- Era: 1880s into very early 1900s
The last of the racket waltz patterns appears only in Allen Dodworth's Dancing and its Relation to Education and Social Life (New York, 1885, reprinted 1900) and is thus saddled with his prosaic yet unwieldy title, "Alternating One Slide and Three Slide to Waltz." That's more a description of the technique a name, but it's what we've got.
Unlike "Alternating the One Slide and Three Slide to Galop," more usually known simply as the racket, the waltz-time version does not just combine the two existing racket waltzes (one-slide and two-slide) in a short/short/long short/short/long pattern. That works in waltz time since both the "short" and "long" patterns take only one measure apiece. Instead, this racket actually uses a three-slide racket, as in galop time, stretched in an irregular way from four beats to six, similarly to how the one-slide racket in galop is stretched from two beats to three in waltz time...but more complicated.
The sequence is assembled as follows:
2b one-slide to left, one-slide to right
2b three-slide to left
2b one-slide to right, one-slide to left
2b three-slide to right
Since I haven't previously given the three-slide racket in waltz time, which seems to have no existence anywhere as an independent dance (though there is no reason it couldn't), let me first describe how that works:
The three-slide racket in waltz time (four bars)
1 Slide left foot diagonally forward along line of dance
2 Draw right foot to left
& Slide left foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw right foot to left
45 Slide left foot diagonally forward along line of dance
6 Draw right foot to left, displacing left (into second position raised) (="cut")
& Draw left foot to right, displacing right (cut)
1 Slide right foot diagonally forward along line of dance
2 Draw left foot to right
& Slide right foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw left foot to right
45 Slide right foot diagonally forward along line of dance
6 Draw left foot to right, displacing right (cut)
& Draw right foot to left, displacing left (cut)
Here's the comparison of the three-slide racket in galop time vs. in waltz time:
Galop: 1&2&3 4& 1&2&3 4&
Waltz: 12&345 6& 12&345 6&
As you can see, it is not nearly as neat a conversion as the one-slide (galop) to one-slide (waltz) or the three-slide (galop) to two-slide (waltz). It may be easier to break down the three-slide in waltz time as follows:
12&3 123& 12&3 123&
The second and fourth bars are the plain old racket waltz, or one-slide racket in waltz time. So the pattern becomes
(something) one-slide (something) one-slide
where "something" is an irregular-rhythm 12&3 slide-close-slide-close that matches the third bar of the Fascination. This actually makes a perfectly reasonable dance all on its own, but it's not the one Dodworth is aiming for.
To get the full alternating-pattern sequence, we have to merge the pair of opening one-slides in, which will give us the four-bar "one-slide/one-slide/three-slide" pattern Dodworth is calling for:
one-slide left one-slide right (12&3 left) one-slide left
one-slide right one-slide left (12&3 right) one-slide right
Get it?
This is a genuinely weird pattern with no easier tricks for remembering it. Nothing but practice is going to help.
Here's the full alternating-etc.-etc. sequence written out with the gentleman's steps. The lady dances opposite as usual.
The alternating one- and three-slide rackets in waltz time (four bars)
12 Slide left foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw right foot to left, displacing left (cut)
& Draw left foot to right, displacing right (cut)
12 Slide right foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw left foot to right, displacing right (cut)
& Draw right foot to left, displacing left (cut)
1 Slide left foot diagonally forward along line of dance
2 Draw right foot to left
& Slide left foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw right foot to left
12 Slide left foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw right foot to left, displacing left (into second position raised) (="cut")
& Draw left foot to right, displacing right (cut)
12 Slide right foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw left foot to right, displacing right (cut)
& Draw right foot to left, displacing left (cut)
12 Slide left foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw right foot to left, displacing left (cut)
& Draw left foot to right, displacing right (cut)
1 Slide right foot diagonally forward along line of dance
2 Draw left foot to right
& Slide right foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw left foot to right
12 Slide right foot diagonally forward along line of dance
3 Draw left foot to right, displacing right (cut)
& Draw right foot to left, displacing left (cut)
Since I assume that no one is going to be trying this who does not have previous experience with rackets, I will simply note that all the usual directions for dancing rackets along angles and leading rhythm changes apply.
One could also change in and out of two-slide racket between iterations of this pattern, if one were feeling especially ambitious/masochistic.
Good luck!
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A master list of all my racket posts is here.
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