Capering & Kickery

December 2015 Gig Calendar

I'm going to spend a big chunk of early December on the road in Ohio and Illinois doing some teaching and research and conducting a Caledonian Regency ball with a mix of French, Scottish, and English dances of the era for the English country dance community in Chicago.  Somehow I have managed to schedule four major Regency workshops or events in four different cities within an eleven-day period.  Exciting!

After that, I'll be quietly at home for my holiday recess/research/writing time through the New Year.  That'll be good, too.

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Wednesday, December 2nd ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Conga Class Series! (Facebook event)
Lively dance/exercise -- take conga beyond the line dance to moves for solos, couples, and groups!  6:00-7:00pm.  Last in a four-class series.  Drop-ins welcome!

Wednesday, December 2nd ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Social Waltz 101: Country Waltz (Facebook event)
Beginner-oriented lesson 7:00-8:00pm.  Last in a six-class series.  Drop-ins welcome!

Wednesday, December 2nd ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Social Waltz 102: Cross-Step Waltz (Facebook event)
Beginner-friendly lesson 8:00-9:00pm.  Last in a four-class series.  Drop-ins acceptable, but previous experience or preceding Social Waltz 101: Country Waltz class helpful.

Sunday, December 6th ~ Cincinnati, Ohio
Private event

Monday, December 7th ~ Chicago, Illinois
Caledonian Regency Ball for the Chicagoland English Country Dancers (Facebook event)
Evening ball with live music.  Costumes encouraged!  Musicians include the 2014 U.S. Scottish Fiddle Champion Tim MacDonald!

Sunday, December 13th ~ New York City
A Jane Austen Afternoon at the Morris-Jumel Mansion (Facebook event)
2:00-5:00pm.  Costumes encouraged!  Dancing, refreshments, and enjoying the mansion.  Recorded music.  Limited to 40 -- advance registration strongly encouraged!

Wednesday, December 16th ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Jane Austen's Birthday Dance (Facebook event)
Beginner-friendly dance evening 7:00-9:00pm.  Celebrate Jane Austen's birthday with the dancing of the early 19th century!  Historical costume encouraged.

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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: December 1-3, 14-31
Chicago, Illinois: December 7-10
New York City: December 12-13

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See the Gig Calendar for further-out events and workshops!

Chassé-Croisé with Scottish steps

I reconstructed Regency dancing master Thomas Wilson's Royal Scotch Quadrilles ten or so years ago and have taught them off and on ever since, eventually with music custom-recorded for me by the dance band Spare Parts.  But though I put the basic calls for the figures online years ago, I've never done a detailed write-up of my reconstruction.  One reason for that is that while I have long-since solidified my reconstruction of the figures, I've never been satisfied with the step-sequences I've used for one of the last figures of the dance, the chassé-croisé.

Chassé-croisé is a very common figure in Regency quadrilles: partners both face the center of the set, slide sideways to the corners (the gentleman passing behind the lady), balance, slide back, and balance again.  Each part takes two bars for a total of eight.  There are also four-bar versions that skip the balancing.  A couple of years ago I wrote a series of three posts covering different ways to perform the sequence with the French steps which are normally used in quadrilles, the first of which breaks down the figure in detail for those unfamiliar with it.

The problem for me has been that Wilson specifically said about The Royal Scotch Quadrilles that they were "adapted to Scotch steps", and my interpretation of that comment is that the figures should be performed using the best information we have on native Scottish dance steps of that era, the set of steps described by Francis Peacock in 1805, even if the Scots themselves were happily dancing French quadrilles with French steps by the early 1820s.  And that presents a problem with this particular figure.  

Unlike the French step repertoire, Peacock's does not include any equivalent of the jeté-assemblé combination that often concludes French step-sequences and has the handy effect of "resetting" the feet, leaving the weight balanced evenly so that either foot can be freed to start the next step.  That is particularly useful in setting up for chassé-croisé, since while the gentleman moves to the right and therefore can easily start with his right foot in the standard fashion for this era, the lady is moving to the left, and step-sequences call for her to start on her left foot, as may be seen in the sequences I have described previously.  If there is no jeté-assemblé, then the lady cannot easily free her left foot instead of her right.  And if she starts the sliding sequence with her right foot (there is a Scottish step that makes that a viable option) she ends up with her left foot free for the balancing, which is also non-ideal.  What to do?

Over the past decade or so I've experimented with adding "foot fudges" (extra changes of weight), started whole series of figures on the left foot, and sometimes allowed the dancers to balance in mirror image or left-first.  None of this is good period practice.  There are documented ways to cheat in historical quadrille footwork, but adding extra weight changes is not one of them.  There are occasionally step-sequences that start on the left foot, but doing a whole quadrille figure on the opposite foot from one's partner is just wrong.  And balancing is generally done with both dancers moving to the right, or on the right foot first, not to the left, and definitely not in mirror image.  It's been a constant irritation to me that I couldn't get this one element of this quadrille up to my own standards, to the point where I stopped teaching it unless specially requested.

