(This is third in a series of four posts covering Paine's Twelfth Set. The introductory post in the series may be found here and figures one and two here.)
Continuing on with Paine's Twelfth Set, the next two figures...
No. 3, tune "L’Aimable"
Figure de La Poule. -- or
Le 4 dames font le moulinet pendant que les 4 Cavaliers font la grand Promenade a droite, ils donnent les mins a leurs dames et balancez tour de mains pour se remettre a sa place, les tiroirs a quatre et restez à la place opposee, de meme les 4 autres demie Promenade tous les 8, Jusqua [sic] votre place et tour de mains en place.
Contre Partie.
The 4 Ladies moulinet while the 4 Gent: do grand Promenade to the right, the 4 Gents: give their hands to their partners, balancez and turn them round to their places, the tiroirs 4 and stop at the opposite place the other 4 the same, half Promenade all 8 to your places, and turn your partner round to your place.
The same again.
Figure 3: 8b introduction + 32b x2
Music: A=8b, B=8b, C=8b, to be played A+(BACAx2) (see notes below)
8b Moulinet des dames et cavaliers promenade (four ladies cross right hands and go round; gentleman go round the outside counter-clockwise)
8b Balancez et tour de mains (taking left hands with partners, balance 4b in moulinet formation then turn by left hands to places)
4b Demi-tiroirs (head couples tiroirs across (2b) and turn halfway by left hands)
4b Demi-tiroirs (side couples tiroirs across (2b) and turn halfway by left hands)
4b Demi-promenade (all eight promenade halfway around to places)
4b Tour de mains (all eight turn partners by two hands)
(Repeat all of the above with the side couples leading)
This is where this set starts to get really interesting. As in La Poule, you have a right hand cross, then a left-hand connection, then balance and turn to places. And I don't think I've run across demi-tiroirs before, but I love them, despite the reconstruction challenges they present.
In performing tiroirs, couples face each other and move sideways across the set. The first couple joins both hands and passes between the second; the third joins hands and passes between the fourth. That takes two bars. What happens next is unclear. Given the lack of specifics in period sources, what follows is very much my personal interpretation:
- Normally in bars three and four of a demi-tiroirs, the dancers would be either separating or coming together to do the other half of the figure. Since that isn't necessary here, there needs to be something to fill out the time.
- That something ideally includes a change of places, since with the couples "improper" (gentleman on right) they are poorly positioned to start the following promenade. The lady would be starting further back, relative to the circular path of the figure, than the gentleman, which is a not ideal, since she has a longer track in any promenade figure already. One could perform the promenade with the gentlemen taking the outside track, but I find that hard to justify as a period practice this early in the nineteenth century.
My preferred solution, therefore, is that...
- The couples passing through the center should take crossed hands (right in right and left in left). Those in the first tiroir may just keep the left hands from the previous turn to places out of the moulinet formation. After moving across the set, they drop the right hands and turn by the left halfway to "proper" sides.
- This applies even if they are the second tiroirs group and going directly into the promenade. I find that crossed hands cramp movement during a half-turn, so I prefer to drop the right hands and then pick them up again, keeping left hands from the demi-tiroirs all the way through to the promenade.
- The couples passing on the outside must angle diagonally in toward each other once they pass the other couple so that they are in a position to take left hands for the half-turn.
- After the second demi-tiroirs, the half-turn may end up more like a quarter-turn and flow directly into the promenade.
Rogers also uses a left-hand turn here; it's nice that we agree. The instructions in the booklet are not specific about how he performs tiroirs, so I don't know whether we agree on that.
Coming out of the promenade, Rogers gives a right-hand turn, as usual, and -- as usual -- I prefer a two-hand turn, for the same reasons as in the first figure. Even though that tour de mains is the last figure in the figure, the first time through, the dancers are heading into the moulinet at the start of the repeat. All the same reasoning applies to setting up for the moulinet as for setting up for the chaîne des dames in the first figure.
