Capering & Kickery

August 2018 Gig Calendar

Emerging from my summer hibernation -- how did I get my hibernation season so out of whack? -- I'll be on the road this month for blues in Boston (sadly, this trip has been canceled) and a somewhat random bunch of workshops in San Jose, California, where a non-dance-related trip has turned into something of a busman's holiday!  

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Thursday-Saturday, August 16-18 ~ San Jose, California
Dance workshops at the 76th Annual World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon76) (Facebook)
I will be conducting workshops on Victorian couple dancing (with a Steampunk focus), historical dances done in trios, and cross-step waltz (beginner level); leading a morning "dancercize" session; DJing a waltz session; and doing a mini-class on hand jive.  I'll also be partnering for a basic swing dance workshop.  My full schedule is here.  Note: these workshops are restricted to day or weekend members of the convention.  Please see the Worldcon76 website for information about membership.

Tuesday, August 28th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy 
7:30-11:00pm (lesson then dancing).  DJing blues for the second set, 9:45-11:00pm.

Thursday, August 30th ~ Somerville, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Blues Union
7:30-11:00pm (lessons until 9:30 then dancing).  I'll be DJing blues from 9:30-10:30.

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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: August 1-14, 22-31
San Jose, California: August 16-20
Boston area: August 28-30

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Authenticity and Aesthetics: not the same thing

I shouldn't have to say this, but apparently I do:

Authenticity and aesthetics are separate qualities.  A high level of one does not imply a high level of the other.  Lack of one does not imply lack of the other.  They are almost completely independent variables.

Shaler's Brigade Reunion Ball, 1888

On June 14, 1888, The New York Times reported that the members of the Shaler's Brigade Association, a Civil War brigade under the leadership of General Alexander Shaler, had the previous day dedicated four monuments at the field of Gettysburg.  The dedication was part of a twenty-five-year reunion (since the Battle of Gettysburg) for surviving members of the brigade.  The event was described in extensive detail (almost two hundred pages of it) in Shaler's Brigade. Survivors of the Sixth Corps. Reunion and monument dedications, at Gettysburg, June 12th, 13th and 14th, 1888, from which the quotations below are taken.  More about Shaler's command and its activities during the battle may be found in Shaler's Wikipedia biography.

Of interest to dance history is that on the evening of June 13th, after dedicating the monuments, a ball and reception were held:  

...at 9 P. M. all wended their way from headquarters to the Rink Building, a large, commodious structure, where was being held the grand Complimentary Ball and Reception, tendered by the 23d Pennsylvania, in honor of the event. The ball-room was appropriately decorated for the occasion, with two stages erected at opposite sides of the room, for the Bands; while, from the front of the building was a transparency, emblazoned with the legend, "The 23d Pennsylvania Welcomes Shaler's Brigade and their Friends."  One hundred and fifty written invitations had been sent to the good people of Gettysburg, inviting "Yourself and ladies" to the Camp-fire, the Dedication and the Complimentary Ball and Reception, and when Colonel John F. Glenn, as Grand Conductor of the Ball, led off in the Grand March, with his good wife, there followed at least twelve hundred people— some four hundred ladies being in the line; the G. A. R. Band, of Gettysburg, playing the dancing music, while the McKnightstown Cornet Band gave the promenades, so that music was in the air a tall times. An original, unique and very appropriate ball program was distributed, containing thirty-six dances, wherein are the names of the regiments of the brigade, its winter camps, and actions in which it had participated were embraced, as a souvenir of the occasion; the ladies receiving a specially decorated one in silken corded pencil and bow of ribbon. Everybody got one to carry home, while two thousand handsome programs proper, containing the dances and promenades, were passed around for use in the festivities. (pp. 89-90)

Of particular note:

• That's an enormous attendance, and the gender imbalance is fascinating: at least twelve hundred people in the Grand March, but only four hundred ladies?  Were all the rest men marching together?  That seems appropriate for soldiers, but around four hundred extra men at a ball?  Wow...
  
  
• Alternating dancing and promenading, with a different band for each, was a fairly common ball format in late nineteenth-century America.  I have seen many dance cards with this format.

• The dual programs: one as a souvenir, and one to take home.  That sounds practical, doesn't it?  But it's complicated!

