Like the little one-step variations I discussed a year ago, the delightfully misnamed Quadrille for Two is drawn from a series of articles published in the Chicago Daily Tribune by actress-writer-producer Elsie Janis. "Old Steps Made New" appeared on December 14, 1913, and featured Janis being inspired by old-fashioned dances such as the gavotte, minuet, and quadrille.
The Quadrille for Two is not actually a quadrille. It's a little one-step sequence for two dancers, with its supposed quadrille style coming from the inclusion of a quick dos-à-dos and a turn by right elbows, as shown at left. Janis also gives a version for a group of four couples, but it is done in a longways country dance set, not a quadrille set.
Janis claims that she got the idea for this from an elderly dancer:
I was talking to a sweet old lady of about 60 on the subject of the dances of today. She was an up to date little lady, and the type, only too rare, who believe that life is nice and every one ought to be allowed to enjoy themselves even to the extent of dancing the new dances. She suggested to me an idea which I at once proceeded to carry out. She said she did not see why the young dancers of today did not do some of the old quadrille steps in their dances. I argued with her that in this day the girls liked one partner at a time and that it took too many to dance a quadrille. She came right back at me by saying that all the dancers seemed to be seeing who could do the fanciest step and she thought some of the quadrille steps done by two would be attractive.
It might even be true, though it gives something of the same impression of false modesty or blame-shifting as dancing masters who claim as an excuse that their students made them do things.
First, the couple-dance version. The basic sequence is thirty-two bars long, consisting of sixteen bars twice through with a variation in the last two bars. Each bar is two steps.
Quadrille for Two (couple version) - 32 bars of one-step
6b One-step (twelve steps); end by separating and facing partner; gentlemen change feet
2b Back away from partner (four steps) (gentleman toward center, lady toward wall)
2b Forward to partner (four steps)
2b Back away again (four steps)
2b Forward again, coming right shoulder to right shoulder (four steps)
2b Dos-à-dos (four steps); gentlemen change feet
16b Repeat all of the above, ending with a swing by right elbows instead of the dos-à-dos
This looks quite simple and mostly is, but there are a couple of little tricks to it.
First, note that it is not a great idea to dance the Quadrille for Two in the middle of a crowded ballroom unless everyone is doing it together. The problems can be mitigated somewhat by making a quarter turn clockwise at the end of the one-step segments so that the gentleman backs up toward the center of the hall and the lady toward the wall. This is certainly better than having the gentleman backing up twice against line of dance while other dancers are moving normally around the room, but it's still ten bars of basically non-traveling dance mixed into the one-step, which is a recipe for collisions. Another option, if only one couple is dancing it, would be to move to the center of the room, hoping that no other couples decides to cut across.
Second, Janis is very clear that the dancers both lead with the right foot on everything except the initial one-step. That means the gentleman has to change feet twice. The easiest way to do this is with a quick two-step at the end of the first six bars (count "11 & 12") and the last two bars (count "3 & 4"). The gentleman should be careful to dance this two-step with the feet only; if he leads the lady into a parallel two-step she will then be on the incorrect foot. All of the backward and forward movements are four steps with weight, not three and touch. Back right-left-right-left, forward right-left-right-left, back right-left-right-left, forward right-left-right-left, and whichever figure, right-left-right-left, with the gentleman fudging a fast two-step (right-left-right) on the last two beats to switch feet.
Third, although the back-forward-back-forward pattern seems at first glance as if it ought to be an eight-bar segment of its own, the sequence fits into musical phrases best if it is not. Janis is quite fuzzy over how many beats of one-step are done before starting the figures: eight, twelve, or as many as you like. For the sake of musicality, twelve really is the best. The first back-away should come at the end of the first eight bars, as the conclusion of the one-step. The sequence that begins with the next musical phrase starts with forward and consists of forward-back-forward-figure, fitting the whole thing neatly into sixteen bars of music.
Fourth, the dos-à-dos in the first iteration, shown at left (click to enlarge), needs to be set up properly, with the dancers right shoulder to right shoulder at the end of the second time forward, or it is impossible to do in the allotted four steps. Janis' description of the steps is:
...without touching go right around each other as you've seen them do in the Virginia reel, lancers, or quadrille. They do not turn as they go around each other. They step forward the way they are facing on "one." Man steps to right on "two" with his back to girl and girl steps over to left with her back to man. Man steps back on "three" towards his original position, girl does the same, and on "four" man steps one step to left, girl one to right, which brings them facing each other again and where they started from.
That description is a bit of a mess. Translating it to something that actually works:
(1) both dancers step forward with their right foot, bringing them past each other,
(2) then cross their left foot either behind or in front to step to their own right,
(3) then step back on the right foot, coming more-or-less left shoulder to left shoulder,
(4) then step back on the left foot and take partner for one-step
As noted above, on counts three and four, the gentleman needs to do a little two-step (step-close-step) to shift back to a left foot lead. Both partners will need to turn toward each other to take position for one-step again, the lady ideally putting her back to line of dance and the gentleman facing line of dance.
On the second iteration, rather than a dos-à-dos, the partners "swing", which in this case means turn by right elbows all the way around in four steps (or step, step, step-close-step for the gentleman), as shown in the image at the top of the post (click to enlarge), letting go early enough to take closed position for one-step.
Now, for the group version:
...if you are not stingy and want to share your pleasure get four couples together and instead of standing in a square stand all four couples in a row, four girls on a side and four men on a side, then do just the same steps, only all the four together...and instead of going into the one step between steps both sides grand right and left for ten beats, and that will bring you all back in different positions and you draw another girl or man for the next step.
The group version of the dance has no one-step segment, so there are no foot-switching issues. All dancers start every move on their right foot.
Quadrille for Two (four-couple set version) - 32 bars of one-step
5b Each line independently grand right and left (ten steps)
1b Separate and face new partner (two steps)
2b Back away from partner (four steps)
2b Forward to partner (four steps)
2b Back away again (four steps)
2b Forward again, coming right shoulder to right shoulder (four steps)
2b Dos-à-dos (four steps)
16b Repeat all of the above, ending with a swing by right elbows instead of the dos-à-dos
The only part that differs from the couple version is that instead of one-stepping around, the dancers do a grand right and left (grand chain) on each line (gentlemen separate from ladies) to switch partners. If this is started identically in both lines in the obvious way (top and second dancer face, third and bottom dancer face) and dance in perfect time to the music, as trained dancers tend to do, there will be no partner changing element. In addition, Janis specifies ten steps (five bars of music) for the grand right and left, which leaves the dance an awkward fifteen bars.
My solutions to these issues are, first, to have the rights and lefts "snowball" from opposite ends of the set. All the ladies turn to face the top lady and the gentlemen turn to face the bottom gentlemen. The top lady and bottom gentleman begin the chain by taking hands with the next dancer and continue on, each dancer in turn reaching the end of the set and turning to go back into the chain. Encourage the dancers to really fly through it without worrying about counts and you will end up with partners shifting around each time. They will want to fill twelve beats of music with the chain, which is not a big problem overall in the proper atmosphere of cheerful chaos, but obeying the original direction from Janis to do only ten beats of grand chain and using the final two beats of the twelve to disengage and face a new partner will make the backing up start more smoothly.
Music
There is no special music for the Quadrille for Two; it can be done to any one-step with an even repeat structure (not universal in one-step recordings!) Since the dance is very simple, it's best done to brisk music. For a recording, I personally favor "By the Beautiful Sea" from the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra's album More Candy
Special thanks to Irene and Christina for ably representing entire lines of dancers for test purposes!
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