Capering & Kickery

August 2017 Gig Calendar

This month is mostly about writing and non-dance-related travel, but I will emerge briefly to teach a couple of classes in Moscow (Russia) and a Regency dance class in Connecticut.  Otherwise, see you in September!

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Sunday, August 20th ~ Moscow Russia (VKontakte event - in Russian)
Фокстрот 1910-х от Сьюзан де Гвардиола (1910s Foxtrot)
4:00-6:00pm.  Workshop on the early foxtrot of the 1910s for dance studio Touch the Sky.  Taught in a mix of Russian and English.  Open to the public and beginner-friendly.

Sunday, August 20th ~ Moscow Russia (VKontakte event - in Russian)
Контрдансы и бальные игры от Сьюзан де Гвардиола (1910s Ballroom Games)
6:30-8:30pm.  Workshop on early twentieth century ballroom fun!  Includes American contra dances (1910s style), a one-step contra dance, the Lulu Fado mixer, and more!  For dance studio Touch the Sky.  Taught in a mix of Russian, English, and French (dance figures).  Open to the public and beginner-friendly.

Wednesday, August 23rd ~ Middletown, Connecticut
Jane Austen Era Dancing (Facebook event)
7:00-8:30pm.  Beginner-friendly lesson Informal dancing, no costume needed.

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I am available for private lessons in Connecticut or on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

New Haven and Middletown, Connecticut: August 1-7, 23-31
Helsinki, Finland: August 9-12
Saint Petersburg, Russia: August 14-17
Moscow, Russia: August 18-22

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How did I get here?

Certainly it’s true that when you’re dancing “Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot” or “The Duke of Kent’s Waltz”—two traditional English country dances of the early 19th century—it is natural to ask: “How the hell did I get here?”
            --  Ted Scheinman, in "Cosplaying Jane Austen", The Atlantic, July 22, 2017

I couldn't agree more with the sentiment; somehow, I regularly find myself dancing what people fondly refer to as "Mr. Beveridge's Maggot" and/or "The Duke of Kent's Waltz" and I invariably wonder, in a sort of scholarly despair, just how I ended up in that situation.  In my case, however, it's generally because I am surrounded by people who are under the delusion that these are, in fact "traditional English country dances of the early 19th century."  

Normally, I simply avoid discussing this topic outside academic circles, because people can be remarkably resistant to historical evidence when it interferes with their pleasant fantasies.  But when this misinformation turns up in the virtual pages of The Atlantic, which I read regularly and generally have some respect for, I feel like it might be useful to respond in a more public way than just a note in the comments.

I don't delude myself that they're going to issue any corrections.

Reminiscences, 1865

I have what seems like an endless collection of works of nineteenth-century women's fiction that I plow through for the dance references whenever I have the chance.  Most of them are overly sentimental and laden with heavy-handed moral messages.  "Reminiscences", which was serialized in the American women's periodical Godey's Lady's Book from February to June, 1865, was no exception to this, alas, but at least it was relatively short.

The background of the piece is a bit of a mystery.  The author is the same "Ethelstone" credited with "Dancing the Schottische" (Godey's, July 1862), which I discussed a few years ago.  I've never been able to locate any information about this author.  And "Reminiscences" adds a new element of confusion because it is written in first person and purports to be the story of one Ethel Stone.  Was "Ethelstone" actually a woman named Ethel Stone?  Is this fiction masquerading as memoir?  Or part of an actual memoir of a life that oh-so-conveniently included the elements of a mid-nineteenth-century morality tale?  That seems unlikely, so I assume that it's fiction.  But I may never know for certain.

The setting of "Reminiscences" is equally unclear; it takes place in a nameless village and nearby city, and the only clues to the time in the text are that it is before the era of hundreds of people attending "stand-up" parties and dancing the polka and schottische (dances which became popular in the 1840s), instead taking place back in the days when parties were smaller gatherings where some people would sit around the edges of the room while others danced cotillons and contra dances.  That doesn't help much; "cotillons" was used for decades in America to refer to what the rest of the world thought of as quadrilles, so the tale could take place any time from the late eighteenth century to the 1830s, or even early 1840s.

The plot is typical of the women's fiction of mid-nineteenth century.  A quick summary: Ethel ("Ettie") Stone meets a Mr. Morton at her very first adult party.  Despite the rivalry of local beauty Helen Leland for his affections, she wins his heart by her innocence.  Morton has a tragic past involving being abandoned by a mother who was corrupted by society, so his and Ettie's engagement is jeopardized when she visits the big city and enjoys its gaieties and flirtations.  After overhearing Morton's plans to break their engagement, Ettie reforms herself, returns to her village, and marries Morton.  At the end, Morton's mother, diseased and dying, shows up on their doorstep and is taken in due to Ettie's kind heart.  She reconciles with Morton's father, though perhaps not with Morton, and dies, penitent and forgiven.  

