I sometimes wonder what it is about Yale that gets its name attached to dance positions as well as dances.
At left is the Yale position of the 1910s, as illustrated in Albert W. Newman's Dances of To-Day (Philadelphia, 1914). Click to enlarge the image. The dancers stand right side to right side, feet not interlaced at all. It's a perfectly reasonable position for traveling or hesitating in the one-step and a necessity for starting off moves like the Pomander Walk or the various hop-turns in the foxtrot. Newman also calls this the American position, so I suppose there are some pleasing associations there: Yale, all-American college boys, rah rah, Boola Boola, etc.
I used to make jokes about this position being a reflection of Yale students' dating life (looking right past each other...), but earlier in the century Yale's reputation seems to have been rather the opposite.
If ever there was cause for devout thankfulness, it is in the passing of the Yale lead. College boys have many sins to answer for, but few greater than that disgusting college clutch. Ugh!
Don't hold back, Bertha. Tell us how you really feel!
There is nothing about the position to give it an excuse for being. Quite the reverse. With a man gripping his partner's hand tightly and pinning it to his left lung, while with the other arm he holds her so close that she can hardly breathe, there is no chance for the freedom of motion, without which there is little grace in the dance. Only at free-for-all dances in public places is the Yale lead now tolerated.
Fortunately, 1902 was going to see great improvement in the area of classy ways to hold one's partner while dancing, as may be seen below (click to enlarge):
There is, of course, the position which is always correct and which every one knows. But this season's position is prettier still.
The partners stand almost at arm's length from each other, his right hand neither at the waist nor with five large, red digits spread over the middle section of her vertebrae, but rather resting on her side, while her right hand touches ever so lightly his left, which is supported by keeping the elbow close to the side. In this way each one dances for himself with grace and abandon, yet with the added pleasure of a combined harmony of motion.
The new position certainly leaves plenty of breathing room between partners, but speaking as a dancer, I hate being held by the side. Please, keep those, ah, large, red digits (preferably safely encased in clean white gloves) spread over my vertebrae where they belong!
The "always correct" position looks like a happy medium to me between having my hand pinned to someone's lung and having his hand on my side. I don't think I can endorse the new position. But I'll give Bertha the last word:
Vale, and stay dead, Yale lead!
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