Capering & Kickery

December 2017 Gig Calendar

Living this binational life keeps me insanely busy, but I'm thrilled to be teaching a higher-level waltz series this month in Moscow, plus private classes and a return to beautiful Vladimir for a weekend of master-classes there!  

I do not have much more availability for December, so the classes below are probably all I'll do this month.  Any groups in Moscow or elsewhere in Russia or Europe that might be interested in workshops in 2018 should contact me directly.  I'm also interested in exploring the Moscow blues community and maybe seeing about some DJing while I'm here.

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Saturday-Sunday, December 2nd-3rd ~ Vladimir, Russia
Master-classes in Vladimir (VK event - Russian)
Classes in early nineteenth century dance (unusual country dance and quadrille figures), late sixteenth century dance (Negri's La Catena d'Amore), and early twentieth century dance (American contra dance and couple dancing 1910s-1920s).

Tuesdays, December 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th ~ Moscow, Russia
Cross-Step Waltz Series
19:00-20:30.  Intermediate cross-step waltz; previous experience required.

Tuesdays, December 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th ~ Moscow, Russia
Private classes 

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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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Double Grand Chain (a march or cotillion figure)

I first came across Double Grand Chain when flipping through Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) for interesting cotillion (dance party game) figures.  Like Winthrope, Double Grand Chain is not terribly game-like beyond the basic cotillion setup of dancing with one person and then finding a new partner, but it would make an interesting addition to a grand march for a group of reasonably skilled dancers. 

Double Grand Chain was not original to Walker; it also appeared in all the editions of Allen Dodworth's Dancing and its relations to education and social life running from 1885 to 1913 (the link is to the 1900 edition), which puts it firmly in the "late Victorian" category.  Since it did reappear in 1912 separately from the Dodworth reprints, I'd still consider it legitimate for a ragtime-era event, and it is sufficiently innocuous in style that I wouldn't be bothered by its use at a mid-nineteenth-century event either.

Here's the version I found in Walker:

DOUBLE GRAND CHAIN.
Six couples dance and select other partners and the twenty-four form six lines of two couples each; one line behind another.  The lines march forward and when the first reaches the end of the room the right hand couple turns to the right and the left hand couple to the left, and the following lines divide in the same way.  The two columns march down the sides of the room to the other end, and when they meet each file in one column performs a grand chain with the opposite file in the other column.  When one column has thus passed entirely through the other, partners join for a general waltz.

I first came across Double Grand Chain when flipping through Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) for interesting cotillion (dance party game) figures.  Like Winthrope, Double Grand Chain is not terribly game-like beyond the basic cotillion setup of dancing with one person and then finding a new partner, but it would make an interesting addition to a grand march for a group of reasonably skilled dancers. 

Double Grand Chain was not original to Walker; it also appeared in all the editions of Allen Dodworth's Dancing and its relations to education and social life running from 1885 to 1913 (the link is to the 1900 edition), which puts it firmly in the "late Victorian" category.  Since it did reappear in 1912 separately from the Dodworth reprints, I'd still consider it legitimate for a ragtime-era event, and it is sufficiently innocuous in style that I wouldn't be bothered by its use at a mid-nineteenth-century event either.

Here's the version I found in Walker:

DOUBLE GRAND CHAIN.
Six couples dance and select other partners and the twenty-four form six lines of two couples each; one line behind another.  The lines march forward and when the first reaches the end of the room the right hand couple turns to the right and the left hand couple to the left, and the following lines divide in the same way.  The two columns march down the sides of the room to the other end, and when they meet each file in one column performs a grand chain with the opposite file in the other column.  When one column has thus passed entirely through the other, partners join for a general waltz.

Aladdin Quadrille

Like the New Scotia Quadrille, the Aladdin Quadrille is one of several single-figure quadrilles found in the "New, Enlarged, & Complete Edition" of D. (David) Anderson's Ball-Room Guide (Dundee, this edition undated but probably c1886).  This is a simple, fun figure that would fit easily into a Scottish-themed ball.

Despite there being various quadrille sets called the Aladdin Quadrilles, Anderson doesn't seem to have had any specific music in mind.  He notes only that it can be danced in 2/4 or 6/8.

Aladdin Quadrille (8 bars introduction + 64 bars x4)
8b   Introduction/honors (not repeated)
8b   All promenade round
4b   Ladies advance to the center and retire
4b   Gentlemen advance to the center and retire
8b   All set to partners and turn by the right hand
8b   Head couples advance and retire, then half right and left
8b   Side couples advance and retire, then half right and left
8b   Grand chain half round to places
16b All waltz (in duple time) around (see performance notes below)

The figure is danced four times, with the head couples leading on the first and third iterations and the side couples leading on the second and fourth.