Capering & Kickery

November 2017 Gig Calendar

I'm fully settled in Moscow now, and my November teaching schedule here is a pleasant mix of modern waltz and early twentieth century dance, continuing my work with Studio "Танец весны"  and teaching advanced waltz classes on my own.  I'll also be making a lightning trip back to the USA on Remembrance Day weekend to return to my long-running engagement leading 1860s dancing at The President's Remembrance Day Ball in Gettysburg!

I do not have much availability for the rest of 2017, but groups in Moscow or elsewhere in Russia or Europe that might be interested in workshops should contact me directly.

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Thursdays, November 2nd, 9th ~ Moscow, Russia
Twentieth Century American Social Dance Course (VKontakte community - Russian)
For Studio "Танец весны".  Last two classes in a six-week course covering basic cross-step waltz (1990s-present) and early ragtime dances (1890s-1910s): two-step, five-step (schottische), and 1910s-style New England contra dance.  Details (Russian) at the VK community!

Monday, November 5th
American square dance class for Studio "Танец весны". 
20:00-21:00.  One-hour workshop during part of ongoing nineteenth-century dance series of Studio "Танец весны". 

Tuesdays, November 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th ~ Moscow, Russia
Private classes

Thursday, November 16th ~ Moscow Russia
Evening of Twentieth Century Social Dance
19:00-22:00.  Dance event for Studio "Танец весны".  I will be calling a couple of contra dances but mostly just dancing!

Saturday, November 18th ~ Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
The 15th Annual Remembrance Day Dinner & Ball (Facebook community) 
5:30pm-midnight.  Formal Civil War-era dinner and ball with live music by The Fleeting Moments Waltz and Quickstep Orchestra!  Pre-1865 costume (civilian or military) is required.  This year's event is the "Prince of Wales" ball, with ladies requested to wear light-colored gowns and tiaras, and/or trim their gowns with crystal and white flowers, and gentlemen requested to wear white boutonnieres!  Reservations required (dinner and ball or ball-only).  There is a Friday night fancy dress (masquerade) ball as well, precepted by Steve Buckmiller -- see the event website or the Destination Gettysburg event page for more information!  This event generally sells out; purchase tickets in advance! 

Sunday, November 19th ~ Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Private event 

Thursdays, November 23rd, 30th ~ Moscow, Russia
Twentieth Century American Social Dance Course (VKontakte community - Russian)
For Studio "Танец весны".  First two classes in a new six-week course covering basic cross-step waltz (1990s-present), 1910s tango, and 1910s-style New England contra dance.  More details TBA.    Course cancelled.

Saturday, November 25th ~ Moscow, Russia
Waltz Kaleidoscope Class (Вальсовый калейдоскоп)  (VKontakte event - Russian)
17:00-19:00.  Workshop in combining and shifting between cross-step waltz and valse à trois temps (rotary waltz).  Basic knowledge of both waltzes required.  

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I am available for private lessons in Moscow, 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.

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Coming up in December: Moscow classes continue, with added waltz classes, and a weekend of dance in Vladimir!

"The Masked Ball", a ghost story, 1885

The Massachusetts Ploughman and New England Journal of Agriculture does not, at first glance, suggest itself as a good source for dance-related material. But apparently even the members of the New England Agricultural Society had a taste for ghost stories, since on August 1, 1885, their journal published "The Masked Ball.  An Ancient Legend of Spanish Toledo", which resembles nothing so much as the scary stories we used to tell around the campfire or at sleepovers when I was a little girl.  A good storyteller could probably do quite well with it.  As a dance source, it's rather thin -- just a reiteration of the difference between a masked ball and a fancy dress ball -- but the story makes a suitable ending for a month of Halloween-themed blogging!

The masked ball was said to have taken place in Toledo "a great many years ago", which from the lack of internal evidence could have been as far back as the eighteenth century.  One must not spoil a ghost story with too much detail.  The newly-ascended Count de Verano, Don Jayme, held a masked ball (said to be new to the people of Toledo) to present his beautiful sixteen-year-old daughter Teresita to society.  Masked balls were considered a bit risque, and Don Jayme wasn't about to let little Teresita be anonymous at her coming-out ball:

It had been arranged between the Count and his daughter that they themselves should not dress in dominoes and masks.  Don Jayme thought Teresita too young for that sort of thing...

But everyone else got into the spirit of the event, so to speak:

...all were dressed in dominoes and masks.  At midnight they were all to unmask.  The guests were more or less startled therefore at meeting, coming down stairs, a man dressed entirely in armor, with vizor down, who wore neither domino nor mask.

Who is Your Partner?

What would Halloween be without masks?  And what would a cotillion be without at least one figure where people blunder around blindly crashing into each other?

"Who is Your Partner?" is from St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler and appeared in Original Cotillion Figures (St. Louis, 1900), his collection of figures from himself and other dancing masters.  It is easy enough to run, but it does require props: 

A number of black masks, like those used in lodges, viz: those that have no eyes, in order to completely blindfold the wearer.

