shoulder and holding hands in front as before, which brings the ladies to the inside of the circle.  This figure is performed four times over, and occupies sixteen bar of the tune.  At the fourth time, the whole of the party fall back in a circle, the ladies all standing on the right hand of their partners, ready to commence the figures as they occur.  This dance is performed with a particular and characteristic step, of which it is impossible to give such a description, as would enable any one to dance it, without personal instruction.

I think the description above is fairly clear, but to be even clearer, the dancers begin in a normal ballroom hold, and galop for four bars (1&2&3&4&5&6&7&8).  On the fourth bar (7&8) the lady crosses in front of the gentleman to his other side and they take a reverse hold, the lady placing her right hand on the gentleman's left shoulder and he placing his left arm around her, the couple joining the opposite hands in front.  On the fourth bar of the next segment, the lady crosses back in front to her usual place.  There is no full turn in this; the lady just moves back and forth.  The gentleman must shorten his steps at each cross to allow her to cross easily.  After four more bars, she crosses over again, and they dance four more bars in the reverse hold.  This all occupies a total of sixteen bars of music, the lady changing places three times.

The step for the gallopade sections would most likely have been the same galop used later in the nineteenth century, as described here.  It's not nearly as difficult as Pollock implies!

At the end of the sixteen bars, the dancers open up side by side into a big circle of couples, facing in, ready to perform a short (eight-bar) figure before returning to the gallopade.  The opening up is easy: the lady already has her left hand in the gentleman's right.  He just needs to hold back in his final bar of galop to allow her to unfold next to him rather than crossing into his right arm.  He will also need to make sure his right foot is free to begin the figure.

The figures (language from Pollock, numbering mine):

1. Set and turn partners.
2. Cross to partner's place with right hand, and each gent join left hand to the next lady -- set, all keeping hold of hands -- back again, with right hand, and set, joining left hands, as before.
3. Ladies advance, retire -- gents. the same.
4. Set in a circle.
5. Chasse right and left twice, all facing partners in the circle.
6. Hands all round, and fall back in the circle.

After each of the first five figures, repeat the gallopade.  At the end of the sixth figure, the dancers perform a grand chain quite round.  When they meet their partners, they start the sauteuse.  Pollock states that it continues for twenty-four bars, "but may be prolonged at the pleasure of the party."

The overall pattern of the dance:

• Six times: gallopade (16 bars) + figure (8 bars)
• Grand chain (length depends on size of circle)
• Sauteuse (24b)

Details on the figures:

1. Set and turn partners.  Face partners.  Perform a setting sequence (such as one of those described here) for four bars then give two hands to partners and turn completely round with three chassés, jeté, assemblé.
2. The "zigzag circle".  This works best if the dancers face each other and turn a quarter by the right hands, leaving the gentlemen facing out and the ladies facing in.  Take left hands with the next opposite-gender person.  This takes two bars, chassé, jeté, assemblé.  Set with two pas de basque.  Drop left hands.  Turn halfway by right hands and set again.  It's harder to take the turn far enough , so use the pas de basque steps to move into position to take partners for the gallopade.
3. Ladies advance and retire (four bars), then gentlemen advance and retire (four bars).  Use chassé, jeté, assemblé each way or one of the step-sequences here.
4. Set in a circle.  All take hands and pas de basque eight times.
5. Chassez right and left twice.  Face partners.  Chassez-dechassez twice; possible step sequences are here.
6. Hands all round and fall back in the circle.  All take hands and circle to the left (clockwise) four bars then back to the right.  Three chassés, jeté, assemblé each way.

For the final grand chain: face partners and take right hands to begin.  Two bars (chassé, jeté, assemblé) for each pass.  The number of bars needed will be twice the number of couples.

The sauteuse waltz would be the bouncy 1&2 1&2 leap-slide-close, leap-slide-close.  Twenty-four bars of music or however long seems desirable.

As far as I know there is no specific music for the Original Gallopade.  The length of the music needed will vary according to the number of couples, though there is some leeway in the sauteuse.  If you allow twenty-four bars for the grand chain, which will accommodate twelve couples, you have a neat structure of 8b (intro) + 24b x 8.  If there are fewer than twelve couples, well, there will be more time for the sauteuse.  If there are more, there will be less time.  If there are more than sixteen couples, it's probably better to go up to nine repeats.

Edited 10/20/11 to add:
I taught a short version of this gallopade, using only four figures so as to fit the music I used, at the Anno Domini festival in Saint Petersburg, Russia, earlier this month.  I skipped the set in a circle and the chassez right and left twice.  It worked well, but the students did note that it was hard for the lady to cross from the normal hold to the reverse hold in a small circle.  This is technically a reverse half-turn for her, which is harder than a normal (clockwise) turn when moving around the room in the line of dance (counter-clockwise) and even harder if the circle is so small that there are "corner effects" all the time.  The obvious solution is to only dance it when there are enough dancers and space to spread out.