Capering & Kickery

November 2012 Gig Calendar

This is going to be a wild month of travel for me, starting off in beautiful Saint Petersburg, Russia, then ricocheting up and down the northeastern United States for a few weeks:

Saturday-Monday, November 3rd - 5th ~ Saint Petersburg, Russia  (3-5 ноября 2012, Санкт-Петербург)
Anno Domini (Фестиваль танца Анно Домини) (Facebook event page)
Three full days of historical dance workshops and a "Titanic" ball (бал по эпохе "Титаника")!

Sunday, November 11th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Cross-Step Waltz Workshop for Mostly Waltz Boston (Facebook event page)
7:00-10:30pm.  Waltz lesson & DJing.

Tuesday, November 13th ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Jane Austen Era Dancing (Facebook event page)
Beginner-friendly lesson 8:15-9:30pm.  No costume needed.

Saturday, November 17th ~ Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Remembrance Day Ball
A lovely American Civil War-era ball.  Sold out months ago.

Sunday, November 18th ~ New York City
Regency Dance Workshop (Facebook event page)
Beginner-friendly lesson 2:00-4:00pm

Friday, November 23 - Sunday, November 25 ~ Baltimore area, Maryland
Private event

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I am available for private lessons in Connecticut or on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

New Haven & Middletown, Connecticut: November 12-16 and 27-30
Boston: November 10-11
Санкт-Петербург: 1-2 и 6-7 ноября

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Coming in December:

Dance workshops (Regency and waltz) in New York City, a holiday waltz in Boston, blues and waltz in New Haven, and Jane Austen's Birthday Dance!

CD Review: Music for Quadrilles

Fans of Regency-era quadrilles will definitely want Music For Quadrilles, a CD by Kevin Smith and Green Ginger (Cas Sloan and Ian & Meryl Thomson), an excellent dance band which frequently plays for Regency balls in England.  The album includes three full quadrille sets as well as two Regency waltz tunes and several pieces for later Scottish country dancing that are also quite usable for nineteenth-century dance. 

This is one of the rare Regency (mostly) dance CDs that I can recommend without reservation.  The music mix is three violins (or two and a viola) and piano, which is both beautiful and very appropriate for Regency-era dance unless one is offended by a modern piano rather than a Regency-era pianoforte.  The music is for the most part documentably late eighteenth- or nineteenth-century, and sources are listed for all of it, though some are not dated and thus are something of a pain to track down.

Three Lead Round

An instruction that turns up repeatedly in late 18th and early 19th century country dance figures is some version of "the three ladies lead round the gentlemen, then the three gentlemen lead round the ladies."  I've selected this particular figure to discuss because it's one in which a straightforward-looking title omits an important performance detail and also because a closer look at its use in dance figures illustrates how country dancing evolved in subtle ways even over a relatively short period of time.  It's also a fun, lively figure that I use fairly often myself, so it's nice to examine how "mainstream" my style is for the Regency era.

Galop à Trois Pas (Three-Slide Galop)

Known variously as the three-slide galop, three step galop, galop à trois pas,  or galop à trois temps, this late-nineteenth-century variation is simply the standard galop step migrated into waltz time.  I've previously discussed the galop in 2/4 time in detail; the three-slide version is the same kind of series of slides and "chasing" steps:

1b    Slide-close-slide-close-slide = 1 & 2 & 3
2b    Slide-close-slide-close-slide = 1 & 2 & 3

This could also be described as slide-chassé-chassé, with each chassé being a "close-slide".

As is standard for galop, the first half is performed leading with the first foot (gentleman's left, lady's right) with the second foot then closing behind in order to again slide with the first foot.  The second half is then performed by sliding with the second foot and closing with the first.  As with the 2/4-time galop, no hop is mentioned.

The three-slide galop is described in several major dance manuals at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century:

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

A final reminder that the advance registration cutoff for the tenth annual Regency Assembly is quickly approaching.  The Assembly will be held on Saturday-Sunday, October 13-14 in New Haven, Connecticut, and is 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 a final review workshop on Sunday, 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 a workshop next Tuesday evening, October 9th, in Middletown, Connecticut, from 8:15-9:30 at Vinnie's Jump & Jive.

October 2012 Gig Calendar

October is when life gets crazy again, with a weekend in New York City, several days in Boston, the tenth Regency Assembly mid-month, and heading off to beautiful Санкт-Петербург at the end!

Friday, October 5th ~ New York City
Friday Night Blues (Facebook event page)
8:00pm-2:00am.  DJing blues sometime during in the 10pm-2am period (switching off with another DJ).

Saturday, October 6th ~ New York City
Cross-Step Waltz Workshop: 101 Grapevines  (Facebook event page)
Beginner-friendly lesson 2:00-4:00pm

Saturday, October 6th ~ New York City
Blues Dancing at Mala Leche  (Facebook event page -- end of this event)
10:00pm-2:00am.  DJing blues sometime in there (switching off with other DJs).

Sunday, October 7th ~ New York City
Regency Dance Workshop (Facebook event page)
Beginner-friendly lesson 2:00-4:00pm

Tuesday, October 9th ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Jane Austen Era Dancing  (Facebook event page)
Beginner-friendly lesson 8:15-9:30pm.  No costume needed.

Saturday & Sunday, October 13-14 ~ New Haven, Connecticut
Tenth Annual Regency Assembly!  (Facebook event page)
Dance workshop, ball, tea & games

Sunday, October 14 ~ New Haven, Connecticut
Yale Swing & Blues Practicum
8:00-11:00pm.  DJing blues from 9:30-11. 

Tuesday, October 16th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy  (Facebook event page)
7:30-11:00pm.  DJing blues for the second set.

Saturday, October 20th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Pre-Halloween Waltz Party (Facebook event page)
7:00-10:30pm.  Waltz lesson & DJing.

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I am available for private lessons at home or on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

New York: October 5-8
New Haven & Middletown, Connecticut: October 1-4, 9-12, 22-28
Boston: October 16-20

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Coming in November:

Historical dance in Санкт-Петербург, a waltz workshop in Boston, and the Remembrance Day Ball in Gettysburg!