I don't often get asked to write about particular topics on Kickery, but I recently received, via the comments here, a request from a teacher at Mrs. Bennet's Ballroom, a historical dance group in London, UK, for a few of my favorite figures for mescolanzes, the four-facing-four country dance format I surveyed earlier this year. Since the focus of the group seems to be the Regency era, I'll stick with figures from manuals by London dancing master G. M. S. Chivers, which are from the very tail end of the official Regency period (1811-1820) and a few years after.
As I discussed in my earlier survey, Chivers seems to have really liked the mescolanze format, and a few other dancing masters and authors picked it up, but other than the special case of La Tempête, I can't really say with confidence that mescolanzes were a popular or even common dance form in nineteenth-century England. But the format appears across enough different sources that I'm comfortable with using it sparingly to add variety for the late Regency and immediate post-Regency era. I don't ever do more than one mescolanze at a ball, however.
Mescolanze figures are derived from country dances and quadrilles, with some figures from the latter descending from much older French contredanse (cotillon) figures. A characteristic figure, of course, is the famous chassé-by-couples featured prominently in La Tempête. Since the group already has that dance in its repertoire, I'll not include any others with the same figure.
Dance and tune names
Chivers generally listed his dances under the name of a particular tune, but he was quite explicit in stating that dancers who wished could use any tune of the same length: "Or any other Tune, containing Four parts or 32 bars." So in the absence of the particular tunes suggested below, using any other of suitable length is perfectly justified. The figures themselves do not, for the most part, have names, and the tunes are not unique to these figures. Chivers reused tunes freely for all sorts of dances.
Progression
Historically, the progression for the mescolanzes would be the same as for country dances: the top two lines of dancers would begin the dance, and it would slowly spread down the set as the top line progressed down, continuing until all the lines had reached the top of the set and danced back down to their places. In modern terms, this is a duple minor progression. The number of repeats of the music required to accomplish it are 6x for a three-line set plus three more for each additional line (four lines: 9x, five lines: 12x, etc.). I discussed this style of progression in more detail here.
An alternative progression suggested by Chivers is to have form the set with all the lines facing toward the center, and the two center lines starting the dance, which then spreads both up and down the set, lines progressing back and forth until all lines are back where they started. If one has an even number of lines, which is preferable, the repeats required to go all the way through are 8x for a four-line set plus five more for each additional pair of lines (six lines: 13x, eight lines: 18x, etc.) This results in a slightly shorter dance than the normal top-down progression.
A third option which avoids any waiting out at all is to use Chivers' eponymous "Chivonian circle" format, with lines of four facing around a circle like the spokes of a wheel and all dancers beginning at once and dancing all the way around the circle to their original locations. Once again, an even number of lines is preferable. The dancers will need to take extra care with the figures, since the angling of the lines can cramp the dancers nearest the center and give those on the outer edge inconveniently long paths. The number of repeats of the music required is equal to the number of lines.
Steps
For steps for the mescolanzes, I use basic sequences of chassé-jeté-assemblé with occasional simple glissade combinations. I suggest the pas de basque for setting, since in the tighter quarters of the mescolanze format, minimal sideways motion is preferred in setting sequences.
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Mescolanze #1 (G.M.S. Chivers, The Dancers' Guide, London, c1820)
Suggested tune: "The Delight" (32 bars)
8b All four ladies cross right hands and go round; cross left and return, staying in the center
8b All set to partners (4b), then exchange places, gentlemen to the center and ladies to the outside (4b)
8b All set to partners (4b), then turn partners two hands to places (4b)
8b Lines of four advance and retire (4b), pass through (2b) and set (2b)
Chivers really, really liked "star" or cross-shaped figures: four ladies hands across and back (moulinet), ladies' double chain, setting in cross formation, etc. In this very typical sequence, after the ladies return with left hands, they drop hands but stay in the center of the set, placing themselves more-or-less back to back and facing their partners on the outside.
My favored reconstruction of the advance-retire-pass through sequence draws on how it is described in Chivers' Swedish dances: on the lead through, drop hands and pass right shoulders (possibly touching right hands in passing) in two bars, then set for two bars. This keeps the dancers from advancing too far and ending up too close to the next line. I discuss this figure in a bit more detail midway through one of my Swedish dance posts here.
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Mescolanze #2 (G.M.S. Chivers, The Dancers' Guide, London, c1820)
Suggested tune: "The Gloucester" (32 bars)
8b Lines of four advance and retire (4b), all set to partners (4b)
16b All grand chain all the way round (12b) and turn partners by two hands (4b)
8b Lines of four lead round and exchange places
Advance and retire and pass through is by far the most common progression for Chivers' mescolanzes, so it's nice to have one dance that features a different one. I discuss the "lines lead round" figure in detail (with diagrams!) here, but the brief explanation is that the two lines "circle" halfway, without the two lines actually taking hands to form a circle, and then continue curling around in the same direction, passing back to back, in order to face a new line. At the end of the set, the lines reaching the end should circle halfway and then stop so that it is facing back into the set in preparation for the next approaching line.
