Skibo, "The New Ball Room Dance", is a short sequence dance by Professor R. O. Blackburn set to music by Joseph T. Kane. It was published in Ohio in 1910. The cover of the sheet music may be seen at left; click to enlarge. The music is not labeled a schottische but does have a schottische-like feel and strathspey-like patterns with a sort of Scottish "snap".
The date of the dance and the Scottish flavor of the music suggest that it was named after Skibo Castle, originally built in the 12th century but extensively renovated by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie in the early 20th century, who added a golf course. Carnegie's renovations were covered in the American press (including articles in The New York Times). A Carnegie family photo album with pictures of Skibo Castle from 1908-1910 may be found in Georgia's Virtual Vault. The castle and the surrounding estate, no longer Carnegie-owned, are currently a private country club probably best known for hosting Madonna's wedding to Guy Ritchie in 2000.
I have no evidence that the dance was actually associated with the castle or the Carnegies. I think it more likely that it was simply an attempt to cash in by association with the famous property of a wealthy family. I've also never run across any mention of Skibo outside of this sheet music and suspect that calling it "The New Ball Room Dance" was merely ambitious advertising.
The dance itself is very much in the style of the early twentieth century sequence dance, with a back-and-forth along the line of dance followed by traveling then turning in the classic Veleta Waltz pattern. There is no actual round dancing in it, however; the turning is accomplished by linking arms and hopping in a circle. It's a slightly silly dance in the tradition of similar silly sequence dances and resembles both the contemporaneous Ostende (later reincarnated as the Castle Schottische) and the Lambeth Walk. It's easy enough for beginners, and the date makes it suitable for a Titanic-themed ball. My reconstruction is below, with feet given for the gentleman (lady dances opposite). Reconstruction notes follow.
Skibo
Part 1 (4 measures/16 beats)
Facing partners across the line of dance (gentleman faces the wall), not touching
1 Jump, landing on balls of both feet
2 Hop on right foot, extending left diagonally forward on heel
3 Hop on right foot, bringing left to a raised fifth position
4 Hop on right foot, extending left diagonally forward on heel
5 Step left into second position
6 Close right to left
7 Step left into second position
8 Close rght to left
9-16 Repeat all of the above on opposite feet
Part 2 (2 measures/eight beats)
Taking inside hands with partner (gentleman's right hand takes lady's left)
1-3 Run forward along line of dance left-right-left
4 Kick right foot gently forward
5-7 Run forward right-left-right
8 Kick left foot gently forward
Dancers may finding tempting to hop while kicking, but there is no suggestion of it in the instructions!
Part 3 (2 measures/eight beats)
Linking right arms and making one complete rotation
1-2 Step on left foot, hop on left foot
3-4 Step on right foot, hop on right foot
5-6 Step on left foot, hop on right foot
7-8 Step on right foot, hop on left foot
Separate from partner on the final step-hop to face each other and restart the dance.
Mnemonic:
Jump-heel-toe-heel, side-close-side-close
Jump-heel-toe-heel, side-close-side-close
Run-run-run-kick, run-run-run-kick
Step-hop-step-hop, step-hop-step-hop
Reconstruction Notes
The original instructions for Skibo are given at left (click to enlarge). The first part of the dance is entirely straightforward to reconstruct. The second and third parts have some issues.
Part 2, as written, is simply impossible. Three running steps and a kick, then all that repeated with the same starting foot, just does not work. One cannot have the weight on the outside (left) foot (the right in the air) and then make a step forward on the outside (left) foot. There are two possible fixes. The first is to have the dancers switch hands, reverse direction, and repeat Part 2 against the line of dance, which would make the (gentleman's) right foot the "outside" foot. But Blackburn does not say to do any such thing (as he does in Part 1), which seems a rather sizable omission. The second option, which I have chosen, is that Blackburn really meant to write "starting with inside foot" and "Kick outside foot forward" on the repeat of Part 2. The dancers continue along line of dance, alternating feet in the normal way.
Part 3 is not impossible, merely ambiguous. The dancers should "Hop around to the right", gentleman "starting" on the left foot and lady on the right, arms linked, for eight beats. One could interpret this as eight hops on one foot, but that is silly even for a sequence dance, and there is that word "starting" to imply a change of foot. There are two obvious possiblities. One would be to do eight "skips", or rapid step-hops, in the rhythm 1&2&3&4&5&6&7&8&. That's a little bit frantic if the music is played briskly. The other option would be slow schottische-style step-hops, each step-hop taking two beats for a total of four step-hops making one complete rotation. This would make Parts 2 & 3 of the dance into a schottische sequence with almost the same foot pattern as the Star Schottische. I've chosen this second option because of the generally schottische-like feel of the dance and music and because Blackburn gives eight beats with no indication of faster movement, but I can't rule out the skipping version.
Since each couple dances independently of the other couples, in any non-performance situation any two dancers could make their own decision about Part 3.
I am not aware of any recording of Skibo, but here is the sheet music, courtesy of The Brent Dickerson Sheet Music Collection. Click each page to enlarge.
Skibo will also work as a dance with any schottische tune and probably any strathspey as well.
Special thanks to Brent Dickerson for providing me with scans of Skibo, to Chris Weed and Jacqueline Schwab for playing the music for me, and to Liz Stell, Marnen Laibow-Koser, and James Langdell for offering their opinions as musicians and dancers on the feel of the tune.
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