Capering & Kickery

October 2018 Gig Calendar

Back in Moscow for the school year!  I'll be doing four courses this autumn on cross-step waltz and historical dance plus a small waltz party at the end of the month.  No travel before November as I settle in!

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Tuesdays, October 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd ~ Moscow, Russia
Cross-Step Waltz for Beginners (VK post - in Russian)
7:00-8:30pm
Introduction to all basic figures of cross-step waltz.  Pay by the week or for a full month including the waltz party on the 30th.

Tuesdays, October 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd ~ Moscow, Russia
Intermediate Cross-Step Waltz (VK post - in Russian)
8:30-10:00pm
More complex figures and techniques for cross-step waltz.  Pay by the week or for a full month including the waltz party on the 30th.

Thursdays, October 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th ~ Moscow, Russia
Belle Epoque (VK post - in Russian)
7:00-8:30pm
Continuing my autumn course of dances of late 19th century France.  Pay by the week or by the month.

Thursdays, October 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th ~ 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 by the week or by the month.

Tuesday, October 30th ~ Moscow, Russia
Halloween Waltz Party (VK post - in Russian)
7:00-10:00pm.  Waltz, waltz, and more waltz.  Light refreshments.  Costumes encouraged!

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I am available for private lessons in 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.

Moscow, Russia: October 1-31

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Coming in November: a waltz weekend in Kyiv, Ukraine, and a quick trip to the USA for two Remembrance Day balls in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania!

Rothard's One-Step

This one-step sequence appears in the second edition of F. Leslie Clendenen's 1914 compilation, Dance Mad.  It is titled simply "One Step" with the attribution "by E. Clarence Rothard".  Rothard is listed in the thank-you credits in the back of the second edition, but his location is not given and a cursory search has not turned up any specific information about him.  An "Edna Rothard Passapae" was teaching dance in Newark, New Jersey, by at least 1918 and might have been the daughter of E. Clarence, since it was not unusual for daughters to follow their parents as dance teachers.  But even if she was, that doesn't necessarily mean that E. Clarence Rothard was also based in New Jersey.

Rothard's one-step is quite a lengthy sequence.  There are eight separate sections of the dance, some of which are repeated.  The overall pattern of the dance segments is ABCCDEFGHDH, each letter representing four bars of 2/4 music (eight beats) for a 44-bar (88-beat) dance.

The specified tune is "Hungarian Rag" (left; click to enlarge), a popular 1913 composition by German-American composer Julius Lenzberg adapted from Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies.  The piece is still well-known; period recordings of it may be found here and here, and a modern version here.  The sheet music is available online at the Charles Templeton Sheet Music Collection of Mississippi State University.

The sheet music is notated as 16b (repeated), 16b (repeated), 20b, 16b, and 16b.  How exactly this is supposed match up with a 44b dance is an interesting question, but since the dance is broken into four-bar units, one can make it fit by adding another repeat of one of the 16b strains for a total of 132 bars, which allows for three times through the dance.