The Dip Schottische is one of the minor schottische sequences created by dancing masters in the early 1910s. In this case, the author was one I. C. Sampson, of Lynn, Massachusetts, and the dance was published in both the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914). Unfortunately, the dance instructions have one major ambiguity that makes it very difficult to come to a definitive reconstruction: what, exactly, does "turn" mean? Here's the original language for one move in the dance:
"One Step" turn (pivot, four steps, two measures)
The problem is that there is no single "one step turn". There are at least two very plausible candidates: the spin and the traveling turn, better known today as pivots. If I had to guess which would be the "one step turn", I'd guess the spin, but there are some problems with that in regard to this particular sequence. But there are problems with the traveling turn as well. Here's some of what I considered when trying to choose between them:
- Terminology. The term "pivot" at first glance would seem to refer to traveling turns, but that usage is a more modern one. In period sources you don't see pivot used regularly for traveling turns, and it is also used to mean all sorts of other rotating movements. The spin is actually more clearly a pivot, spinning on one foot, than the traveling turn, which spins alternately on both.
- Written sources. The spin was described by both Vernon and Irene Castle (who called it one of the most important moves in the one-step) and Albert Newman, for whom it was, in fact, the default one-step turn. Newman describes the traveling turns, but the Castles do not write about them at all.
- Film source. However, the Castles don't actually do the spin in their recorded dancing (in the 1915 silent film The Whirl of Life), and they famously show lots and lots of traveling turns.
- Other occurrences. The spin shows up occasionally in published one-step or Castle walk sequences, including elsewhere in Dance Mad, but it is often described with phrases like "as in tango", which suggests that it is thought of more as a tango move than a one-step move. But traveling turns are rarely mentioned at all.
- Schottische context. The traveling turn would better match a normal schottische pattern, with four steps making two full rotations in the second half of the schottische pattern, very much like a gliding version of the leap-hop turns of the earliest schottisches.
- Actual practice. Setting up for the traveling turn requires some little fudges which are not in the instructions. The spin turn does not require those fudges, but using the spin turn would leave the dancers effectively stationary on the floor for six out of eight measures, which seems extremely odd and potentially very annoying in a ballroom.
- Clues in the description. Later in the description, the word "turn" is used in what looks like the singular: "two counts in each movement for the dip and the turn". That implies that it is just one complete turn, which would be the case with the spin, rather than two, if it were traveling turns. But the description also uses the singular "dip" when there are quite clearly two dips in the sequence.
I feel like the spin turn is a better candidate for "one-step turn", but it makes a significantly less attractive sequence (too stationary and much less like a typical schottische sequence). There are enough oddities in social dance that I can't completely rule out the idea of dancing in places for six out of eight measures as a sort of elaborate quasi-hesitation, but it just doesn't seem likely. So for me, I think that the aesthetics override the terminology. But just in case anyone strongly disagrees, I'll include the spin version below the cut. as well. See my earlier posts on the spin and the traveling turn for details on how to perform each.
In either version, the starting position is a normal closed ballroom hold, with the gentleman facing the wall and the lady facing the center of the room. The gentleman starts left and the lady right. His steps are given; she dances opposite.
Each bar of music referred to has four beats. The length of the entire sequence is equivalent to twice through a standard schottische pattern. Any period schottische music may be used.
The Dip Schottische using traveling turns (eight bars)
1b Slide left foot to the side along line of dance but angling slightly toward the wall (1-2); point right foot crossed behind and bend knees (3-4); look back against line of dance on the dip
1b Repeat the above moving to the right and angling slightly toward the center of the room, crossing left foot behind, and looking forward along line of dance on the dip
2b Make four steps of traveling turns (pivots), making a full rotation on the first two and three-quarters of a rotation on the second two.
(This leaves the lady's back to the line of dance and the gentleman facing forward along line of dance.)
2b Eight trotting steps along line of dance, gentleman forward starting on the left foot and stepping out to the left to come right hip to right hip with the lady on the last two trots.
(Using the step out to set up pivots is a trick used by the Castles.)
2b Starting with the gentleman swinging in front of the lady, across the line of dance, while turning the lady halfway so that she steps directly forward with her right foot along the line of dance, make four steps of traveling turns (pivots), making two full rotations.
(This ideally leaves the dancers back in starting orientation, gentleman facing the wall.)
Using traveling turns makes the sequence travel excitingly, at the cost of some awkwardness in entering and exiting the turns. The slightly diagonal angles of the slides in the first two bars help get the dancers in a better position for the following traveling turns. The gentleman will need to surge up strongly from the second dip and swing in front of the lady with his left foot as she steps forward with her right along line of dance. Tweaking the angle makes getting that first step all the way across the line of dance a bit easier.
Alternate version of the Dip Schottische using spins (eight bars)
1b Slide left foot to the side along line of dance (1-2); point right foot crossed behind and bend knees (3-4); look back against line of dance on the dip
1b Repeat the above moving to the right, crossing left foot behind, and looking forward along line of dance on the dip
2b Four-step clockwise spin, two beats per step, making a three-quarter rotation
(This leaves the lady's back to the line of dance and the gentleman facing forward along line of dance.)
2b Eight trotting steps along line of dance, gentleman forward starting on the left foot
2b Four-step clockwise spin, two beats per step, making more than a full rotation
(This ideally leaves the dancers back in starting orientation, gentleman facing the wall.)
Making the one-and-a-quarter turn necessary on the second spin in only four steps calls for significant rotation on each step. It helps to cheat slightly by starting to spin on the last trotting step by swinging the lady slightly toward the wall. One can also cheat at the end. If not quite back in original starting orientation, just turn the last little bit while making the first sliding step so that it ends up traveling straight along the line of dance rather than diagonally.
Note that the dancers are basically stationary on the first four and last two bars of the sequence, while on the fifth and sixth bars it travels very quickly. If the whole room is not doing this sequence together, it's likely to cause traffic problems on the dance floor.
As noted above, the first sequence is my preferred reconstruction, but I can't definitively rule out this one. Experiment for yourself and see what you think!
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