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!
Performance Notes
1. The half-turn between the walking steps. There is a note in the original instructions that the gentleman faces the wall when making the half-turn between the walks. That means that he needs to turn to his own left (counter-clockwise). His first step along line of dance needs to be roughly between the feet of the lady; this is a single reverse pivot step. Her first step backward (on her right foot) needs to cross the line of dance to put her squarely in front of him. It helps if this is set up on the previous step, with the gentleman stepping back with his right slightly toward the center of the room, rather than straight back. This gives the lady a clearer path around him.
2. The spin turns. I discussed how to perform the spin turn, or swirl, here. In Tango No. 1, these are actually one-and-a-quarter spin turns done in only four steps (weight changes). Even merging the final quarter turn into the next part of the dance, that still means each step needs to make a quarter turn. This requires a lot of momentum, and the dance instructions note that there should be some rise and fall to help the dancers around:
The swirl is made freely, in fact, the movement has to be with a prominent raising and lowering as you turn...
For the gentleman on the first spin turn, the means the first step (back left) is toward the center of the room, the rock forward must put his back to line of dance, the next step (back left) is toward the wall, and the final rock forward leaves him facing line of dance, continuing his turning momentum to put his left side to line of dance for the draw steps.
For the second spin turn, the first step must be left foot back along line of dance, rock forward facing the center, left foot back against line of dance, rock forward facing the wall, and continue turning momentum to restart the sequence by stepping left back along line of dance.
3. The grapevine. See below for the issues involved in reconstructing this. As noted in the instructions, I prefer a "Yale" grapevine, with the lady crossing in front when the gentleman crosses behind (and vice-versa) unless dance instructions clearly state otherwise.
Reconstruction Notes
1. The first eight walking steps. The original instructions actually give only four:
Gentleman begins with his left foot, walks backward 4 steps. L. R. L. R. C. 1, 2, 3, 4, 2 bars. (Lady forward R. L. R. L.)
There sis no obvious omission or typo, but with only four walking steps, Tango No. 1. is a musically awkward 14-bar sequence, which is unlikely for the era. There is also the note at the end, referenced in the first performance note above, that the gentleman faces the wall when making the half turn between the walks. The note might be in error, but with the awkward sequence length, I think it vastly more likely that there are two missing bars of walking steps. The "walk back, half-turn, walk forward" sequence is found in the "South Indian 'Harem Tango' ", another short tango sequence in Dance Mad, and is the simplest solution that fits the existing instructions.
2. The grapevine. The original instructions are:
Grapevine or "Corte:" Gentleman steps foot to side. C. 1.
Draw R. back of L. C. 2. Step R. to side. C. 3. Step R. in front of L. C. 4. Repeat c. 5, 6, 7, 8. (See description.)
The obvious problem: this is not actually a grapevine. If you take the sequence as written, left-right-right-right, there cannot be weight changes on the second and third beats. Without them, the effect is rather like a reverse of the "triangle" touches in a disco line dance. One could conceive of this as a sort of reverse "fan" move (as used in, for example, Newman's "Fan Tango"), but since the word "step" is used, rather than "touch" or "point", I think these really are supposed to be actual steps with, and that it is more likely that the one "R" is a typo. Change the third step to "Step L. to side. C. 3." (left instead of right) and you have a perfectly normal grapevine: side, cross behind, side, cross in front. That ignores the "Corte" part, but given how freely the word "corte" was attached to moves in this era, I still think this is the most likely solution.
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