Capering & Kickery

July 2014 Gig Calendar

This month I am staying home and writing a lot (or going somewhere else to alternate writing and swimming) then making one extended research trip before spending most of August far, far away.  Check back for possible added DJ gigs, but don't expect anything else this month.  I am hibernating, socially speaking.

I have so, so, so much to do before I leave that at five-plus weeks out I am already in a pre-trip panic.

Tuesday, July 1st ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Jane Austen Era Dancing (Facebook event)
Beginner-friendly lesson 8:15-9:30pm.  No costume needed.

Tuesday, July 22nd ~ Somerville, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy  (Facebook event)
7:30-11:00pm (lesson then dancing).  DJing blues from 9:45-11:00.

Sunday, July 27th ~ Boston area
Regency dance workshop (Facebook event)
Private event, email for details

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I am available for private lessons in Connecticut or on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

New Haven & Middletown, Connecticut: July 1-17, 21, 29-31
Boston area: July 22-27

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Coming in August: the usual New York and Middletown classes followed by a private trip to three useful-for-dance-research European cities.  It will require exceedingly clever persuasion to convince me to interrupt this trip to teach.

End-of-fellowship thoughts

I wrapped up my New England Regional Fellowship at the end of May, and other than a few loose research ends that I will be making more library trips this summer and fall to wind up, I've mostly completed the initial stage of my cotillon project: gathering lots and lots of cotillons so that I have enough of them to make some meaningful analysis of the genre. 

Dance Card: West Haven High School, 1910

I'm always happy to find dance ephemera from my home state of Connecticut, and this dance card is particularly local: it's from a 1910 Junior-Senior Dance at West Haven High School, whose current incarnation is less than ten miles away.  Today is the last day of classes for WHHS, though I don't think it's in the same building as in 1910.  In celebration, let's talk about what the students there were up to 104 years ago. 

West Haven was settled in 1648 and was the landing site for a British attack during the Revolutionary War.  In 1910, it was not yet an independent town but a part of neighboring Orange.  The "Informal" Junior and Senior Dance for the classes of 1910 and 1911 took place on Friday, June 17th, 1910 at West Haven Town Hall. 

This is a used card, with the last names of partners scrawled in pencil next to most of the dances.  I would have guessed this to be a girl's card since there are only last names with no "Miss" attached to them.  However, the name "Arthur" is written above the dance list; possibly this is the card owner's name.

One-Step Variations: Reverse Dip Step

Vernon and Irene Castle's Reverse Dip Step shows up as a one-step variation in two little commercial publications that feature the Castles: Victor Records for Dancing (1916?) and Three Modern Dances (1914), also published by Victor.

The Reverse Dip is a simple little hesitation sequence.  The recontruction is made particularly easy because the Castle were kind enough to include in Three Modern Dances a filmstrip sequence of themselves performing the moves.  I've included a scan of it at left; click to enlarge.  The original is only about 8" x 2.5", so the image quality when enlarged is not going to be great. 

To follow the sequence, start at top left and go down the left-hand column, then down the right-hand one.  Note the product-placement victorla in the background; Three Modern Dances includes ads for eight different victrolas as well as for records.

To perform the Reverse Dip, the dancers should be in "Yale" position, right hip to right hip, with the gentleman facing line of dance.  The gentleman starts with the left foot, the lady with the right.  The sequence is only eight counts:

123    Three walking steps (him forward L-R-L, her back R-L-R)
4        Rock weight onto trailing foot (him back R, her forward L)
123    Three walking steps (him back L-R-L, her forward R-L-R)
4        Dip, bending the knees (him back R, her forward L)

At the end, simply rise to start off on the left foot again and repeat or move on to return to a basic one-step or other variation.

The dip is not a simple rock backward; the dancers keep an upright posture and bend their knees, as can be seen clearly in the slide "D".

The Reverse Dip breaks down on the filmstrip as three walks (A to B), rock and three more walks (B to C), dip (D), and repeat starting with the three walking steps (D to E).  Though the film shows a turn, that is a function of trying to keep the performance in camera range, not an actual part of the move. 

