Rethinking the right shoulder in Regency-era dos-à-dos sequences

It's been years since I've written about dos-à-dos sequences for the Regency-era quadrille, but I've been working on new ones on and off for most of that time.  Over the last year I've had more chances to teach them, both to my New York classes and in various cities in Russia, most recently Kirov, where I wedged a spontaneous dos-à-dos lesson into one evening's workshop.

One of the key points in my current "basic dos-à-dos concepts" class involves examining the meaning of the phrase "present the right shoulder", as found in sources like Principes et Notions Élémentaires sur l’Art de la Danse Pour la Ville (Paris, 1811) by J. H. Gourdoux and Elements and Principles of the Art of Dancing, a translation of Gourdoux with some changes and added material published by Victor Guillou in Philadelphia in 1817.  Both texts use the same phrase (highlighted):

Pour remplir ce trait, un cavalier et une dame de vis-à-vis se présenteront l’épaule droite, et s’avançant, ils passeront dos-à-dos, en exécutant les trois chassés comme pour traverser, et rentreront à leur place, faisant le jeté et l’assemblé.  (Gourdoux 1811)

To dance this trait, the opposite lady and gentleman will present their right shoulder to each other, and perform the temps levé and chassé three times as for crossing over; and, turning around each other, they return to their stands doing the jeté and assemblé in the third position.  (Guillou)

I hadn't paid close attention to this phrase when working with basic dos-à-dos sequences long ago, but for the last few years I've been quietly studying more advanced step-sequences, which have given me some new insights.  The "right shoulder" detail should not be ignored. 

In later editions of Gourdoux (1819 and 1823), there are two sequences in which the following phrases turn up in the description of the first measure, when the dancers are moving forward to pass their vis-à-vis:

le tout en présentant l’épaule droite ou en tournant le corps sur la gauche, afin de prendre le vrai sens du dos à dos  

tournant le corps de côté ou en présentant l’épaule droite en avant pour prendre le vrai sens du dos-à-dos;

My translations:

all presenting the right shoulder or turning the body to the left, in order to capture the true sense of dos à dos 

turning the body to the side or presenting the right shoulder forward to capture the true sense of dos à dos

Prendre literally means "to take", but it has a number of more colloquial usages as well.  "To capture" is my best approximation of what I think Gourdoux intended.

What is notable about these longer descriptions of "presenting the right shoulder" is that they specify that the body turns sideways and that the dancers pass dos à dos during the first measure of the sequence.  I've talked before about how dos à dos is not always the "pure" back-to-back figure we think of nowadays (forward, back-to-back, backward to places), but those variants had concentrated on the second and third measures, when the dancers are passing each other and returning to places.  Gourdoux, however, is pretty definitive that the back-to-back is occurring much earlier in the sequence.

He goes on to set up the third measure, when the partners pass back to their places, with phrases like:

en présentant la droite du corps vers votre place

tournant aussi du même tems le corps pour reprendre le même sens, étant tourné de l’autre côté, l’épaule droite présenté alors vers votre place

My translations:

presenting the right side of the body toward your place

also turning the body at the same time to recapture the same sense, that being turned to the other side, the right shoulder then presented toward your place

If the right shoulder is presented toward the dancer's place, they are moving sideways toward it and once again moving back to back.  I can reach no other conclusion from these descriptions than that the two sequences quoted are meant to be performed with the dancers passing back to back on both the first and third measures.  These sequences still involve "vrai" dos à dos moments, but they happen at non-standard points.

In light of this observation, I would reinterpret the older sequences above that mention "presenting the right shoulder" and involve three chassé, followed by jeté-assemblé to mean that the dancers are moving sideways during at least the first measure, and possibly the third as well.  The rest of the sequence could involve one of several possibilities:

1. turn halfway and pass by right shoulders on the second measure, chassé sideways, again passing back to back returning to places on the third measure, and turn halfway in the final measure on the jeté-assemblé.
   
   
2. same, but continuing the turn to move forward back to places on the third measure
   
   
3. chassé backwards, passing left shoulders, on the second measure, whip halfway around at the end of the measure to once again pass pack to back returning to places, and turn halfway in the final measure on the jeté-assemblé.
   
   
4. same as the previous, but turning three-quarters at the end of the second  measure to move forward back to places on the third measure, completing the turn in the final measure.
   
   
5. turn three-quarters at the beginning of the second measure and chassé sideways to the left, passing face to face, then move forward back to places on the third measure, completing the turn at the end
   
   
6. same as the previous, but turning one-quarter back at the beginning of the third measure to move sideways, passing back to back, while returning to places on the third measure, and turn halfway in the final measure

Of all of these, I find the first most pleasing because of the symmetrical distribution of the turn after the first and third measures, which matches the pattern of the two sequences quoted above.  The second is also nice, and very easy, though the second and third measures tend to merge into "dance around your partner back to places" if the dancers do not precisely control their path during the second measure.  The fifth version, with the dancers passing face to face and then moving forward back to places, seems the next most likely.  The third lacks this symmetry, with all the turning packed into the second half.  The third is even worse.  The sixth, with its three-quarter turn then one-quarter turn back, also seems less appealing.

For now, I prefer teaching the "right shoulder lead" dos à dos as follows:

1b    Present right shoulders and chassé sideways, passing back to back
1b    Turn halfway and chassé forward, passing right shoulders
1b    Present right shoulders and chassé sideways, passing back to back, to place
1b    Turn halfway with jeté-assemblé in place

An extended class would involve these two possibilities as well:

1b    Present right shoulders and chassé sideways, passing back to back
1b    Turn halfway and chassé forward, passing right shoulders
1b    Continue smoothly turning one-quarter more to chassé forward continuing to turn
1b    Complete the turn with jeté-assemblé in place

1b    Present right shoulders and chassé sideways, passing back to back
1b    Turn three-quarters and chassé sideways, passing face to face
1b    Continue to chassé forward to place, continuing to turn
1b    Complete the turn with jeté-assemblé in place

It's not necessary for both dancers to perform the same dos-à-dos sequence as long as the overall pattern is maintained, but if one dancer wants to offer a cue and the other has fast reflexes, quickly turning the right shoulder forward before beginning the sequence can serve as a visual hint or suggestion for a matching sequence, which the other dancer may or may not accept.  There are also typically amusing possibilities in dancing this sequence while the other dancer does a different one.

On a practical note, my preferred reconstruction is particularly useful on occasions when more than one pair of dancers is moving in parallel, such as two vis-à-vis couples in a quadrille performing a dos à dos for four.  It also comes up in unusual creations like Vincent Masi's cotillon-contredanses, in which an entire country dance line performs the dos à dos at once.  In both cases, things can get a little bit too crowded.  One dancer moving too aggressively sideways during the second measure, especially if they are moving back-to-back and unable to see where they are going, can easily end up intruding on a neighbor's path and cause a collision or near-collision when they move back to their own sides.  Using a sequence in which the dancers move sideways on the first and third measures means the lines of dancers can pass through each other more easily (most dancers being slimmer front-to-back than side-to-side) and can see what's happening so as to easily set themselves up for an equally simple return to places.