So I'm particularly grateful to one of my students, who during a private tutoring session this afternoon made an offhand remark that abruptly solved the problem for me.  The answer has been right in front of me all along.

The Quadrille Nautically Described, 1856

This rather wonderful description of the figures of the First Set, or French Quadrille, appeared in the November 29, 1856, issue of Spirit of the Times; A Chronicle of the Turf, Agriculture, Field Sports, Literature and the Stage, a New York journal published from 1831 to 1861.  According to ProQuest's bibliographic description, Spirit of the Times was said to "have been the first all-around sporting journal in the U.S.", specializing in racing but also including "field sports, hunting and fishing, agriculture, literature, fashion, and the theater...news, court proceedings, poetry, and advertisements.‎"  And, apparently, a description of dancing a quadrille in terms even a sailor could understand.

"The Quadrille Nautically Described" seems not to have been original to Spirit of the Times:

We have some idea that this capital jeu d esprit is not new.  But as our dancing season is just commencing, it may amuse some of our readers to see it reproduced.  It makes the noble art of dancing a quadrille clear to the simplest (nautical) capacity:

Some of the details of the quadrille description seem to hark back to an earlier era.  But I've had no luck tracing any earlier publication.  

After that brief introduction, the anonymous author then duly worked his way through the six figures of the First Set: Pantalon, Ete, Poule, Trenise, Pastorale, and Finale.  He uses an entirely new set of terms for the figures, and it took me a couple of readings to realize how clever a "translation" this actually was.  I'm accustomed to French and English terms for the quadrille figures, but I've never before read them in Nautical!

Let me translate it into English, figure by figure.

On evening parties with dancing, 1860

The most fashionable as well as pleasant way in the present day to entertain guests is to invite them to evening parties, which vary in size from the "company," "sociable," "soiree," to the party, par excellence, which is but one step from the ball.

The entertainment upon such occasions may vary with the taste of the hostess or the caprice of her guests.  Some prefer dancing, some music, some conversations.  Small parties, called together for dramatical or poetical readings, are now fashionable, and very delightful.
        --- The Ladies' Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness

I first came across Florence Hartley's The Ladies' Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness (G. G. Evans: Philadelphia, 1860) via the July, 1861, issue of Godey's Lady's Book, which excerpted the section on the etiquette for a lady hosting an evening party.  There is a matching section for the (female) guests at an evening party as well as sections for ladies hosting or attending balls.  I have spent a great deal of time over the years reading about mid-nineteenth century ballroom etiquette, but considerably less on that for more informal events.  I thus found Mrs. Hartley's thoughts on the subject quite interesting.  It would be fun to host smaller events such as these, if one had both the sizable rooms and the servants that Mrs. Hartley assumes will be available or hired for the night.

Since the book is available online (see below), I am not going to review all of Mrs. Hartley's general advice on the conduct of evening parties.  She discusses everything from the wording of invitations to the arrangement of dressing rooms to why one should take one's leave in the parlor rather than the hall.  Here, I'd like to look more narrowly at the useful tidbits of information she provides about dancing at such small and informal (by mid-nineteenth-century standards) events.  Most quotations below are drawn from "Etiquette for the Hostess" section, with those from "Etiquette for the Guest" marked as such.

Dance Card: Washington, D.C., 1880 (with bonus Glide Polka!)

The beautiful dance card pictured at right (click to enlarge) went by me on ebay almost two years ago, but the seller kindly uploaded a full set of pictures, inside and out, which I carefully downloaded for future reference.  The rest of the images may be found further down this post.

The event for which the card was designed was L. G. Marini's 21st Annual Floral May Festival and Ball, held at Marini's Hall, Washington, D.C., on Thursday, May 20, 1880.  The card is unused.

The dance program, alas, was quite banal, a standard late nineteenth century mix of waltzes (seven), the Lancers (four), a galop, and two polkas.  The ball was begun with an aria from Bellini, and the music given for each dance is by well-known composers such as Strauss, Weingarten, Planquette, and Weigand.  There were seven dances plus the aria before intermission and seven after.  No grand march is mentioned.

I'd held off posting this card for so long because I couldn't really think of much to say about it except that the cover illustrations were charming and that it specifically mentioned that refreshments were to be served from 10:00 to midnight, though it neglected to give the actual time of the ball.  

But there is one minor detail of note: the first polka, to a tune from Faust, is listed as "Polka (Glide)".  The other polka is just plain "Polka".  Why the difference?

There is a polka variation called the Glide Polka which appears in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and a few other sources including, oddly enough, several physical education manuals going well into the twentieth century.  