Note that this is what I call an anti-social variation: it not only hesitates, it goes directly against line of dance and thus creates a significant danger of a collision with other dancers.  So it's a poor choice for a crowded room, but a nice move to do on a big floor with few couples dancing, or in the center of the room, a corner, or some other out-of-the-way location.

The Castles' Paul Jones

In 1914, Victor Records made a celebrity-endorsement deal with Vernon and Irene Castle, "the greatest exponents of Modern Dancing who supervise the making of Victor Dance Records".  The company put out a little booklet, Victor Records for Dancing, which included short instructions for various couple dances (including the brand-new foxtrot) plus an enthusiastic note from Vernon Castle about the superiority of Victor records and the indispensibility of the Victrola in teaching classes. 

The instructions for each dance were accompanied by a convenient list of suitable Victor recordings.  Tucked at the end of the book were instructions for a country dance and a Paul Jones circle mixer "as taught at the Castle School of Dancing, New York City".

In the past, I've discussed a very simple 1903 two-step circle mixer and a more complex English Paul Jones from the 1920s.  The Castles' version is quite similar to the 1903 one, but it's physically rather livelier while mentally less taxing; the dancers don't have to count. 

Here's the pattern:

8b    Slipping circle to the right
8b    Slipping circle to the left
??    Grand right and left (starting right hands to partner) until signal given
??    Dance with the person you are facing until signal given
Re-form the circle and repeat all of the above until the music ends.

The Castles helpfully confirm that "As the time for changing is optional, the signal, which is usually the blowing of a whistle, is left to the discretion of the director of the dance."

The reconstruction is fairly straightforward, but there are a few minor issues:

The printed instructions mistakenly list "grand right and left changing to counts of 8 measures", which I believe was more likely intended to be "counts of 8", or four counts per change of hands, which is a typical pace for a grand right and left.  It has to be some sort of error, since there is no exact duration for this figure; it goes until the signal is given.

The circles are described as "all slide to right chassé" and "Repeat to left chassé"; in practice, this is a "sixteen-slide galop" in each direction. That's a lot of slipping, so it wouldn't bother me particularly if it were cut to four measures each direction in practice. 

The slipping is a little tricky to manage when coming back together after dancing with a partner; any laggard dancers cannot easily join in without getting mowed down.  A signal by the director of the dance to tell the dancers when to start slipping is probably going to be required.  Making sure to signal to reform the circle with at least two measures' lead-time before the end of a phrase will help let the dancers get into position ready to start with the musical phrase.  Four might be safer.

The slipping circle starting to the right is weirdly reminiscent of the opening "grand round" change of an 18th-century French cotillion, though in no other respect does this dance resemble "Le Paul Jones", an unexceptional cotillion from the 1770s with no mixer element.

For music, dancer were referred to the lengthy list of "Victor Records for the One Step", but the Castles also noted that "The One-Step is generally used for the Paul Jones...but the Fox-trot, Canter or old-fashioned Waltz may be used."  In practice, an "old-fashioned waltz" would presumably require canter (1...3) rhyhm in the slipping circles, which would make for a much gentler dance.

It being the year for 1914 centennial balls, a Paul Jones is something to consider for a ball program, especially early in the evening, in order to break down social barriers and allow strangers to meet.

Tales of the Schottische from Godey's Lady's Book

A comment from one of my Russian correspondents that the schottische was rarely, if ever, danced in Russia in the nineteenth century* started me thinking, after a series of mental jumps**, about how well-accepted (or not) the schottische was in America in its early years. 

There appears to have been some dissension on the merits of the dance after its introduction to America around 1849.  Edmund Ferrero claimed in The art of dancing (New York, 1859) that the schottische had "acquired great favor", and all the major dance manuals from the end of the 1850s onward include it.  But the anonymous author of Beadle's dime ball-room companion and guide to dancing (New York, 1868) claimed that the schottische was considered "vulgar".  Since it appeared regularly on dance cards from at least the late 1850s all the way into the early twentieth century, that can't have been a universal opinion.  But was it really anyone's other than, presumably, those of ministers and others who condemned dancing altogether?

