Capering & Kickery

March 2015 Gig Calendar

TL;DR version: Regency, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Regency, Regency, Regency, Waltz.

I'll be adding more links and details over the next few days, but here's the general plan for March, featuring my exciting Russian whistle-stop tour!

Sunday, March 1st ~ New York City
Regency Dance Workshop (Facebook event)
Beginner-friendly lesson 3:00-5:00pm.  No costume needed.

Saturday-Monday, March 7th-10th ~ St. Petersburg, Russia
Eighth Annual Conference on Historical Dance Reconstruction
Plus: classes on 1910s foxtrot, working with Clarchies, and the Mid-Lothians Quadrille
VKontakte link (Russian)

Wednesday, March 11th ~ Moscow, Russia
Classes: Regency Waltz Quadrille, 1900s Two-Step
VKontakte link (Russian)

Thursday-Friday, March 12th & 13th ~ Kazan, Russia
Classes: Regency Swedish dances, country dance composition, quadrille; mid-19th century schottische
VKontakte link (Russian)

Saturday, March 14th ~ Moscow, Russia
Classes: Quadrille Russe, Polo Quadrille, Zulma L'Orientale, 19th century cotillons ("Germans") for large groups; lecture on French balls in the mid- to late 19th century
VKontakte link (Russian)

Sunday, March 15th ~ Moscow, Russia
Classes: Valse a deux temps, Regency country dance composition, early maxixe, early tango
VKontakte link (Russian)

Tuesday-Wednesday, March 17th-18th ~ Voronezh, Russia
Classes: Mid-19th century galop, polka, schottische, country dances
VKontakte link (Russian)

Sunday, March 22nd ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Regency Tea Dance (Facebook event)
Beginner-friendly social dancing 2:30-5:30pm.  Early 19th century costume encouraged!

Thursday, March 26th ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Jane Austen Era Dancing (Facebook event)
Beginner-friendly dancing 7:30-9:00pm.  No costume needed.

Sunday, March 29th ~ New York City
Regency Dance Workshop (Facebook event)
Beginner-friendly lesson 3:00-5:00pm.  No costume needed.

Monday, March 30th ~ New Haven, Connecticut
Cross-Step Waltz Lesson Series (Advanced Beginner) (Facebook event)
Cross-step basics review session 7:00-8:00pm. 

Events and workshops further in the future may be found on the Gig Calendar!

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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: March 2-4, 20-28, 30-31
Saint Petersburg, Russia: March 6-10
Moscow, Russia: March 11
Kazan, Russia: March 12-13
Moscow, Russia: March 14-16
Voronezh, Russia: March 17-18
New York City: March 29

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Coming in April: a weekend of dance workshops in Chicago, a too-brief period of research-oriented hibernation, a weekend of nineteenth century in New Jersey and New York, then back to Russia again for the Anno Domini festival!  See the Gig Calendar for links!

An 1840s Galopade Quadrille

I was looking for something new to do with galopade for my upcoming classes in Voronezh, Russia when I came across the same set of galopade quadrille figures in several different dance manuals from the 1840s.  That seemed to be a sign, and the quadrille turned out to be a fun little set.  (Edited 3/21/2015 to add: and the dancers in Voronezh liked it too!)

The quadrille instructions are quite straightforward.  There are six verses, each bracketed by the four couples performing a galopade around the set, turning at each position, and a "balance and turn" figure in which they chassez right and left and then turn partners by two hands, ending in close hold to prepare for the galopade at the beginning of the next verse. 

The "Dewey" Figure, 1899

A few months back I discussed a short piece from Harper's Bazaar naming popular dances for the winter of 1898-1899.  In that piece, the "Dewey" cotillion figure, named after the famous admiral, was mentioned.  At the time I had no source for this figure and instead described a similar confetti-throwing figure.  Since then, I've unexpectedly come across a description in the 1899 edition of the Fashionable Quadrille Call Book and Guide to Etiquette by B. Coanacher.  (An earlier edition is online at the Library of Congress.) The 1899 edition has a new cover proclaiming it Clendenen's Quadrille Book and Guide to Etiquette.

F. Leslie Clendenen was a St. Louis-based dancing master and author of at least one actual dance manual, but he is most remembered today as the editor of the 1914 compilation Dance Mad.  It's not clear to me whether he actually wrote or edited any of this book or whether the publisher just slapped on a cover with a prominent name to improve sales.  The Clendenen cover also appears on a 1917 edition which adds still more dances and some sheet music as well.

Here's the description:

The "Dewey" Figure

will be very popular, the theme is the Bombardment of Manila, and naturally calls for quite a display of patriotic colors.  The dancers are arranged in parallel columns and at a signal march, moving in lines executing a strategic play at battle.  Finally they line up in two imposing columns, the women on one side, men on the other.  On the floor is the stock of ammunition, consisting of red, white and blue paper hearts.  At the signal, the bombardment begins, and the combatants seize the hearts and hurl them at their adversaries.  The fun increases as the battle waxes hot and the colored hearts burst and the colored paper contents are sent fluttering about.  In the end, there is a complete capitulation and the partners waltz off together.

Once again we're back to the patriotic fervor engendered by the Spanish-American War, as discussed in my earlier post.  The props used are more along the lines of those used in the French figure Les Boules de Neige (Snowballs), with paper hearts full of confetti made to burst on impact.  It is somewhat more practical than Battle Confetti in not having the dancers end in a circle and not requiring mysterious strings crossing the ballroom.  As with other confetti figures, it's best done when there is a quiet cleanup crew on hand with brooms!

The "parallel columns" and "strategic play" are vague enough for some fun to be had if the columns (two, women and men? or more?) are provided with imaginative "generals".  It's not really clear whether the bombardment is meant, as in Snowballs, to select partners by whom one hits or whether each is bombarding the person who is directly across in the opposing column and thus destined to become their partner.  Or possibly the dancers just have a grand old time randomly covering each other in confetti before finding their original partners.  Though the waltz is specified for the final dance, there's no reason a polka or two-step could not be used instead, unless the entire cotillion is waltz-only.

"Dewey" is also like Snowballs (and Battle Confetti) in that it is usable by large numbers of dancers.  Indeed, the description suggests that it might be a "general figure" meant for all the participants in the cotillion.