Way back in the early days of Kickery, one of my first few posts was on the Star figure found in Thomas Wilson's Royal Scotch Quadrilles (published in footnotes of The Danciad, 1824) and described, minimally, in his Quadrille and Cotillion Panorama (1816), and how I found an echo of it in an American cotillion figure more than fifty years later. I later published a practical description of how to use it as a cotillion (German) figure.
At the time, influenced by my reconstruction of the Star figure in the Royal Scotch Quadrilles, I interpreted the cotillion figure as a different way of describing the same figure. But I recently came across the same late Star figure again in a 1912 cotillion manual, and looking at it, I realized there was another way to interpret it.
Here are the two descriptions:
VIII. STAR.
Four ladies, right hand across, swing opposite gentleman to center. Cross right hands, and half circling, swing their partners to center. This is continued until the gentlemen again reach their partners and dance.
Anonymous, The German. How to give it. How to lead it. How to dance it. (Chicago, 1879)
STAR
— (but even number of) couples up and dance. Signal to find partners, favor and dance. Signal for couples in lots of four to join as in the ordinary quadrille. Four ladies, right hand across, swing opposite gentlemen to centre. Cross right hands and half circling, swing their partners to centre. This is continued until the gentlemen again reach their partners and dance. Signal seats. Favors for both.
H. Layton Walker, Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912)
The Walker manual has more detail of the process of setting up the Star, very much as I extrapolated in my long-ago description, but the actual figure description, other than spelling variations, is word-for-word identical.
I'm not going to re-describe my earlier Star figure reconstruction, as it was amply covered in my earlier post, which I recommend reading before going on. But I will note that the critical interpretive decision was that the two substantive directions were both directed to the ladies:
- Four ladies, right hand across, swing opposite gentlemen to centre.
- Cross right hands and half circling, swing their partners to centre.
The result of this decision was that while the gentlemen briefly touched hands in the center, they did not stay there and actually do any traveling with crossed hands. Instead, they swung back to the outside while the ladies again crossed right hands, as in my interpretation of Wilson's figure. Rewritten more clearly, my interpretation was:
- Four ladies, right hand across, swing opposite gentlemen to centre [and back out].
- [Four ladies again] cross right hands and half circling, swing their partners to centre [and back out].
A notable flaw in this reconstruction is that the ladies do not actually circle continuously halfway at any point; each time they take right hands, they circle only one quarter. The gentlemen move one quarter in the opposite direction, so they do end up meeting, alternately, opposites and partners, but it is a bit of a stretch to consider the "half circling" to mean "after performing the right hands across the ladies will have circled halfway around".
But looking at the instructions afresh, I noticed that the second sentence does not actually say that the ladies do the second crossing of hands and circling. What happens if one interprets that instruction as addressed to the gentlemen? Something quite pleasing: a series of alternating half double ladies' chains and half double gentlemen's chains. (See here for a full explanation of the double ladies' chain.)
That works out to a very different sixteen-bar Star figure:
4b Four ladies right hands across halfway round and turn opposite gentlemen by left hands to center
4b Four gentlemen right hands across halfway round and turn their partners by left hands to center
4b Four ladies right hands across halfway round and turn opposite gentlemen by left hands to center
4b Four gentlemen right hands across halfway round and turn their partners by left hand into places
Performance notes:
- The left-hand turns need to be slightly less vigorous than in a standard or double ladies' chain, since the other dancer is only being turned to the center, rather than back to his or her place on the side of the quadrille. This is a noticeably less rushed figure than normal ladies chains! Experienced dancers will tend to over-turn at first.
- As in the standard and double ladies' chain, the gentlemen should start moving at once, making a quarter turn to the right and beginning to circle counter-clockwise to catch the ladies at the corners of the set. And the ladies, once they release the gentlemen, likewise need to keep moving in a counter-clockwise circle until the next gentleman appears and the ladies are turned back into the center.
Once the dancers accustom themselves to the more relaxed pace of the figures, the overall effect is quite delightful. But is it a better reconstruction?
It's hard to say. The switch in whom the instructions are directed to between the first and second sentences is a bit strange. On the other hand, this is a more faithful interpretation of "half circling" than the earlier one, which involves a series of quarter-circles.
It's less complex and creative, which is generally good, but the familiarity of the figures in this interpretation makes one wonder why it could not just been described with the standard terms. "Half double ladies' chain; half double gentlemen's chain; repeat all to places" would have been much clearer, if that's what the original writer meant.
Everything hinges on the lack of a subject in that second sentence and the resulting need to guess to whom "their" refers.
Barring finding a more thorough description, which I have so far had no luck at, it is impossible to make a definitive choice. But this is certainly a reasonable reconstruction, and much easier to dance.
Special thanks to my test dancers: Max, Lynn, Marci, and James!
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