- Era: 1910s
- Dances: Foxtrot, One-Step, Hesitation Waltz
2014 marks one hundred years since the foxtrot made its first big splash, so it's very timely for me to have come across a copy of Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916). This is by far the largest single collection of 1910 foxtrot step sequences I've ever found in one place, and many of them are completely new to me.
Lee's sequences were billed as "suitable for the ballroom, gymnasium, or playground, as well as for private exercise at home, either with or without a partner." While several of them match foxtrot variations that I've previously discussed, they're given a poetic new set of names. Can anyone guess which common sequences Lee endows with names like the Meditation Glide, Barcarolle, and Viola Dana?
One sequence I have discussed previously in the context of the one-step is a simple four-count hesitation step. Philadelphia dancing master Albert Newman described it as a one-step move in his 1914 manual, Dances of To-day, under the unwieldy title "The Double Hesitation With One Foot". Lee didn't do much better, alas; she simply called it the "Slow Twinkle". The description is basically the same as Newman's, though she prefaces it with four walking steps:
1234 Four walking steps
1 Step forward on the left foot
2 Rock back onto the right foot
3 Step backward onto the left foot
4 Step forward onto the right foot
The above steps are for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite, her back to line of dance, in this and the versions below. At the relatively gentle pace of the foxtrot, this is a lovely chance to sway back and forth gracefully in one spot.
In keeping with the way 1910s sequences are often used across different dances, Lee also noted that the slow twinkle "may be used without alteration in the one-step and in the waltz walk." The waltz walk is a form of hesitation waltz for which each count above represents one bar of 3/4 time.
The hesitation part of the sequence also appeared with an irregular rhythm as part of the Mistletoe Hesitation, where it is crowded into two bars of 3/4 time:
123 Step forward on the left foot
4 Rock back onto the right foot
5 Step backward onto the left foot
6 Step forward onto the right foot
Lee mentioned in her comments on the slow twinkle that there were "other ways of doing the twinkle, but none better than this". I've described two others with more conventional twinkle patterns (closing the feet) in two other hesitation waltz sequences.
There is a also double-time rhythm for this sequence that Lee described for the foxtrot only. She stated directly that it "cannot be used in the one-step or waltz", presumably because the former would be too fast and the latter's 3/4 rhythm would not produce an even distribution of steps over time. Here is the "Fast Twinkle" rhythm:
1234 Four walking steps
1 Step forward on the left foot
& Rock back onto the right foot
2 Step backward onto the left foot
& Step forward onto the right foot
This could also be stated as "slow, slow, slow, slow, quick-quick-quick-quick".
A final note: Lee claimed that "It is important that one's partner know when this step is coming, as it must be done together in perfect time to make it a success." I have no quarrel with the need to do it in unison, but I am not fond of advance warnings. How exactly would that work? A verbal cue? Blinking in Morse code? Strange facial contortions? At the foxtrot's relaxed tempo, I don't find that the fast twinkle requires any sort of advance warning to do successfully any more than other slow/quick rhythm combinations.
In celebration of the foxtrot, go forth and twinkle!
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