Capering & Kickery

June 2018 Gig Calendar

I'm thrilled to start out June with another trip to Kyiv before heading back to the USA at last! 

I am not planning any further public classes in June, just research, writing, and non-dance projects.  And maybe a little vacation!

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Saturday-Sunday, June 2-3 ~ Kyiv, Ukraine
Cross-Step Waltz Weekend (Facebook event - Ukrainian)
Four waltz classes each day, evening party Saturday (I will be DJing), and afterparty Sunday (details in Ukrainian here).

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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: June 6-13, 16-30
Boston area: June 14-15

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Dance Program: Elmer Fife's Grand Ball, 1886

I don't actually own this dance card; it escaped me on ebay some time ago.  But I managed to grab the helpfully-posted images before they vanished.  It is not a very prepossessing card; it appears to be a simple folded piece of cardstock with black and white printing inside and out.  The inside of the card is at left.  The outside, below, features a simple but attractive front cover design of geometric shapes surrounding a bird in a lightly-sketched landscape.

What makes this card interesting to me is that it is not really a dance card for use at an actual ball.  Notice how there are no spaces to fill in partners' names?  Enlarge the inside of the card and in the fine print you'll see "We respectfully solicit your company for the above occasion", said occasion being a "Grand Ball!" to be given by Elmer Fife at Moore's Hall on Wednesday, January 27th, 1886.  The card is actually an invitation, or possibly an advertisement, depending on how it was distributed.  The final line on the left, "None but respected parties will be admitted to the ball" hints to me that it was not a very exclusive list.  And I am amused by the larger-font assurance that there will be "GOOD MUSIC".  Overall, this card reminds me most of the 1917 Ocean View Amusement Park card I posted several years ago.

Humming Bird Dance

"Humming Bird Dance" is a hesitation waltz sequence which appeared in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914).  It is attributed to "Mr. Menancon", who appears in the list of credits at the end of the second edition as "Elmond Menancon, 909 Elm Street, Manchester, N[ew] H[ampshire]".  I believe the first name ought to be "Edmond", since a dancing master of that name is listed in Manchester city directories from 1906 and 1918.  In the 1906 Manchester Directory, Edmond Menancon is listed separately as an artist, dancing master, and, interestingly, the sexton of a church.  Here's Menancon's advertisement from page 819 of the 1906 directory:

The sexton position seems a somewhat odd fit for an artist-photographer-dance teacher; the triple career doesn't seem to leave much time for a day job.  Perhaps it was his father?

In the 1918 residential directory, as transcribed here, he is listed as an "artist/teacher [of] dancing" having "rms" (presumably "rooms") at 318 Pearl. 

The Humming Bird Dance itself is a sixteen-bar sequence done in "one-step waltz" style, one step (sometimes with embellishments) per bar of waltz music.  The instructions in Dance Mad list it as for "Any waltz music."  Whichever piece is used, it will need to be at a fast hesitation waltz tempo, or the dance will drag.

To start, both dancers face line of dance, the gentleman behind and to the left of the lady.  The lady's right arm makes a semi-circle so that her right hand is over her head, palm up.  The gentleman takes the tips of her fingers with his own right hand.  Left hands are joined and extended in front.  This is referred to as "a la minuet", which would no doubt have startled  dancers of the original minuet in the eighteenth century.  Both dancers begin with the left foot.  

The basic step is onto the toes with a slight dip.  There is also a repeated three-beat sequence of stepping with a stronger dip (1), striking the free foot on the floor as it swings forward (2), and hopping while extending the free foot into fourth position forward (3).  The latter will be listed below as a "step-strike-hop" for brevity.

Aurora Waltz / Hungarian Waltz - Contra Dance

It's been quite some time since I've added a nineteenth-century American contra dance to Kickery.  Here's a waltz contra from the ever-useful Elias Howe that, with only a few bars of turning waltz, is an easy dance for beginners.  The set of figures appears in near-identical form in at least four of Howe's numerous dance manuals: the Complete ball-room handbook (1858), The pocket ball-room prompter (1858), and the American dancing master, and ball-room prompter (1862 and 1866). 

The original text:

First couple balance, cross over and go down outside below two couples — first couple balance again and waltz up to place — down the centre, back and cast off — swing six

In the two 1858 manuals, the figures appear under the name "Aurora Waltz", and in the 1862 and 1866 books, they appear under "Hungarian Waltz".  I think that as with earlier country dances, the names actually belong to tunes, rather than the dance figures, and I have no special preference as to which tune and name should be used.  Very similar figures (minus the waltz up the center and with a right and left instead of the swing six) appear at least as far back as the 1850s as non-waltz contra dance figures (under several different names) in Howe's and other manuals.  It looks to me like Howe just made minor tweaks to a common set of figures to take advantage of the waltz music.