Capering & Kickery

April 2017 Gig Calendar

Continuing my wonderful Russian residency, this month I'll be continuing my regular Moscow classes in cross-step waltz and American ragtime dance as well as making trips to Saint Petersburg and Vladimir to teach ragtime dance in those cities as well!  I'll also have a couple of one-shot classes for Moscow studios in ragtime dance and American Civil War-era contradance.  For Russian-language information and questions about my classes in Russia this spring, please see my VK community.

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Saturday & Sunday, April 1st & 2nd ~ Vladimir, Russia (VKontakte event - in Russian)
Ragtime dance classes
Four workshops covering hesitation waltz, half & half, advanced one-step, and some miscellaneous ragtime material: the Lulu Fado mixer, short sequences, and an early 1910s American country dance.  Open to the public.

Tuesday, April 4th ~ Moscow, Russia (VKontakte discussion - in Russian)
Cross-Step Waltz Class (4 of 10)
8:00-9:30pm.  Fourth class in the ten-class course; course subscription or special permission required.  Taught in a mix of English and Russian.  For general discussion (in Russian) about my classes in Moscow, see my VK community.

Thursday, April 6th ~ Moscow, Russia (VKontakte discussion - in Russian)
American Ragtime Dance Class (3 of 10)
8:00-9:30pm.  1910s dance class, third in a ten-class course covering one-step, two-step, foxtrot, hesitation waltz, half & half, 1910s American contra dance, and more!  Taught in a mix of English and Russian.  Course subscription or special permission required.  For general discussion (in Russian) about my classes in Moscow, see my VK community.

Saturday, April 8th ~ Moscow, Russia
2:00-5:00pm.  Ragtime Dance and 1930s Sequence Dances for Студия «Танец весны» (VKontakte event - in Russian)
Workshop on 1910s one-step, two-step, and foxtrot, plus 1930s American sequence dances.  Open to the public.

Tuesday, April 11th ~ Moscow, Russia (VKontakte discussion - in Russian)
Cross-Step Waltz Class (5 of 10)
8:00-9:30pm.  Fifth class in the ten-class course; course subscription or special permission required.  Taught in a mix of English and Russian.  For general discussion (in Russian) about my classes in Moscow, see my VK community.

Thursday, April 13th ~ Moscow, Russia (VKontakte discussion - in Russian)
American Ragtime Dance Class (4 of 10)
8:00-9:30pm.  1910s dance class, fourth in a ten-class course covering one-step, two-step, foxtrot, hesitation waltz, half & half, 1910s American contra dance, and more!  Taught in a mix of English and Russian.  Course subscription or special permission required.  For general discussion (in Russian) about my classes in Moscow, see my VK community.

Saturday & Sunday, April 15th & 16th ~ Saint Petersburg, Russia
Ragtime dance classes for Crystal Dragon Studio (VKontakte - in Russian)
Details to be announced!

Tuesday, April 18th ~ Moscow, Russia (VKontakte discussion - in Russian)
Cross-Step Waltz Class (6 of 10)
8:00-9:30pm.  Sixth class in the ten-class course; course subscription or special permission required.  Taught in a mix of English and Russian.  For general discussion (in Russian) about my classes in Moscow, see my VK community.

Thursday, April 20th ~ Moscow, Russia (VKontakte discussion - in Russian)
American Ragtime Dance Class (5 of 10)
8:00-9:30pm.  1910s dance class, fifth in a ten-class course covering one-step, two-step, foxtrot, hesitation waltz, half & half, 1910s American contra dance, and more!  Taught in a mix of English and Russian.  Course subscription or special permission required.  For general discussion (in Russian) about my classes in Moscow, see my VK community.

Saturday, April 22nd ~ Moscow Russia
Private event

Sunday, April 23rd ~ Moscow Russia (VKontakte event - in Russian)
Контрдансы времен войны Севера и Юга (Contradances of the American Civil War)
8:00-10:00pm.  Workshop on typical and unusual American contradances from the middle of the nineteenth century for dance studio Touch the Sky.  Taught in a mix of Russian, English, and French (dance figures).  Open to the public; very beginner-friendly!

