Among the myriad ways of matching up couples in a mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century cotillion (meaning the dance party game, not the eighteenth-century square dance), using a deck of cards was an obvious choice. Here, for example, is "The Cards", from the lengthy list of figures provided by New York City dancing master Allen Dodworth in his 1885 manual, Dancing and its relations to education and social life (the link is to the 1900 edition):
No. 180.
The Cards.
The conductor presents the four queens from a pack of cards to four ladies, and the four kings to four gentlemen; each gentleman then searches for the lady who holds the queen corresponding to his king; after dancing, each lady presents her queen to another lady, and the gentlemen present the kings to other gentlemen. The process is repeated until all have participated.
This is simple and obvious, and it doesn't require a blog post to explain how to make it work if one understands the general concept of cotillions.
An interesting variation on the cards theme appears in H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Buffalo, New York, 1912). This figure is actually a version of the Ninepins, a quadrille with an extra gentleman (or sometimes a lady) in the center who tries to steal a partner from one of the surrounding couples during the dance figures. The Walker figure is called "Court Cotillion" and turns Ninepins into an ongoing game in which each bereft gentlemen goes to select another lady and gentleman to start off the next quadrille-plus-one. It is to be done to waltz music.
Here's how it works, with a couple of small tweaks from me:
- The kings, queens, and a joker are pulled from a deck of cards and arranged on a table.
- The cotillion leader and his partner waltz briefly, then part, the lady giving the four queens to other ladies and the leader giving the four kings and the joker to five gentlemen.
- Those holding king and queens seek out the person with the matching suit -- hearts to hearts, spades to spades, etc. As they find their matches, waltz to the table, return the cards, and continue to waltz around the room. Meanwhile, the joker returns his card immediately and takes his place in the center of the room.
- Once all four couples are matched, they form a square and do the following short waltz figure:
8b Joker bows to each couple in turn
8b Each couple bows to the joker then to partner
8b Head couples waltz to opposite places, around the joker
8b Side couples repeat
8b Start a grand right and left; the joker cuts in and steals a lady
All waltz (except whichever gentleman now has no partner) - The leftover gentleman proceeds back to the table and gives the cards to another lead couple, who then lead off the figure by starting to waltz as the other eight dancers take their seats.
- The figure is repeated until each couple has led.
Two suggestions from Walker to managing the figure for a large number of dancers:
- Two sets of cards may be used, numbering them (Queen of Hearts #1, e.g.) so people know with whom to match.
- To relieve the tedium of waiting for one's turn to lead or dance, all couples my rise and waltz after every four repetitions of the figure.
I've made two changes to the above figure:
- For some reason Walker specifies "skip-step, do not waltz" when seeking one's suit-match. I cannot see that it matters much what step one uses.
- The second set of bows (by the couples) was only to the center (the joker). Eight bars is very, very slow for one set of bows. I've added the bow to partners at the end to fill the time and set the dancers up for their waltzes across the set.
The original instructions specified waltz music, but the figure would also work to two-step music (appropriate to 1912), though perhaps losing something in courtliness.
Enjoy!
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