Balls at Portsmouth, 1865

Late in the summer of 1865, the French and British navies exchanged formal visits, with a British fleet visit to Cherbourg followed by a reciprocal French visit to Portsmouth.  In the latter town, two balls were held, both documented in engravings and written coverage by, among others, the Illustrated London News.  The image at left (click to enlarge) illustrates the ball held on Thursday, August 31st, 1865, in a "grand pavilion erected for the entertainments on Governor’s Green."  ("Illustrations of the Naval Festival at Portsmouth." Illustrated London News (London, England), Issue 1333, Saturday, September 9, 1865).  More detailed coverage a week later explained that the ball was held in

one of Edgington’s tents, 138 ft. long and 36 ft. wide, floored over, and lined with crimson and white cloth, also decorated with flags and coloured lamps.  At the upper end, behind the Mayor’s chair, was a bust of the Emperor Napoleon, above a shield bearing the arms of the town of Portsmouth, with the Mayor’s chain and badge.  On his right hand were the Royal arms of Great Britain, supported by the standards of France, with the Imperial and British crowns.  On his left hand were the arms of France, supported by the Royal standards of England and of the Prince of Wales.  At the opposite end of the room were an exquisitely-designed waterfall, fountain, and cascade, intermixed with choice ferns and evergreens — the rockwork before formed of blocks of coal, gilt...The company numbered about 2000 ladies and gentlemen, and the great majority of the latter wore naval or military uniforms, while the ladies, of course, were very richly and gaily dressed.  They presented, while dancing, a splendid as well as a lively and animated sight.
    -- "Illustrations of the Anglo-French Naval Festival at Portsmouth."  Illustrated London News (London, England), Issue 1334, Saturday, September 16, 1865.

CD Review: North & South

I received the CD North & South: Forgotten Music from the American Civil War (Gaslantern Records, 2013) and its accompanying sheet music as a birthday gift this year, and a very lovely gift it was!  Sixteen new pieces of historical music, beautifully played by the Orchestra of the Gilded Age, conducted by Jeffrey Hunter, many of them suitable for dancing!  

The actual disc features a gorgeous historical battle scene, but there are no real liner notes included.  Happily, almost all the information one could want appears on the album website: not merely dates and lengths, but composers, background notes, and even the musical key of each piece. 

This is a "listening" CD, not made specifically for dancers, but many of the pieces will work for dancing.  As usual, I've gone through the album track by track and made notes about which pieces are danceable and for what.  

Of special note: the album is divided into two themes, "North" and "South", with the pieces for each named in honor of particular Union or Confederate leaders or otherwise connected to one side.  If one's dancers or listeners are apt to find such celebratory naming problematic, be careful which half you select from!

"Tango No. 1"

Continuing on with the tiny traveling tango sequences from 1914, here's one that's a bit less tiny than the Two-Step Tango.  "Tango No. 1" is listed in both editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) with the note "As taught in our classes.", which presumably meant the classes of F. Leslie Clendenen's own academy.  That means that this is as much a class practice sequence as a social dance.  As I reconstruct it -- and see the reconstruction notes below -- it is a reasonable sixteen bars (thirty-two beats) in length, and suitably easy for a class, as it only involves four basic moves - walking, a spin turn, draw steps, and grapevine.

The starting position is a closed ballroom hold with the gentleman's back to line of dance and the lady facing line of dance.  The gentleman starts on the left foot, the lady on the right.  Steps are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

Tango No. 1 (16 bars/32 beats of tango music)
1234    Walk backward four steps
(half-turn counter-clockwise)
5678    Walk forward four steps 

1234    Fast clockwise spin turn, ending with gentleman facing wall
5678    Draw steps: side-close-side-close

1234    Grapevine: side-cross behind-side-cross in front (lady does opposite cross, not mirror!)
5678    Repeat grapevine

1234    Repeat draw steps
5678    Repeat clockwise fast spin turn, ending with gentleman's back to line of dance

The overall mnemonic: back, forward, spin, draw; grapevine, grapevine, draw, spin.  It would be nice if it were perfectly regular, with each half ending with either spin-draw or draw-spin.  But, alas, it is not, so the dancers must pay attention!

Two-Step Tango

The Two-Step Tango is an anonymous eight-bar sequence published in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914).  There are several of these tiny "tango" sequences that travel decorously around the room without much tango feel to them -- see the similar Butterfly Tango and Dixie Swirl.  These short progressive sequences all appeared in the first edition, along with the somewhat better-composed and more tango-like ones (including a "Tango Two-Step") from Albert Newman.  The impression I get from this is that the more authentic tango was still making its way across the country in early 1914, so the authors of these sequences were still interpreting it as "slow one-step to tango music".  The second edition of Dance Mad expanded the tango section enormously, retaining the short sequences but adding twenty-two pages of more authentic Argentinian and Parisian tango steps.

The Two-Step Tango is basically a promenade, performed with both partners facing line of dance, side by side, holding inside hands.  The gentleman begins on the left foot, the lady on the right.  The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances opposite.

Two-Step Tango (eight bars/sixteen beats of tango music)
1        Forward left
2        Forward right, turning slightly outward
3        Back left, making a slight dip (against line of dance, back to back with partner)
4        Side right (along line of dance, still back to back with partner)
5        Side left (along line of dance, swinging to face partner)
6        Back right, making a slight dip (against line of dance) 
7        Side left (along line of dance, facing partner again)
8        Forward right

1, 2    Forward left, slowly
3        Close right to left
4        Forward left
5, 6    Forward right, slowly
7        Close left to right
8        Forward right