Tuesday, April 25th ~ Moscow, Russia (VKontakte event - in Russian)
Cross-Step Waltz Class (7 of 10)
8:00-9:30pm.  Seventh class in the ten-class course; course subscription or special permission required.  Taught in a mix of English and Russian.  For general discussion (in Russian) about my classes in Moscow, see my VK community.

Thursday, April 27th ~ Moscow, Russia (VKontakte discussion - in Russian)
American Ragtime Dance Class (6 of 10)
8:00-9:30pm.  1910s dance class, sixth in a ten-class course covering one-step, two-step, foxtrot, hesitation waltz, half & half, 1910s American contra dance, and more!  Taught in a mix of English and Russian.  Course subscription or special permission required.  For general discussion (in Russian) about my classes in Moscow, see my VK community.

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I am available for private lessons in Moscow and nearby cities; outside Moscow, the student must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.  Private lessons in the USA are available from early June.

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Coming in May: regular ragtime and cross-step waltz classes continue in Moscow, plus a waltz party and ragtime ball!

Mr. Layland's Polka Contre Danse

There are at least five different dances in the second half of the nineteenth century whose name is some variation on the generic "polka country dance".  The one I'm looking at here was published as both "Polka Contre Danse" and just "Polka Contre".  Unusually, it is attributed to a particular dancing master, Mr. Layland, who was active in London in the mid-19th century.  I've mentioned him before in the context of his mescolanzes.  That makes it very much an English dance, despite its appearance in a couple of American dance manuals.

My first English source for the Polka Contre Danse, The Victoria Danse du Monde and Quadrille Preceptor, dates to the early 1870s, but I suspect that it actually dates back to the 1850s.  It actually appears earlier in two of the manuals of Boston musician/dance caller/publisher Elias Howe, the earlier of which is from 1862.  Howe was a collector and tended to throw dances from every book he collected into his own works, so I suspect there is an earlier English source somewhere, possibly by Layland himself.  Maybe someday I'll find it.

Until then, on with Polka Contre Danse!

"Pioneer dance" in Iowa

The Lyon Campaign in Missouri: Being a History of the First Iowa Infantry was written by Eugene F. Ware as a memoir primarily of his three months of military service in 1861 during the early days of the American Civil War, though the first several chapters cover life in Iowa in the preceding decades.  It was published in 1907, and while parts of it were based on Ware's journals, I believe the discussion of dance found in one chapter to be more what Ware remembered in 1907 than a contemporaneous account.  I don't regard it as reliable documentation for details of dance from 1861, but I feel reasonably confident that the broad strokes are accurate.

Before going into what Ware had to say, let me give a little background.  

The 1st Iowa Infantry operated for about three months, from mid-May to mid-August, 1861, and fought in Missouri, including the Battle of Wilson's Creek, under the command of General Nathaniel Lyon.  Before that, however, during the mustering and training, Ware and his fellow soldiers had access to civilian pursuits, and Ware was invited to a ball.

In 1861, Iowa was a frontier state, right at the border where states gave way to territories.  This is very obvious on the map below (click to enlarge) of the United States at the beginning of the Civil War (source: Maps, Etc.).  Iowa is right in the middle, where pink (Union states) meets orange (territories).

Ware called the dances he discussed "pioneer dances", which reflected this aspect of Iowa's status. 

German immigration also figures prominently in Ware's recounting.  That's a huge topic (covered in some detail here), but the most critical point is that in the 1840s and 1850s, almost 1.5 million Germans immigrated to the USA (see the chart here) and became a significant part of the expanding cities and settlements of the northern USA from Pennsylvania westward.  Naturally, they brought their culture, including dance and music, with them.