It's very rare for any specific dance variation to be mentioned on a dance card.  So while we can't be perfectly certain that the Glide Polka described in Gilbert is what was meant, even the chance that it is documenting the use of that variation makes this card notable.

So let's talk about the Glide Polka!

In the Country of Dance...

Paris being on my mind this week, I was reading through a 1919 dance-themed issue of a French satirical magazine that, in typical French fashion, combined silly essays and cartoons.  Issue #204 of La Baïonnette (The Bayonet) was published in Paris with a cover date of May 29, 1919, and issue title "Numéro Spécial: Dansomanie".

The issue doesn't contain any specific descriptions of steps, and the illustrations are often caricatures, though there are a few relatively straightforward ones, including the one at left (click to enlarge) in which the only humor is in the reactions of the pianist and spectators.  It is not, on the whole, particularly useful for detailed dance reconstruction, though it's great for historical fashions.  But this sort of social satire provides a useful clue as to what is popular by the targets it picks.  And apparently in the spring of 1919, the two most popular dances in Paris were the foxtrot and the tango.  

Along with the dance itself being caricatured liberally in the illustrations, the phenomenon of the foxtrot's popularity was also the butt of many of the jokes.  It featured in the centerfold, a scene of dancers with two older women conversing off to one side entitled Le cas désespéré (the hopeless case) and captioned, in part:

...madame, elle n'a pas se trouver un mari!  Si elle ne se marie pas avec le "fox-trot", je ne sais ce que j'en ferai.

My translation:

...Madame, she has not yet found herself a husband!  If she doesn't marry the foxtrot, I don't know what I will do. 

A ball in Milwaukee, 1847

One of the weirder books I've ended up flipping through lately is Milwaukee Under the Charter, From 1847 to 1853, Inclusive, by James S. Buck.  This is the third volume of a series on the Pioneer History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which amasses a bizarre collection of historical trivia about life in Milwaukee in the early to mid-nineteenth century.  Buck is not exactly a scintillating author, and he jumps around somewhat randomly from events to people to what seems like the history of every building in the city.  You get chapter summaries like this one for the year 1847:

Opening Address—Democratic Policy and its Effects—War on the Constitution—Meeting of January 30th, at the Council Room—L. P. Crary—S. P. Coon—Job Haskall—Ordinance Passed—Business Directory—Sketch of J. F. Birchard and of Edward Emery—R. W. Pierce—Graffenburg Pills—Bridges—Sketch of Hon. J. H. VanDyke—McGregor Female Seminary—August Greulich—Badger Supper—An Old Settler—David Bonham—Political—Noonan vs. King—The Earthquake—Steamers—April Election—Retirement of Solomon Juneau—Reliance Works of Decker & Saville—Sketch-New Board—Jonathan Taylor—Torch Light Procession—Report of School Commissioner—John B.Smith—Incidental—Council Proceedings—Tavern Inspectors—Leonard Kennedy, Sketch of—Report of Finance Committee—Brick Sidewalks—Painting a Painter—The Empire Mill—Assessments—Legislative—Fall Election—William Shew's Speech—Exports and Imports.

Not obvious from that list is the inclusion of one dance history gem: a public announcement of a ball to be held on January 8th, 1847, in honor of the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, which was presumably taken from a newspaper or some other piece of ephemera.  Since Buck did not burden himself with anything so tedious as footnotes, or even a bibliography, and I have not, so far, been sufficiently motivated to track down a piece of ephemera for which I have so little information to start with, I don't know the exact source of this ball announcement.  That makes me a little uneasy.  But I have no ball cards, or photos of cards, from the 1840s in my collection, and I can't see any reason why Buck would misrepresent something as innocent as the details of a ball.  So I feel reasonably comfortable that this is a reliable transcription of the mystery ephemera.

The Russia

Russia has been much on my mind this week as I assembled a short presentation on on the influence of Russia -- or ideas or images of Russia -- on dance in France and England in the nineteenth century.  I didn't touch on America, but at the end of the century dancing master M. B. Gilbert, in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), included some dances with Russia-related names.  One of these was called, simply enough, the Russia.  Gilbert attributed it to Pittsburgh dancing master J. S. Christy.  The Russia was also included in George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903), which was in large part a French translation of Gilbert, under the literally-translated title "La Russie" and attributed to "S-A Christy".

Despite the name, I don't see any actual connection between the dance and the country.  The Russia is a classic back-and-forth-then-turning sequence dance intended for mazurka music.  It features two mid-dance bows, as pictured at left in an illustration from Gilbert (click to enlarge).  The steps include the polka redowa, the Newport, skipping, and walking steps.  All of these elements could plausibly exist in a Russian dance, but there's nothing about them that is particularly unique to Russia in this era.  My best guess is that the name is nothing more than a tribute to Russia, or to some idea of Russia.

The dance, however, is rather fun, and it's interesting to have a sequence dance of this pattern to use with mazurka music.