Following up on my description of Elsie Janis' two little tapping variations from 1913, here's a pair of similar moves from the second edition of Dance Mad, a compilation of dance steps and sequences collected by F. Leslie Clendenen from dancing masters around the United States and published in St. Louis in 1914.
The first is simply called "The Tap" and is a form of hesitation like Janis' three-steps-and-a-tap sequence. Happily, it does not travel against the line of dance, which makes it a considerably more socially friendly move. The sequence is very simple. The dancers start in closed position, the gentleman moving forward and the lady backward along the line of dance. The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances on the opposite foot.
The Tap
1, 2 Step left, right
3, 4 Swing left foot forward (3) and backward (4), lightly touching or tapping the floor on each count
That's it! The only trick to this step is that if the lady doesn't know it, she's going to have no idea what's going on with the gentleman's foot. He needs to be certain to lead the halt after two steps, stopping the lady firmly, and to swing his foot outward slightly on the forward swing, since the lady does not want to learn what he's doing with his foot by having him kick her in the shin.
To keep the lady in place, leaning ever so slightly right will help cue her to not shift her weight off her (left) foot. Looking down at the swinging foot will also give her the idea that there is something to look at. Repeat the step-step-tap-tap a couple of times so the lady has a chance to pick it up.
Notice this is different from a typical double hesitation (described here) in that there is no change of weight during the hesitation. It stays on one foot (gentleman's right, lady's left) while the other just taps back and forth.
Like all hesitations, this one stops the dancers' travel, so the gentleman should be careful of other nearby dancers before stopping dead for two counts, so as not to cause another couple to crash into them.
Here's something a little bit harder. "The Points" is a jaunty little sequence of point-step-point-step, which can be done along line of dance but is more interesting if done turning. This isn't a hesitation, but it does move at half-speed along the line of dance, so some caution needs to apply when doing it on a crowded floor. Here are the steps of the basic version for the gentleman:
The Points
1 Point left foot out to side
2 Step forward left
3 Point right foot out to side
4 Step forward right
As usual, the lady dances on the opposite foot, moving backward.
This is superficially similar to Janis' one-two-three-tap sequence, though in this case the "point" (more touches than taps, but the same basic movement) comes before each step rather than at the end of a sequence. Leaning slightly from side to side and looking at the feet will help the gentleman cue the lady that this is not just a slow walk with a weird emphasis on the second beat of a measure.
It is laconically noted in Dance Mad that the points are "often performed with a turn on the fourth beat and repeated in the same direction." How does that actually work?
On the first time through, the gentleman going forward and the lady backward, the fourth step is actually a pivot, the second step of a traveling turn. The gentleman steps straight forward on his right foot between the lady's feet, angling them both toward the outside wall. But instead of her stepping straight back, the gentleman guides her to make her left-foot step more toward the wall, across his right foot. That makes the couple do a half-pivot clockwise, leaving the lady facing line of dance and the gentleman going backward.
The repeat is a bit trickier, since either the dancers have to travel against the line of dance or they have to pivot in reverse. I'm not fond of moves that go against line of dance, so since Dance Mad does not specify, let's take the reverse pivot.
The gentleman is traveling backwards now, so he points his left foot to the side, steps back left, points his right foot to the side, and, on the fourth count, steps right to the side, across the lady, pivoting counter-clockwise. The lady points her right foot, steps forward right, points her left foot, and steps straight forward on her left foot between the gentleman's feet.
The dancers never make a full turn, they just swish back and forth with half-turns, the lady always swinging by on the side nearest the wall.
None of the little tapping and touching moves I've described in this post and the last one are part of the core one-step repertoire, but they make nice little additions to the dance.
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