Here's how it goes:

The gentlemen are called to the center of the room, and made to join hands in a circle.  They are given the masks which they put on; they then join hands again and circle to the right; at signal from the leader, they let go hands, hunt for a lady (the ladies are in their regular seats) dance with her.  He is not to remove his mask until he calls the name of the lady with whom he is dancing. 

Un jeu d'échecs (a game of chess), 1810

Another themed quadrille described by Laure Junot, the Duchess of Abrantès, was the "game of chess" danced, or at least presented, at a masked ball in Paris in the February of 1810.  The quadrille was also described in her Memoires de Madame la duchesse d'Abrantes, which were published and republished in multiple volumes in a variety of editions.  The French text below was taken from an 1837 fourth edition published in Brussels, which may be found online here.  A contemporary (1833) English translation is online here, but it is not a close enough translation and omits some lines, so I've done my own, with reference to it.

Junot spent more time in her memoirs complaining about the costumes and rehearsal time required for this quadrille than she did on the actual performance, but from her description, it seems like very few of the pieces (dancers) actually got to do much, unless perhaps they danced as they entered the board.  But what little she describes does mention steps, and the costume descriptions give us a fairly good idea of how the dancers must have appeared: vaguely Egyptian pawns with tightly-wrapped skirts and sleeves like mummies and sphinx-like hairstyles, knights like centaurs with horse rumps made from wicker, rooks wearing wicker towers, and fools (bishops) in caps with bells.

A Soap Bubble Party, 1884

"Our Soap Bubble Party" appeared in the January, 1884, issue of the American children's magazine, St. Nicholas; an Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks.  It describes a party for young people that combines fancy dress, party games, and a bit of dancing.  The intended audience for the magazine was ages five to eighteen, and the illustrations for the soap bubble party show children from infancy all the way through their teens.  Since the activities are described as being organized and run by the children, and among the assumed skills is that of couples waltzing, I would not classify this party as only for small children, but for a mixture of ages or even for teenagers. 

The party description is quite lengthy, so I am not going to cover in detail all the possible games one can indulge in at a soap bubble party or the details of the decorations.  I'll restrict my detailed discussion to the more dance-focused elements: the initial grand march and distribution of "team" rosettes and bubble pipes, the one cotillion-like figure described, and the final dance.  

A Fancy Dress Ball, Saratoga, 1847

Another costume-heavy description of a fancy dress ball was published in The New York Herald on August 17, 1847, in the social column "The Watering Places" on page two.  The ball was held at Congress Hall of the United States Hotel in the summer resort town of Saratoga Springs, New York, on August 14, 1847.

Sadly, no information is given about the dancing, though the writer does mention the generous size of the hall, one hundred and fifty by fifty feet, and the beautiful decorations, featuring flowers and greenery plus "miniature flags of every nation which supports a navy" hanging "just above the heads" of the dancers.

The ball was popular, but some who had recently arrived in Saratoga were unable to attend because they could not get costumes ready in time:

Among the company at Saratoga, which is the best in America, there seemed to be a general interest in this event; there were few who, if time could have been had to make suitable preparations, would not have attended that ball.  Many persons who have lately arrived did not know that such a ball was to be given until it was too late for them to prepare for it.

The "resident visitors", presumably meaning those who spent the entire summer in Saratoga, had more warning and were able to spend considerable sums on costumes:

But there were no impediments to the ardor with which the resident visitors looked forward to this carnival, as something which would be more brilliant and extraordinary than any previous party; sums which some could not lose without becoming a beggar, were expended for jewels and dresses to be worn upon this occasion, and in procuring these articles, there was all that furor and agitation and hubbub which is characteristic of the American exclusives.

The writer of the column listed quite a few costumes, though he or she noted that there were "hundreds of characters" that he or she did not include.  Most of those listed are men's outfits; for any gentlemen looking for fancy dress ideas, this is a great list:

A Fancy Dress Ball, Roxbury, 1827

It's October, and time once again to devote some attention to masquerade and fancy dress balls and other excuses to wear unusual costumes in historical ballrooms!

On January 3, 1828, The New York Mirror: A Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts, published a description of what was supposedly the first fancy-dress ball ever held in New England, held at Norfolk House in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on "Wednesday last".  

Roxbury is now part of the city of Boston, but at the time it was a separate town.  According to the Roxbury Wikia entry on Norfolk House, it was originally built in 1781 as a private residence.  It was then sold to the Norfolk House Company in 1825 and opened as a public house in 1827 with the addition of a hall for public assemblies, which may be seen at back left in this image of Norfolk House (click to enlarge) from Roxbury, by Anthony Mitchell Sammarco (Arcadia Press, 1997), p. 17.   The original building was demolished in 1853 and replaced by a new Norfolk House, which still stands today.

The Mirror article describing the ball was reprinted from the Boston Evening Gazette, to which I don't have immediate access, so it's not clear on what date the ball was actually held.  Given the timing of Norfolk House's opening to the public, it cannot have been before 1827.  Since there is no reason to suppose the Mirror article was delayed for long, my best guess would be Wednesday, December 26th.  A fancy dress ball makes sense as part of seasonal celebrations.