The New York is another of the myriad "redowa and mazurka" variations given in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890). Along with the Fascination, it is one of only a few variations credited to Indianapolis dancing master D. B. Brenneke. It reappears among the material translated directly from Gilbert in [George] Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903), where it is listed as a mazurka and again credited to Brenneke.
Gilbert gives both this "New York" and another dance called "The New York", making it unclear whether the name refers to the city or whether it is simply a new version of the York. Lopp lists it as La New York, along with two different dances called La Nouvelle York. Lopp's translations suggest that the reference is to the city as much as to the popular dance. That might make it something of a pun, since the New York does include the characteristic sliding sequence found in the first measure of the York.
Contradicting this is the appearance of the dance in the addenda of the fifth edition of William B. De Garmo's The Dance of Society (New York, 1892), where it is listed simply as "The York, No. 2", which leads one to the new-version-of-the-York interpretation of the title. De Garmo notes that "This method has become very popular."
Lopp and Gilbert describe the sequence the same way, and De Garmo's language is similar, with added detail. The music is in 3/4 time. Lopp gives a metronome count of 144. The dancers begin in standard waltz position, the gentleman facing the wall and the lady the center of the room.
New York (four measures; gentleman's steps given; lady dances opposite)
1 Slide left foot sideways (second position) along line of dance
&2 Close right to left (first position) and once again slide left sideways (second position)
3 Close right to left
(making a quarter-turn clockwise to place the gentleman's back to line of dance)
123 Three running steps straight backward, left-right-left
(making a quarter-turn clockwise to leave the lady facing the wall and the gentleman the center, proceeding "over elbows")
&2 Close left to right (first position) and once again slide right sideways (second position)
3 Close left to right
(making a quarter-turn clockwise to place the lady's back to line of dance)
123 Three running steps straight forward, right-left-right
(end with a quarter-turn clockwise to leave the dancers in original positions)
Gilbert describes the three straight steps in the second and fourth measures as "running". De Garmo says to "run or leap". Lopp merely says to do the three steps "vivement". Exactly who runs backward on the repeat is not specified in Gilbert and Lopp, though presumably any change from the standard clockwise rotation would have been mentioned. De Garmo spells it out clearly, however.
De Garmo also states that while reversing is seldom done, is it "practicable". This would allow both for complete counter-clockwise rotations in quarter-turn increments and for switching back and forth, with either the lady or the gentleman going backward both times. Gilbert likely would not have approved of the lady being constantly asked to move backward; earlier, in his discussion of the waltz, he notes that this is discourteous as well as difficult when she is encumbered with the fashionable bustle and train of the 1880s, when the New York was developed:
To force a lady backward is very bad form, unless in some instances when a collision can be avoided by so doing, and then care should be taken to make the movement without too much force, especially with lad en train.
A final note: the rhythm and pattern of the New York are the same as that of the better-known La Russe, with the first and third measures in both variations being the same sliding sequence followed by second and fourth measures of three even beats. The two are thus especially easy to alternate, should dancers desire more variety.
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