The chain figure works best if one does not think too hard about the precise division of steps (twelve chassé, or eleven chassé, jeté-assemblé) and music relative to the number of hand changes. The dancers should just move briskly along, and it will work. Start by partners taking right hands and passing each other. When the dancers meet their partners for the second time back in their original places, the chain ends and they do a two-hand turn.
I'm especially fond of this sequence because of the nice flow from the two-hand turn into the lines lead round and then the advance and retire at the beginning of the next repeat.
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Mescolanze #3 (G.M.S. Chivers, The Modern Dancing Master, London, 1822)
Suggested tune: "La Belle Flamand" (32 bars)
8b All four ladies dance the square around their partners
8b All four gentlemen dance the square around their partners
8b All change places with partners (2b), set (2b), change back (2b), and set (2b)
8b Lines of four advance and retire (4b), pass through (2b) and set (2b)
Ah, squares! The ladies move counter-clockwise around their partners, taking two bars for each side of the square (forward, to the left, backward, to the right), rather like a reverse-direction dos-à-dos. Partners in mescolanze formation are much closer than in opposites in a quadrille (the normal circumstance of performing a dos-à-dos), so it helps if the dancers start off slightly offset, each to their own right, so that the lady has a clear path forward and past her partner.
The gentlemen perform their square by moving clockwise around their partners (forward, to the right, backward, to the left) in the standard dos-à-dos direction. The lady can help the gentleman by not fully completing the final side of her square. By not getting quite back to her starting point, so that she ends facing the gentlemen or even slightly offset to her own left, she gives him a clear track to begin his own square.
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Mescolanze #4 (G.M.S. Chivers, The Dancing Master in Miniature, London, c1825)
Suggested tune: "Star Dance" "The Star" (32 bars) (see update below)
8b All change places with partners (2b), set (2b), change back (2b), and set (2b)
8b All four ladies cross right hands and go round; cross left and return, staying in the center
8b All chassé-croisé across and back with partners (4b) and turn two hands to places (4b)
8b Lines of four advance and retire (4b), pass through (2b) and set (2b)
This is the one mescolanze in this group where I am not sure whether the name belongs to a tune or the dance figures. Chivers uses his standard format and adds the usual "Or any other Tune, containing Four parts or 32 bars", but I have never found any tune called "Star Dance", and the third figure of the dance is so intentionally thematic (Chivers' original instruction reads "All chassez across in the form of a star") that I think it's possible either that "Star Dance" is the name of the dance figures, or that the figures were deliberately arranged to feature a sort of starburst because of the name of the tune.
Edited 6/22/17 to add: I have since found a tune called "The Star" in Chivers' self-published New Set of Contre Danses, undated but probably c1822-1825. The figure given with it is a generic country dance figure with no star-like characteristics. I think that most likely Chivers deliberately arranged this mescolanze as a play on the name of the tune.
The third figure is set up by the preceding figures, with the four ladies returning to their partners with left hands crossed in the center. They should pass their partners slightly, holding the cross formation but dropping left hands. For the chassé-croisé, the ladies slide sideways to the right while the gentlemen slide behind them to the left, into the center, then everyone reverses direction and the ladies slide back to the left and the gentlemen to the right. This is a short chassé-croisé with no setting attached, and everyone is facing counter-clockwise around the set throughout. At the end, the ladies turn to their right to take two hands with their partners and turn once and a bit round to their original lines.
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Finally, since the question was what my favorite mescolanze figures were, I'll include a bonus combination of my own devising:
Mescolanze #5 (Susan de Guardiola, c2005)
Suggested tune: "Waterloo" (24b)
8b All four ladies advance and retire (4b), all four gentlemen advance and retire (4b)
8b Ladies' chain double
8b Lines of four advance and retire (4b), pass through (2b) and set (2b)
All of these figures are found in Chivers' mescolanzes, though not in this specific combination. But since it is customary in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century for dancers to be permitted/encouraged to compose their own country dance figures, I've taken the liberty of doing the same for the mescolanzes. I've used this combination in either normal mescolanze or "Chivonian circle" format at my own balls off and on for more than a decade.
The first and last figures are self-explanatory. The ladies' chain double is a ladies' chain (chaîne des dames) performed by all four couples at once rather than the usual two. Good technique from the gentlemen (moving forward the moment the ladies move) is important in making this figure work!
Twenty-four-bar mescolanzes are rare compared to thirty-two bar ones, but Chivers does give a couple of them.
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Though any tune of suitable length can be used for these mescolanzes, for those who desperately wish to follow Chivers' specific suggestions, I can provide basic period sheet music upon request for "The Delight", "The Gloucester", and "La Belle Flamand". As noted above, I have never found a tune called "Star Dance". Edited 6/22/17 to add: I can also provide music for "The Star".
The tune "Waterloo" is available in a short (7x) track on the Green Ginger Band album Grand Waterloo Ball 2015 or as a longer (12x) track individually through their online store. I can also provide basic sheet music.
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