Capering & Kickery

September 2018 Gig Calendar

September includes my last few weeks in the USA before my biannual transatlantic migration; the last week will be spent settling into my Moscow life once more.  I'll be taking some vacation early in the month (real vacation this time - no dance gigs sneaking in!) and then have some research time and a pair of DJ gigs in Boston before heading home to pack!

Once in Moscow, I'll pick up my autumn schedule quickly with a waltz party to launch my cross-step classes and a pair of historical classes covering the 1880s-1890s and 1910s with a special emphasis on dance connections to Russia in both France and America.

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Tuesday, September 9th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Second Sun Rising (Facebook event)
7:00-11:00pm (one-hour lesson then dancing).  DJing fusion for the second half, 9:30-11:00pm.  

Tuesday, September 11th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Bluesy Tuesy (Facebook event)
7:30-11:00pm (lesson then dancing).  DJing blues for the second set, 9:45-11:00pm.  This will be my last public event in the USA before departing for Russia!

Tuesday, September 25th ~ Moscow, Russia
Return to Moscow Waltz Party (VK post - in Russian)
7:00-10:00pm.  Waltz, waltz, and more waltz.  Light refreshments.  Details TBA.

Thursday, September 27th ~ Moscow, Russia
Belle Epoque (VK post - in Russian)
7:00-8:30pm
First in my autumn course of dances of late 19th century France.  Details TBA.  Pay for the season as a whole (12 classes and one party) or for the individual class.

Thursday, September 27th ~ Moscow, Russia
Unusual 1910s Dances (VK post - in Russian)
8:30-10:00pm
First in my autumn course on the more unusual dances of the 1910s, including improvisation in the maxixe and hesitation waltz, the social dances of Anna Pavlova, and perhaps a few small surprises!  Pay for the season as a whole (12 classes and one party) or for the individual class.

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I am available for private lessons when in residence in either Connecticut or Moscow, or while 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: September 4-5, 13-21
Boston area: September 10-12
Moscow, Russia: September 23-30

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Exeter Waltz

Last year I wrote up Massachusetts dancing master George F. Walters' Exeter Caprice, one of two Walters dances that appeared in the second edition of F. Leslie Clendenen's 1914 compilation, Dance Mad.  The other was the Exeter Waltz, a hesitation waltz sequence which, at sixteen bars, is long enough to function as a standalone sequence dance or, if the surrounding dancers are accustomed to accommodating hesitations, used as a puzzle-piece for improvisation.  There is no choreographic connection between the Exeter Waltz and the Exeter Caprice.

There were some difficulties in reconstructing the Exeter Waltz (see the Reconstruction Notes below); the following version is what I came up with after some experimentation with different possibilities.

Starting position: normal ballroom hold, gentleman's back to line of dance and lady facing line of dance.  Gentleman starts left foot, lady right.  The instructions below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

The dance consists of sixteen measures of waltz music divided into two eight-bar sections.  Turns to the right are clockwise or natural; turns to the left are counter-clockwise or reverse.

In Praise of the Simple

Wandering around the net, as one does, I came across a lovely video of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark participating in a traditional dance of the Faroe Islands, the kædedans, a circle dance (for a loose definition of "circle") that just so happens to have the same pattern as Branle Simple, one of the "opening branles" published by Thoinot Arbeau (Jehan Tabourot) in 1589 and described briefly by me nearly a decade ago, when I was doing more with Renaissance dance.  Double left, single right.  Repeat ad infinitum.  Frederik and Mary both had a little trouble catching the pattern, in exactly the same way that I've seen people have trouble with Branle Simple nowadays (no, really, go left twice then right, but only once to the right, no, it's not symmetrical...).  That's kind of charming; don't they prep royalty before these events?

Here's the video:

(Video courtesy of BILLED-BLADET Magazine) 

South Indian "Harem Tango"

And here it is: the last of the tiny Dance Mad tangos!  

The South Indian "Harem" Tango, like the others in this series of posts, is an American tango which appeared in both the first and second editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions compiled by F. Leslie Clendenen and published in 1914).  It is a very short sequence, only six measures (twelve steps or beats), and rather silly.  Clendenen attributes it to W. T. Kaserman, a dancing master who does not appear on Clendenen's lists of contributors in either edition.  Perhaps he was embarrassed?

I should state outright that there is nothing even slightly South Indian or harem-like about this sequence; it's utterly ordinary.  The name is pure exoticism.

While I haven't looked into Kaserman in depth, I believe he was from the Cleveland area.  He seems to have taught with his wife, since both of them appear (circled in red) in the picture at left of the "New Officers of International Asociation [sic] of Masters of Dancing for Season of 1906-1907 Just Chosen in Fort Wayne." taken from the June 13, 1906, edition of the Fort Wayne [Indiana] Weekly Sentinel.  Also in the picture: Montréal dancing master Frank H. Norman, at top right, whose Rocker Hesitation and Rag-Time Crawl I have previously discussed.  Click to enlarge the photo.

Zebley's Tango

Moving right along with my tiny tango post series, here's another sequence from F. Leslie Clendenen's two editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914).  This one is simply called "Tango" and was provided by T. Victor Zebley, a Washington, D.C., dancing master.  It isn't really a "tiny" tango; it's a full thirty-two measures, which is enough for a full-fledged sequence dance.

Zebley's tango is very straightforward to reconstruct and, provided one remembers the full sequence, easy to dance, with three points where the dancers can make some minor choices of their own.  I give my preferences, but also describe the other options in the performance notes below.

"Mixed Pickles" Tango

Continuing with my lengthening series of tiny tango sequences from the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914), here's another short (sixteen-bar) tango sequence.  If not performed by all the dancers on the floor in unison, it must be done with care, since the dancers move directly against line of dance at two separate points.

For such a short sequence, there are quite a few niggling little problems with the instructions and reconstruction, which I'll talk about a bit below.

The starting position for the dance is a regular ballroom hold with both dancers turned to face forward along line of dance, moving more-or-less side by side to start.  The gentleman starts on the left foot, the lady on the right.  Steps below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.  

"Mixed Pickles" Tango (sixteen measures/thirty-two beats)
1234    Four walking steps along line of dance, LRLR
5678    Cross left foot over right and do four walking steps against line of dance (over elbows), LRLR

12        Facing partner, point left foot along line of dance
3          Close left foot to right, rising on toes
4          Sink onto heels
5678    Grapevine along line of dance, LRLR (see performance notes below)

1234    "Scissors": Cross left foot over right, step side right, cross left over right, and point right (movement and point are against line of dance)
5678    "Scissors": Cross right foot over left, step side left, cross right over left, and point left (movement and point are along line of dance)

1234    Draw steps: slide left along line of dance, close right to left, repeat
5678    Spin turn clockwise, rocking left back/twice

Birth of the Doves

The second and final post in my August cotillion mini-series, in which things get weird!  The Birth of the Doves -- does that title not just fill one with fear? -- is taken from St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler's 1900 compilation Original Cotillion Figures. It was attributed to W. L. Curtis of Utica, New York.  This is one of those cotillion figures that either awes or horrifies you with the amount of effort people went to to throw impressive parties in the late nineteenth century.

Interestingly, this cotillion has a specific piece of music: "The Dove's Return", by Fred T. Baker, which dates from around 1893, when it was published as #8725 in the long-running Musical Bouquet series of sheet music.  A detail from the cover is at left; click to enlarge.

Given the music, the dance for this cotillion is obviously the waltz.  The instructions note that this figure should be the last of the evening, and that the "spectacular effect" is beautiful. 

It's certainly a spectacle.

Court Cotillion

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.