The message is not exactly subtle.

For once, however, dancing is not presented as part of society's corruption, perhaps because in comparison with the polka and schottisch of 1865, with their close ballroom hold and tendency toward romping, the set dances of the unspecified earlier era had come to seem quite innocent.

Wilson's New Reel of Five

At various points over the years I've written up descriptions of early nineteenth century London dancing master Thomas Wilson's choreographed Scotch reels for three, four, and six dancers, but, though I reconstructed and danced Wilson's new reel for five dancers several years ago, I've somehow never gotten around to posting about it.  Let me remedy that now!

 

First, it should be noted that Wilson's New Reel of Five was and is not the only reel for five dancers in existence.  Wilson himself gave the "common" reel of five alongside his own works, and another reel of five was given in Lowe's Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide, third edition (Edinburgh, c1830).  There may be other reels of five as well; I've not made a comprehensive survey.  The appearance in the Lowe's book suggests that a reel for five dancers has legitimate Scottish roots, but Wilson's choreography is a bit more elaborate and should be considered an English creation rather than a native Scottish dance.

 

I've seen the "common" reel of five danced at balls (a video of dancers in Moscow performing it may be seen here), but never either of the others.

Ada Rehan Waltz

The Ada Rehan Waltz is a simple and graceful hesitation waltz sequence published in Frank H. Norman's Complete Dance Instructor (Ottawa, 1914), where it is attributed to John Hackett of Hamilton, Ontario.  It is named for the famous Irish-American actress, shown at left in a famous 1895 portrait by John Singer Sargent (click to enlarge).  Quite a few photographs from her theatrical career may be found in the New York Public Library's digital collection.  By 1914 she had long retired from the stage, and I doubt she had any personal or professional connection to this dance.  

Edited 6/6/2019 to add: As recorded in The Director, Volume I, No. 8 (September 1898): a dance called "Ada Rehan" was adopted as one of three new dances by the Western Association Normal School, a meeting of dance teachers which took place that year in Toledo, Ohio, for two weeks starting on June 14th, 1898.  Among the officers of the Association were John Hackett, Second Vice President.  While I have not yet found definitive proof, I think it quite likely that the "Ada Rehan" adopted there was Hackett's "Ada Rehan Waltz" published by Norman sixteen years later.  Rehan was at the height of her fame in the 1890s, so it makes considerably more sense to have a dance named after her in 1898 than in 1914.  And the style of the dance is very much that of the sequence dances of the 1890s-1900s, as noted below.  [end added material]

The starting position for the Ada Rehan Waltz has the gentleman and lady facing each other, his back to the center of the room, both hands joined, and arms extended.  The gentleman starts with the left foot and the lady with the right.  His steps are given below; the lady dances opposite.  The dance follows the classic sequence dance pattern of "go this way, go that way, waltz", similar to the Berlin, the Veleta, the Rye Waltz, and many, many, many other sequence dances.

Gone with the Wind (film), 1939

As I promised a few months ago, I recently rewatched the 1939 film version of Gone with the Wind to see how the dancing in it looked from a historical perspective.  The short answer: pretty good, with some caveats.

The novel was heavily trimmed for the screen, even though the film clocks in at close to four hours, and the dancing is cut back as well.  What remains is fairly faithful to the novel.  

For more detail on the book's descriptions, please see my previous post on the topic.  Here, I'm just going to talk about the movie.  Frank Floyd and Eddie Prinz are the known (though uncredited) dance directors.

Going through the dance elements bit by bit:

Professor Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille

Professor Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille was created by Washington, D. C., dancing master George T. Sheldon, who had a lengthy career as a dancing master to both children and adults and was the author of at least a couple of other quadrilles.  In May, 1898, Sheldon was discussed briefly in M. B. Gilbert's dance journal, The Director, in which it was said that he was then 72 and had been teaching for 57 years.  His most famous pupil was probably Nellie Grant, daughter of President Ulysses S. Grant.  This quadrille was said in several sources to be dedicated to her.

Professor Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille seems to have first been published around 1893, possibly by H. N. Grant, and thereafter turns up in a number of midwestern dance manuals running through the early years of the new century.  It is referred to variously by its full name, by the shorter Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille or Sheldon's Polka Quadrille, and, in one manual, as Williams' Presidential Polka Quadrille.  I have no idea who Williams was or why he was credited with a quadrille well documented as having been authored by Sheldon.

Like most polka quadrilles, Professor Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille is primarily an excuse to polka, with just a few stray figures thrown in between polka segments.  I was drawn to it by the interesting mixer element in Figure 3 and the unusual way of performing the right and left (chaîne anglaise) around the edge of the set in each successive iteration of Figure 4.

In general, this is a straightforward reconstruction with only two real problems to resolve, which are discussed in the notes below.