Most of the steps in Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) were collected by "author" F. Leslie Clendenen from other dancing masters, but he gives himself credit for the Sorority Glide, a sixteen-bar one-step sequence that he recommends be danced to "Too Much Mustard" or "any One Step music of a similar swing. It's a fun little sequence with a very "Castles" feel to it and room for some personal style. It works as an independent dance or can be plugged into a regular one-step as a variation.
The dancers begin in a ballroom hold, turned out slightly so both face line of dance. The dancers need to be far enough apart to make a cross step without crowding. Weight should be shifted onto the forward (outside) foot, the gentleman's left and the lady's right, since the dance starts on the inside foot.
The Sorority Glide
1. Cross-Chassez (four bars/eight counts)
Cross inside foot (his right/her left) over outside foot (1) and use outside foot to make a chassez, closing and pushing the inside foot forward again (&2). Repeat, counting 1&2&3&4&5&6&7&8, ending on a cross of the inside foot.
2. Point-cross-point-close (two bars/four counts)
Point outside foot (his left/her right) sideways along line of dance (1), cross it over inside foot (2), point inside foot (his right/her left) sideways against line of dance (3), and close it to the other foot with weight (4).
3. Draw steps (two bars/four counts)
Step sideways along line of dance (1), close (2), step sideways (3), close (4).
4. Gallop and half-turn (four bars/eight counts)
Gallop one bar (side-close-side-close, 1&2&) then step side (3) and close (4). The half-turn is a slow, three-count two-step turn: side, starting to turn (5); close (6); side, completing turn (7). The dancers are now turned halfway; line of dance is "over elbows". Point the inside foot (his right/her left) along line of dance without weight (8).
Repeat the gallop and half-turn over elbows, but at the end, put weight on the pointing foot (his left, her right) to set up for a repeat of the sequence.
Performance Note
The trickiest transition in the Sorority Glide is between the cross-chassez and the first point of the foot; it's all too easy to accidentally close the outside foot up again instead of pausing briefly before the point. Practice the transition point of "cross-close-cross-close-cross-close-CROSS, POINT: counting "...five and six and seven and EIGHT, ONE" until it sinks in thoroughly. Do not suddenly close up with your partner on that first point of the foot; space is still needed for the following cross.
Reconstruction Issues
This is a fairly straightforward sequence to reconstruct. The only issue is an odd instruction to "NOTE the pause on the 4th count of the gallop, before starting the turn." In a normal two bars of gallop, there wouldn't be any pause if the dancers are to start the next move on the same lead foot, as is the case here. The gallop would be 1&2&3&4& and the next move start on 5. To resolve this, I could either ignore the instruction to have a pause or slow the gallop at the end to create one. I chose the former option, effectively turning the second bar (3, 4) into a draw step, but the latter is just as convincing to me. Just make sure both partners agree on how to dance that measure!
Music
I have two recordings of "Too Much Mustard", both at about 135 beats per minute, at which point the dance is lively edging toward difficult at the change from the cross-chassez to the point-cross-point-close. I wouldn't go much faster than that, and slightly slower may be easier. Too slow will make the cross-chassez sequence feel tedious. There are many, many recordings of "Too Much Mustard" (period and modern) available in a wide tempo range, so if you want to use that music, you can take your pick.
Both my recordings have neat eight-bar phrases repeated in pairs which fit nicely with this dance. On both my recordings, after five of these sixteen-bar segments there is a four-bar break before the sixth sixteen-bar segment. If the dancers simply dance across this break, the dance will go across the final phrases and the music will end with the dancers at the halfway point of the galop-and-turn. Recordings will vary, of course, but if your recording contains similar breaks, here are two options to neaten things up:
(1) During the breaks, dance the point-cross-point-close and draw steps to fill the time. Then go back to repeating the entire sequence.
(2) Live with dancing across the phrase and wherever you end, make sure it's with a flourish! If you end with the first half of the galop-and-turn, add some drama to the "point" -- raise the arms scorpion style, dip slightly back against line of dance, tap the foot, whatever. If after the draw steps, make the final close crisp, maybe with a stamp. If on the cross-chassez sequence, try to stop the step on count seven and simply close crisply and face your partner on eight.
Any other one-step music with eight-bar phrases will also work, but it needs to have similar "drive" to it to carry through the cross-chassez sequence.
Using it as a variation
If, instead of using it as an independent sequence dance, one wants to use this as a variation, the only trick is to make sure to get the second foot (his right/her left) free on count 1 to start the dance. The easiest way to do this is to add a single polka skip at the end of the previous phrase: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7&8. That will change the lead foot. To get back to the usual lead foot, at the end of the sequence, simply point the free foot (his left/her right) without weight then continue onto that foot on count 1.
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