A recent mailing list discussion centered on how to quickly teach people to do a "waltz-around", the style of country dance progression in which two couples waltz around each other once and a half times. This is most famously part of the mid- to late-nineteenth-century Spanish Dance, as well as other American waltz contra dances (such as the German Waltz and Bohemian Waltz). It dates back at least as far as the late 1810s to early 1820s in England, when Spanish dances were an entire genre of country dances in waltz time, and both they and ordinary waltz country dances featured this figure, sometimes under the names "poussette" or "waltze". I expect it goes even further back on the European continent, but I haven't yet pursued that line of research.
As a dancer, the waltz-around has always been one of those figures that I just...do. I'd observed that it's difficult for beginners to master the tight curvature of the circle and making one and a half circles in only eight measures, but as an experienced waltzer, I've long been able to do it instinctively. And I'd never broken down precisely what I did or worked out how to explain it to others.
So I suppose it's about time!
The first question: why is this figure so difficult, even for beginners who have mastered the basic technique of the valse à trois temps?
I think the underlying reason is that to make the waltz-around work, you actually have to break some of the good habits developed in basic waltz training. Think about how we dance the trois temps. The gentleman's first step move him around his partner, across the line of dance, making roughly a quarter turn. He then tucks the right foot behind the left and pivots on the toes another quarter turn to complete a half-turn in the first three counts. Good technique emphasizes stepping around the lady (conceptualized variously as forward, sideways to a false second position, or even backward) on the first beat and making a complete half-turn in every measure. Covering lots of distance quickly is not an important aspect of the trois temps.
The lady, of course, learns the same lesson for what is the second half of her step-sequence: step forward and around the gentleman. Do not step backward away from him. Make a half-turn. How many times has a beginner class gone back and forth across the room in a straight line, making neat half-turns on every measure? I know I've taught a lot of classes like that. And most of our waltzing is done in rooms big enough that the small reduction in total degrees of turn caused by the curvature of the circle of dancers is negligible enough that even relatively new waltzers are able to adjust themselves. They can often use the help in getting around anyway!
Unfortunately, all of these extremely good waltz habits are less than useful when it comes to performing a waltz-around, which involves both, less turn and more travel. And getting both of those things to happen simultaneously is a challenge for beginners. If they make the lovely half-turns they have been taught, they are unable to travel far enough or curve their travel tightly enough to make it around once and a half times in eight measures, and at some point they tend to end up, frustratingly, oriented with their left foot free and aimed against the line of dance, having to scramble to keep going in the correct direction. Why does that happen and how does one prevent it?
It comes down to geometry. If the dancers start out with the gentlemen roughly back to back, left feet pointing to the side, and then make a perfect half-turn, they will end up facing each other, but offset. They will not have traveled around the circle, and they will have gotten further apart, which increases the distance they need to travel. The second half-turn will increase the distance between them but will not take them around the tightly curved path needed for the waltz-around.
I don't want to get into a lot of detailed calculations, but instead of 180-degree turns, the dancers need to make smaller ones, rotating only three-quarters around every two measures. And they need to move dramatically counter-clockwise on each half-turn; by the halfway point of the musical phrase (four measures) they need to be three-quarters of the way around their little circle.
The trick to making this all work is to break the cardinal rule of the trois temps: the gentleman should not step around his partner with the left foot. Instead, he should step back at approximately a 45-degree angle to the left. There is no actual turning motion on this step; he should remain facing the same direction as when starting or he will overturn on the pivot. Tucking the right foot behind as usual on the second beat, on the third, he pivots only about one-quarter to the right to face the center of the circle. The lady takes her first step forward as usual; the gentleman, by stepping back like this, will pull her further forward and around the circle. His limited turn on the pivot will keep her next steps smaller.
At the end of the first three counts, the gentleman should be facing the center, the lady facing the wall, and they should have moved just under a quarter of the way (3/16, to be exact, but no one is going to be measuring that precisely) around the circle. The lady now repeats what the gentleman did, stepping back at an angle without turning, then making a very small pivot to face the center while the gentleman faces the wall. The dancers should now be almost halfway around. Repeat these two measures and they should end up 3/4 of the way around, with the lady again facing the center and the gentleman facing the wall. After the next two measures, they will have gone just over once around. And after the next two, they will be halfway around from their starting point and can open up facing the other couple (in the case of the Spanish Dance) or, if the dance is in proper formation (like the German Waltz), cheat a little by breaking apart on the last measure of the waltz-around to retreat to their own sides of the set.
Broken down like this, it's easy to see why beginners have problems. Learning to do an effective waltz-around means temporarily ignoring everything they have just learned, which is a lot to ask of beginners. For dance groups that do a lot of dances featuring waltz-arounds, it might be useful to have some direct instruction for beginners on how to make it work.
In summary:
- Start with the gentleman's back to the center; if possible, when coming together, move a little around the circle counter-clockwise as you take waltz position. Every little bit of cheating helps!
- When starting the left-foot measure (step-tuck-pivot), instead of curving the first step with the left foot around your partner, step back and out at an angle. Think of stepping backward around the circle, rather than around your partner.
- Make the pivot only a quarter or so; no more than is necessary to face the center of the circle.
- On the right-foot measure, step forward as usual but take the cue from your partner about how far to travel overall.
- After every two measures, the gentleman should once again have his back to the center and the lady should be facing the center.
- After four measures the dancers should be three-quarters of the way around. After eight, they should have completed the once-and-a-half round and open to face each other. If the set is proper rather than couple-facing-couple, they will have to break apart on the eighth measure to back out into their lines.
A final note: if it seems like this method of performing the trois temps is remarkably similar to the "new" waltz of the later nineteenth century, why, yes, it is! It's actually easier to do the waltz-around with the step-side-close pattern of the new waltz than the old trois temps, since the new waltz emphasizes a forward or backward step in the direction of travel on the first beat of measure and is, in general, better for covering distance quickly.
This post is for Alan, who helpfully asks thought-provoking questions!
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