Capering & Kickery

January 2018 Gig Calendar

I'll be starting off 2018 with a quick trip to London, where I'll attempt to hit several libraries and pick up a couple of sources relevant to some small projects I've been working on.  I will not have time to teach on this trip.  Afterward, it's back to Moscow and my waltz classes and a couple of Russian balls to attend as I attempt to keep warm through the worst of the Russian winter!

Other than the London trip, I am not planning to travel out of Moscow for the remainder of January, but I will continue teaching regular waltz classes on Tuesday evenings.  For the latest information on those, join my VK community (Russian).

Any groups in Moscow or elsewhere in Russia or Europe that might be interested in workshops from February through May should contact me directly. 

(Edited to add: my waltz classes have spawned a party!  See below for a small waltz event on January 20th!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesdays, January 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th ~ Moscow, Russia
Cross-Step Waltz Series (VK post - Russian) (more information - Russian)
19:00-20:30.  Intermediate cross-step waltz; previous experience required.  Note: must pre-register to get a pass for site security!

Tuesdays, January 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th ~ Moscow, Russia
Private classes 

Saturday, January 20th ~ Moscow Russia
Waltz Party (VK post - Russian) (more information - Russian)
17:00-19:00.  Informal afternoon dance, primarily cross-step waltz with some faster waltzes.  Light refreshments, recorded music.  Must pre-register for site security if you do not already have a pass from my classes!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Comfort for misery, 1807

A couple of years ago I discussed the dance references in James Bereford's The Miseries of Human Life (1806).  I recently came across a sequel of sorts: The Comforts of Human Life (1807), by Robert Heron, which offers some point-by-point rebuttals, which are supposed to be funny, of Bereford's miseries.  Happiness not being as good a topic for satire as misery, it doesn't work quite as well, and it is mixed in with some fairly heavy-handed advice.  As one contemporary reviewer observed in The British Critic, Volume XXIX, February 1807, 

This is a grave but very dull attempt to controvert the "Axioms of Misery" detailed and exemplified in the humourous publication, called the "Miseries of Human Life," which, from its originality, and its humour, excited much of the public attention.  Instead of the miseries of the Country and London, we have here the comforts of both, the comforts of travelling, &c.  But the bolt was already shot, and so much more are the miseries of life in tune with the popular feeling than the comforts, that the former has been multiplied into seven editions, while the comforts, we fear, as in the moral order of things, will be overlooked and neglected.  These comforts somewhat resemble a fire of straw, there is so much smoke, but little warmth.  (pp. 212-213)

Ouch!

Heron, of course, disagrees; he wrote that Miseries was too much in earnest to be funny, that the "vein of irony [was] not sufficiently rich, nor sufficiently continuous."  And while he acknowledges that "John Bull" (the English) "is best pleased with those who take the greatest pains to convince him that he is Miserable -- that he is utterly undone", he hopes that "a book of Comforts may not be unacceptable, as a second course or a dessert after a book of Miseries."

Sadly, the fact that a nineteenth-century book is dull does not prevent me from dutifully reading it for the dance references.  But, having done so, I think that Heron has it exactly backwards.  While there are some flashes of humor in Comforts, for the most part it tips over into didacticism and simply giving good advice for making the best of bad situations.  That's useful, though a lot of it is restating the obvious, but it mostly fails as satire.

The dancing references are still of interest, however, even if they are among the least funny bits in the book.

Half & Half: Seven Steps

"Seven steps" is actually something of a misnomer for this variation, which actually involves eight steps taken over two measures of half and half (5/4) time.  Its original source, Frank H. Norman's Complete Dance Instructor (Ottawa, 1914) lists it only as step "No. 2" (out of two) for the half and half.  The Half and Half section of Norman's book is credited to George E Rutherford.

The basic principle of the step is to take a single slow hesitating step, lasting three counts as usual (1-2-3), and then take seven quick steps on the last two beats of the first measure and all five beats of the second (4-5-1-2-3-4-5).  Like the five-step variation, this is a very "busy" step that is best done to a very gentle tempo of half and half music.  

Rutherford's description has the gentleman starting on the right foot and going forward along line of dance while the lady goes backward.  He describes the seven quick steps as "Beginning l. take seven short running steps forward, forcing the Lady backward count 4-5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5."  That's clear enough, but not much fun to do repeatedly, even if one reverses the genders and has the man run backward.  But Rutherford gives three possible variations, one of which I want to cover here:

"The running steps may be taken -- four forward -- and three back..."

Half & Half: Pivot Turns

"If you wish to spin you must do so on the slow step, continuing forward on the last two counts."        -- from Modern Dancing by Vernon & Irene Castle, 1914

One of the basic half and half steps which I did not cover in my long-ago post on basic traveling steps for the dance was the pivot turn, as distinct from turning waltz in half and half time.  There aren't all that many sources for half and half, so it's mildly (very mildly) significant that this step is mentioned three different times.  There's the Castles' succinct description quoted above.  There's a mention of it in a list of steps, or possibly a choreography, where it is given without any detail as "No. 3. pivot turn, right and left, 8 measures."  (from "Half and Half" by J. E. Miles, in Dance Mad or the Dances of the Day, 2nd edition, F. Leslie Clendenen (editor), 1914.)  And there's a full description as part of a mini-sequence which doesn't actually work.  Here's the relevant part:

THE PIVOT TURN is made by stepping L. to side.  C. 1.
Pivot 1/2 on ball of L.  C. 2. 3.  Walk forward. 4. 5.  

(from "Half and Half" as taught by Castle Assistants, in Dance Mad or the Dances of the Day, 2nd edition, F. Leslie Clendenen (editor), 1914.)

Green Mountain Volunteers

Green Mountain Volunteers is currently fourth on my list of go-to contra dances for the 1910s, after the Circle; Hull's Victory; and Lady of the Lake.  It really ought to be sixth, after Boston Fancy and Portland Fancy as well, but the former is too much like Lady of the Lake, and the latter I'm still thinking about. 

Unlike the five dances listed above, which appear on a pair of Maine dance cards from 1918-1919, I do not have dance card evidence for this one.  The only pre-1937 source for it, in fact, is Elizabeth Burchenal's American Country-Dances, Volume I (New York & Boston, 1918), in which she lists it among the dances "half-forgotten or less used" by the late 1910s:

Some of the most widely used of the contra-dances to-day in New England are The Circle, Lady of the Lake, Boston Fancy, Portland Fancy, Hull's Victory, Soldier's Joy, and Old Zip Coon (or, the Morning Star); while among the half-forgotten or less used ones are Chorus Jig, Green Mountain Volunteers, and Fisher's Hornpipe.

This is a category distinct from dances which are "obsolete" and which she reconstructed herself from old books.  I don't consider those latter ones to be sufficiently documented for my taste.

But, frankly, I include Green Mountain Volunteers in my repertoire for 1910s primarily because it's a neat dance by virtue of its unusual figures.  Contra dances, then and now, can get somewhat monotonous, so I appreciate the ones that stand out.

Green Mountain Volunteers is unusual among 1910s contra dances in having no obvious nineteenth-century pedigree.  The only potential connection, suggested by Ricky Holden in The Contra Dance Book (1956), lies in its loose resemblance to figures listed under "Beaux of Oak Hill" in some mid-nineteenth century manuals.  I'm not entirely convinced by the association, however, and the differences are substantial enough that "Beaux" warrants a separate post.