I was reading through Elias Howe's Complete Ball-Room Hand Book (Boston, 1858) looking for a nice waltz contra dance to write up when I realized that the one I had in mind looked oddly familiar.
Take a look at these two figures, appearing on consecutive pages:
COLOGNE POLKA
First and second ladies join hands and polka across and back, (gentleman single on the outside at the same time), first and second gentleman join hands and polka across and back (ladies on the outside at the same time), first couple polka down the centre and back -- first two couples polka quite round each other to places.
BOHEMIAN WALTZ
First and second ladies join hands and waltz across and back, (gentleman single on the outside at the same time), first and second gentleman join hands and waltz across and back (ladies on the outside at the same time), first couple waltz down the centre and back -- first two couples waltz quite round each other to places.
Notice anything unusual?
"Cologne Polka" reappears in Howe's American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862). "Bohemian Waltz" does not. I have no other sources for these particular contras.
The figures for this dance -- either version -- are very easy.
Reconstruction
Either version is a "proper" country (contra) dance, ladies on one side of the set and gentlemen on the other. The figures use only two couples, but it was probably danced in triple minor formation at the time, with one couple having nothing to do. Howe seems to have been an advocate of simultaneous starts, every fourth couple beginning the dance at once, as I discussed in my post on the "Sultan Polka".
The figures are quite simple:
8b Two ladies join near hands and cross to the other side of the set, turn and switch hands and cross back to places. At the same time, the two gentleman cross over and back outside the ladies.
8b Repeat the same figure with the gentlemen taking hands and crossing inside and the ladies outside.
8b First couple waltzes or polkas down the middle of the set and back to places.
8b The two couples waltz or polka around each other one and a half times to progress.
Both versions end with the caller having the dancers break the set and waltz or polka freely around the room.
Performance Tips
(1) That is a lot of music for crossing over and back. Small steps and big loopy turns at each side of the set will help fill the time. Note that it is not a "tiroirs" figure; the cross-over-and-back is either inside both ways or outside both ways.
(2) When the first couple comes together to waltz or polka down the set, they will be aimed "over elbows", ready to start with the gentleman's right foot and lady's left.
(3) The first couple can flow from the down-and-up directly into the progression. The second couple should come together as soon as the first couple moves past them coming up the set to be ready to waltz/polka round. Both couples must break apart on the last measure of the waltz/polka round to resume their positions on the sides of the set.
(4) With beginners or the general public or any other group without waltz or polka skills, promenading could be substituted for the down-and-up and the progressive waltz/polka round. As the first couple comes out of the down-and-up, the gentleman must bring the lady gently counter-clockwise to his right for the promenading, and they must make sure to break early enough to flow smoothly back to their own sides at the end.
Music
I am unaware of any recordings of the music for these contras, but for those with access to live musicians, I conveniently have sheet music available for both.
"Cologne Polka" appears as the tune for the fifth figure of a polka quadrille in Howe's "Improved Edition" of The Musician's Omnibus (Boston, 1861). Here's the music as it appears there:
Unfortunately, it's arranged for a quadrille, and has five eight-bar strains, which is one more than is actually needed for the thirty-two bar contra dance. It's not particularly unusual in the nineteenth century for dancing masters to use the same tune for quadrilles, contras, and couple dancing, altering the repeat structure to suit the needs of the dance. Which of the strains to use for the contra and/or whether and how to alternate them is a decision that I would defer to the musicians.
"Bohemian Waltz" has a more intriguing pedigree. While there are multiple tunes of that name, just as the are with other bland geographic titles like "German Waltz", I suspect the one Howe had in mind is the one from Regency dancing master Thomas Wilson's Companion to the Ball-Room, pictured at left (click to enlarge). I haven't been able to find any other tune of this name in any of Howe's music books.
Using a English Regency-era source for a mid-nineteenth century American dance seems odd, but Howe seems to have been willing to set contra dances to just about anything, and we know that he had a copy of Companion to the Ball-Room. How do we know that? Well, a few pages earlier in his book, Howe lists a few dances that come from, quote, "an English work on dancing published in London in 1816". The tunes and the figures are all taken directly from Companion to the Ball-Room. Howe was quite the collector, and somehow, from Boston, he managed to collect an old work of Wilson's.
Note, however, that he did not adopt either of Wilson's figures for this tune.
For Howe's contra dance, "Bohemian Waltz" should be played straight through (ABC) for a thirty-two bar repeat. A less fuzzy modern layout of the music may be found here.
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