Galopade country dances turn up most frequently in the early-mid-nineteenth-century (1830s & 1840s), but they're not unknown later on. A "Galopede" (under a wide variety of spellings) is still found in folk and traditional dance communities in Britain and former colonies such as Australia.
I have two sources for this particular galopade, both only vagely dated: Rudolph Radestock's The Royal Ball-Room Guide (London & Otley, c1877) and The People's Ball Room Guide, edited by James Scott Skinner (Dundee & London, c1905). Both of these books were at least in part compiled (or plagiarized) from other dance manuals. I suspect there is an earlier common source for this galopade -- there is nothing about it that would make it inappropriate as early as the 1840s. If anything, it's rather old-fashioned for the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. I'd also call it more typical for England or Scotland than America, where galopades don't seem to have been as common or had the same staying power.
Skinner classifies this galopade as a children's dance: "To Follow the March in a Children's Ball", presumably after ending a Grand March in platoons and flipping alternate lines of dancers around to create the couple-facing couple lines shown at left in a diagram from The People's Ball Room Guide. Radestock doesn't specify an age group, and adults certainly did galopades -- and much sillier things -- in ballrooms during the nineteenth century. It's a nice, easy dance that would be good for a ballroom full of beginners.
This dance has the sequence characteristic of many earlier galopades: figures for the whole set, figures for the top two couples, and a galop down the center to progress. Here are the figures:
A Galopade Country Dance (32 measures)
4b All forward and back
2b All forward, opposite ladies crossing by right shoulders to change places
2b Back with new partners
8b Repeat all of the above; ladies return to original partners
8b Top two couples ladies chain
8b Two two couples galop down the center to the bottom of the set; other couples move toward the top
Neither source specifies the starting hold for the couples, but holding hands along the lines is what I would expect. Gentlemen shortening their steps while giving their ladies a strong lead with their right hands on the second time going forwards will help the ladies have the momentum and space to cross and turn to retire with the opposite gentleman.
Skinner specified the promenade step, "that is, all galoping, not romping", for the forward and back, which I would interpret as a two slide-close-slide sequences forward and two back. I would use the same step for the ladies chain, though a walking step would also be a reasonable choice for either figure. Radestock says nothing about steps.
On the final turn of the ladies chain the two couples take closed ballroom hold or possibly a crossed-hand hold (which would flow especially smoothly from the ladies chain) and galop to the bottom, probably as a single long "sixteen-slide galop" rather than any sort of turning four- or eight-slide version. In a long set, this will turn into a bit of a race to reach the bottom and rejoin their lines before the dance restarts!
Music
This galopade will fit with any duple-time country dance or galopade tune with a 32-measure repeat structure. Skinner provided a music suggestion: "the last figure of La Pasha Quadrille" (possibly Charles d'Albert's The Pacha Quadrilles?) and, interestingly, words to be sung during the ladies' chain: "Come, dance along with me / 'Twill fill your hearts with glee."
Radestock provides no suggested music and mentions no lyrics. I'm really just as happy to skip the singing. I much prefer cheerful clapping (which generally starts spontaneously) by the idle couples while the top two are figuring and galoping.
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