Susan's Sociables

When I first wrote about the quadrille figure called the Sociable almost seven years ago, I noted that some sources offered slightly different sets of figures, and at least two suggested that the choice of figures was up to the caller:

"No positive rule as to what figure shall be called in the Quadrille Sociable.  The choice is left entirely to the prompter."  (Brookes, L. De G.  Brookes on Modern Dancing.  New York, 1867)

"Prompters often call figures in the 'Sociable' to suit their fancy, introducing the 'Star Figure,' 'Grand Chain,' etc."  (De Garmo, William.  The Dance of Society.  New York, 1875)

I rarely exercise the option to call variant figures; my habit has been to do the most common four-figure sequence twice over, once for the ladies to progress and once for the gentlemen, with an eight-bar "All chassez" and honors coda at the end.  Including introductory honors, this calls for a structure of 8b + 32bx8 + 8b.  Working with live musicians, I can have music played to fit this pattern exactly.  Or, if I am using the Sociable as the final figure of a quadrille, the short version with the progressive figures done only once (ladies progressing) is plenty, and since 8b + 32bx4 + 8b is a common finale structure, if necessary, it is easy to find a recording with that pattern.

But recently, I've been faced with the dual problems of calling the Sociable as a freestanding figure, meaning I prefer to call a longer figure to balance the time spent forming sets, and using recorded music, which is rarely to be found in the simplest long-Sociable pattern of 8b + 32bx8 + 8b.  This means either spending time editing a recording to fit the dance or changing my calling to fit the recording.  Editing music is a pain, so, since I have the option, historically speaking, of changing the figures, that is the approach I prefer.

That was unexpected...

"Don’t sit and grouch, girls, when the boys do not ask you to dance.  Smile and look good-natured.  Learn to enjoy watching other people dance, and learn how to dance well with other girls.  The popular girl knows how to lead other girls, and she can have a wonderful time dancing with girls when there are not enough boys to go around."

 -- V. Persis Dewey, "Tips to Dancers," Good Manners for Ballroom and Dance Hall, Kenosha, Wisconsin, 1918.  Pages 28-29.

One of those topics I come back to over and over again is the topic of ladies dancing together.  It's one of those things that is very hard to research.  It's rarely mentioned in dance or etiquette manuals, presumably because it was normally outside the bounds of formal etiquette.  It just happened informally when there were too many ladies and not enough gentlemen.  

Ladies dancing together was a common enough practice in Regency-era country dancing for dancing masters to discuss it (and gentlemen dancing together as well).  Hopping eight decades forward and across the Atlantic, there was a strongly-worded essay in favor of it by an anonymous dancing master in The Two-Step in 1898.  And there are references to personal experiences that testify that it really did happen: Jane Austen dancing with her friend Catherine or a young Fanny Kemble waltzing with other ladies for reasons of propriety.  But such references are so rare that they are hard to research purposefully; it comes down to reading letters, diaries, and memoirs, hoping to get lucky.

The quote from V. Persis Dewey above is that rarity: ladies dancing together discussed in an etiquette manual, even if that manual is from tiny Kenosha, Wisconsin.  The quote is not new to me; her little booklet, "Tips to Dancers", has been online for years.  But I've finally come across video that actually illustrates it in practice...and more!

Winthrope (a March figure, 1912)

"Winthrope" is a cotillion (dance party game) figure found in Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912).  It's not much of a game, however, though it includes the basic cotillion elements: a group of couples dancing, separating, selecting new partners, and bestowing favors.  The figure itself, however, is simply an interesting way to transition from a typical grand march into a circle of couples for couple dancing.  And that is actually useful. 

I have no idea why it's called Winthrope.  [see note at the bottom of the post for new information]

Here are the four diagrams (click to enlarge), followed by a transcription of the instructions:

WINTHROPE
Sixteen couples up and dance.  Favor, thirty-two couples now on the floor.  March down the centre of hall, etc.  Continue to march around hall then down the centre in fours.  First four to right, second four to left; around hall again, down in eights; halt; second and fourth line of ladies about face and march, as in figure 1.  Lead to the lower end of gentlemen and follow lines of figure No. 2.  Which when you have completed, will leave you in position as figure 3.    Now the second and fourth line of gentlemen about face; march as in figure 3, finishing as per figure 4, which will bring you opposite your original partners.  Face your partner and all dance.