Capering & Kickery

L'Alliance, Figure 6: Sebastopol

(Seventh and last in a series of posts on the 1856 dance L'Alliance.  An introduction and explanation of the steps may be found in the first post in the series.  Other figures: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5)

The final figure of L'Alliance commemorates the culminating battle of the Crimean War, the lengthy siege of the fortress of Sevastopol, the panoramic depiction of which by Russian artist Franz Roubaud is shown at left (click to enlarge).  Appropriately, this is the longest and most dramatic figure of L'Alliance!

L'Alliance, Figure 5: La Victoire

(Sixth in a series of seven posts on the 1856 dance L'Alliance.  An introduction and explanation of the steps may be found in the first post in the series.  Other figures: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 6)

Fifth figure, with an entirely self-explanatory name!

L'Alliance, Figure 4: Le Congrès

(Fifth in a series of seven posts on the 1856 dance L'Alliance.  An introduction and explanation of the steps may be found in the first post in the series.  Other figures: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 5, Figure 6)

The name of Figure 4 refers to The Congress of Paris, the peace talks that ended the Crimean War.  Raab has his commemorations a bit out of sequence here; the war may have ended with the Congress, but L'Alliance goes on for two more figures!

L'Alliance, Figure 3: L'Attaque

(Fourth in a series of seven posts on the 1856 dance L'Alliance.  An introduction and explanation of the steps may be found in the first post in the series.  Other figures: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6)

Figure three of L'Alliance.  Since the Crimean War was, y'know, a war and thus chock-full of attacks, I have no idea to which particular attack the name refers.  The action of the figure does have a sort of attack-and-capture dynamic.

L'Alliance, Figure 2: L'Empereur

(Third in a series of seven posts on the 1856 dance L'Alliance.  An introduction and explanation of the steps may be found in the first post in the series.  Other figures: Figure 1, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6)

Moving right along to the second figure of L'Alliance!  Presumably the name refers to the Russian emperor Alexander II (left; click to enlarge), who succeeded Nicholas I on the imperial throne in the midst of the Crimean War.

L'Alliance, Figure 1: La Reine

(Second in a series of seven posts on the 1856 dance L'Alliance.  An introduction and explanation of the steps may be found in the first post in the series.  Later figures: Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6)

On to the actual figures of L'Alliance!  Figure 1, La Reine, is presumably named after the most notable queen of any nation involved in the Crimean War, England's Victoria (left, click to enlarge).

L'Alliance: Introduction

(First in a series of seven posts.)

 L'Alliance was published in Vienna in 1856 as "invented and described" by Johann Raab, a Vienna ballet master and professor of dance.  It is a quadrille-like six-figure dance commemorating people and events of the Crimean War (1853-1856).  As an American, that war holds no special emotional resonance for me -- my strongest mental association with it is Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade" -- but I am extremely fond of the dance!

I learned L'Alliance originally from Viennese dance teacher Hannelore Unfried at Newport Vintage Dance Week in 2006 and was intrigued enough to dig up the source for myself.  My reconstruction is about 95% the same as Hannelore's, and I am indebted to her for her excellent instruction and generous provision of the diagrams of the various figures.  I am also extremely grateful to my long-suffering translator, Irene Urban, for both translating from the German and transcribing the figures from the original Fraktur typeface.

Tenth Annual Regency Assembly, New Haven, Connecticut (October 13-14, 2012)

Coming up in just a few weeks, on Saturday-Sunday, October 13-14 in New Haven, Connecticut, is my tenth 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 an afternoon 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.  This year we have a beautiful new site, Pratt Hall, for our evening ball, with our afternoon dance workshop held at separate location.

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.  Sunday's events return to the lovely Edgerton Park and St. Thomas' Episcopal Church.

Both days will be well-supplied with delicious refreshments baked from Regency-era recipes.

Full details and registration information is available at the event website.  Pre-registration cutoff is October 10th; advance payments must be received by that date.  After that, pay at the door.  An online payment option via Paypal is also available.

For those in New York City: there will be workshops on September 16th and October 7th which will focus on the dances to be done at the Assembly.  Details are on the workshop flyer (PDF).

For those in Connecticut: there will be workshops on two Tuesday evenings before the Assembly, September 11th and October 9th, in Middletown, Connecticut, from 8:15-9:30 at Vinnie's Jump & Jive.