Music note: as with figure two, this figure requires only twice through the music but the standard La Poule figure and the Green Ginger recording are four times through. If it's necessary to repeat four times, the dancers can follow the normal "progression" of who goes through the center in an unbroken tiroirs: the first time through, the first couple passes through the second then the third couple passes through the fourth. The second time, second through first then fourth through third. The third time, start with the side couples and have the third pass through the fourth then the first through the second. The fourth time, fourth through third then second through first.
Given how often people lose track and collide during a regular tiroirs figure, I think giving them thirty-two bars to forget what they are supposed to do is a recipe for disaster, but it does offer variety.
Steps: The promenade of the cavaliers should be danced with seven chassé; jeté, assemblé. For the ladies' moulinet, I would recommend three chassé; jeté, assemblé danced twice, taking very small steps, since the ladies have considerably less ground to cover; they should measure their steps so they pass their partners at the halfway point. For the balancez in moulinet formation, the dancers need to choose single-bar steps or step-sequences which don't have much sideways travel, such as four pas de basque or sissone-assemblé combinations. The standard tour de mains and the demi-promenade were covered in the previous post.
I have never seen a step-sequence given specifically for tiroirs, but it needs a sequence which covers a lot of distance to get all the way across the set in two bars. I would suggest the three glissade dessous, assemblé sequence used in sequence six here, or even just four glissade dessous, if the dancers are having trouble getting fully across the set. The lady will need to assemblé from dessus to dessus (right foot in front to right foot in front) to have her right foot in position for the next figure. For the half-turn at the end of each tiroir, one chassé; jeté, assemblé.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No. 4, tune "La Caprice de Vauxhall"
Figure La Pastourelle. -- or
Les 4 dames balancez aux Cavaliers à leurs droits et tour des main, avec le meme dame en avant deux, et en arriere, dos-a-dos, demie queue du chat, et demie chaine Angalise, et grand rond.
Jouer 4 fois jusque la dames retournent a leurs places.
The four Ladies balancez to the Gent: on their right and tour de mains, the Lady at the top Couple and the opposite Gent: advance and retire, dos-a-dos, half Promenade and half right and left. Grand rond.
Four times over untill [sic] the Ladies come back to their places.
Figure 4: 8b introduction + 32b x4
Music: A=8b, B=24b, to be played A+(BAx4)
8b Balancez et changement des dames (all four ladies balance with the gentleman on their right and turn two hands with him to his place)
4b En avant deux et en arrière (fourth lady and second gentleman forward and back)
4b Dos-à-dos (same two dos-à-dos)
4b Demi-promenade (current head couples half promenade)
4b Demi chaîne anglaise (current head couples half right and left)
8b Grand rond (all eight circle once round to the left)
(Repeat three more times; ladies regain original places at the end)
This is yet another clever set of figures, though it does not make any clever plays on La Pastourelle. Unfortunately, it has a choreographic problem. The two-person figures are led first by the lady "at the top couple" and the gentleman opposite her. The French is incomprehensible, but the English is quite clear. But after the opening change of ladies, each lady has moved one place to the right, so the figure is actually led the first time by the fourth lady.
That isn't a problem to perform, assuming the lady is alert, but if the usual progression is followed, the figure will be then be led by the first lady (in the second couple's position), second lady (in the third couple's position), and finally the fourth lady (in her original place) again, with the first, fourth, and third gentlemen, respectively. The third lady never gets a chance to lead. Alternating head and side positions is even worse; the fourth lady leads every single time. Changing the order so that it is defined by the gentlemen instead of the ladies doesn't help either.
I'm sure this all seemed like a brilliant idea to whoever thought it up. But since they didn't think through how it would work over four repetitions, we are left with a figure that is unfair to the third ladies.
On the bright side, there is no musical-repeat problem with this figure relative to the Green Ginger recording or dancing it when other sets are dancing the usual figures. It requires four times through, just like La Poule.
Steps: I covered steps for the chaîne anglaise and promenade figures and linked to possible steps for balancez and en avant in the previous post. The changement des dames is a tour de mains and should likewise be danced with three chassé; jeté, assemblé. For the dos-à-dos, some possible sequences are given here and here. For the grand rond, seven chassé; jeté, assemblé.
The final post: figure five!
Comments