Two short stories from the famous nineteenth-century women's magazine Godey's Lady's Book suggest that the popularity and vulgarity were not mutually exclusive, and that there was continuing concern in some circles about "fashionable" dancing.

Early Foxtrot: The Newburgh

The Newburgh is a longer and more complicated foxtrot sequence taken from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916).  Like her Left Glide, it changes the lead foot against the music, with same opportunities and issues previously discussed for that move.

As is typical, the gentleman starts on the left foot, moving forward, and the lady on the right foot, moving backward.  The steps below are the gentleman's steps; reverse everything for the lady.  The numbers are beats, not measures.

The Newburgh
12345    five walking steps (left, right, left, right)
6            cross right over left (lady crosses left behind right)
7&8       two-step (left-right-left)

1            cross right over left
 (lady crosses left behind right)
2&3       two-step (left-right-left)
4            cross right over left (lady crosses left behind right)
5&6       two-step (left-right-left)
7            step side right

The only reconstruction issue on this step is how the lady crosses: truly opposite (crossing behind) or mirroring the gentleman (crossing in front).  Lee never specifies this.  While for Lee's Side Swing and Chaplin Trot I came to the conclusion that the lady should mirror the gentleman (both cross in front), for the Newburgh, after experimenting with both options, I feel that the lady should cross behind.

On the Side Swing, the cross is followed by a back step, and a back cross tends to blur that into a close.  The Newburgh has the opposite problem: both partners are two-stepping along the line of dance, and must turn their sides almost completely toward the line of dance if the full Newburgh sequence is not to have them end up in the center of the room, especially if repeating it twice in a row.  A front cross is entirely possible and easy to lead, so it certainly cannot be ruled out, but it makes the the three iterations of cross/two-step rather dull.  Unles the dancers are very careful not to turn their bodies, it blurs into a promenade step forward with the inside foot, losing the "cross" aspect.  But if they don't turn their bodies, they are effectively traveling face-to-face along the line of dance for nine counts.  The swiveling necessitated by the lady's back cross is more work to lead (a strong turn forward of the gentleman's right side and a slight lift help signal the back cross), but it makes the Newburgh a much more interesting sequence to dance. 

The Newburgh's tendency to send the dancers toward the center of the room makes it, like the Left Glide, a dandy sequence for taking corners -- just start the cross/two-step sequence right at the corner.  Turning sides toward line of dance won't be needed on the first two-step; the dancers will already be at the proper angle by virtue of the corner.

Lee also gives an alternate ending for the Newburgh, replacing the side step to the right at the end with a three-slide:

7&8&1  slide-close-slide-close-step (right-left-right-left-right)

This will compensate somewhat for the tendency to drift toward the center on the cross/two-step sequence, but it doesn't mean the dancers should avoid compensating for this by turning the dancers' sides toward line of dance -- having the dancers oscillating into and out of the center of the room will cause traffic problems for any dancers following behind them!

The three-slide ending still changes the lead foot against the music, but for a very smooth transition into a new sequence leading off on the right foot, Maurice-style, the final count (1) could be treated as the first step of the next sequence of steps.

Early Foxtrot: Slides & Glides, 1916

Continuing on with my little celebration of the centennial year of the foxtrot:

I've discussed before how the two-step and sliding sequences similar to the four-slide galop of the nineteenth century were incorporated into the foxtrot in its earliest years.  Other than one 1919 variation from Charles Coll, the two-step sequences described were generally symmetrical, with even numbers of two-steps either in sequence or broken up by walking steps.  Slides were generally done in sets of four. 

Here's another pair of simple "glides" from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) that break that pattern with single two-steps and a set of three slides.  The "Right Glide" and "Left Glide" are very accessible variations for foxtrot beginners.

Walking Around

[T]he musicians are to engage in conversation, say half a minute or less...meanwhile, the dancers are meditating what is next

I'm never quite sure whether Elias Howe had a sense of humor, but to my twenty-first-century eyes, the above is the second-funniest bit of dance instructions he wrote or published.  Just visualize it: the dancers are standing around looking confused meditating what is next while the musicians stop playing and engage in conversation? 

Seriously???