Capering & Kickery

"La Contre Danse", cotillion figure (1900)

There are plenty of cotillions - in the sense of "nineteenth-century dance games", not "eighteenth-century French square dances" - that are some variation on "form a square or longways set and do a quadrille figure or country dance".  "La Contre Danse" is an interesting take on this theme from W. Gilbert Newell, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was published in St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler's compilation, Original Cotillion Figures (St. Louis, 1900).  It caught my eye because of the unusual formation: couple facing couple across a longways set, as in the American contra "The Tempest", the English "Polka Contre Danse", or quadrille figures done in columns rather than squares.  I can't be certain that this is the only cotillion figure using this formation -- hundreds of them were published from the early nineteenth into the early twentieth century, and I can't claim to have looked at them all -- but it's the only one I've found so far.

"La Contre Danse" is relatively complicated as figures done in sets go.  It opens and closes with two-step done in couples, and in between there is a brief march to set up the longways set before the actual contra/country/contre danse figures begin.  Here's how it works:

Against the odds

I recently made note of a mailing list post that referred to dances done at American Civil War reenactments, such as the Virginia Reel, and couple-facing-couple dances like the Spanish Dance/Waltz, as "historically-flavored".  I don't think the poster meant to imply that these dances were actually ahistorical; this is someone whom I'm certain knows better.  But there's an interesting underlying point I wanted to expand on in this, which is that it's possible to have an entire ball full of historically-appropriate, accurately-reconstructed dances, and still have the ball as a whole not be convincing as a historical event.  Because having all the dances accurate to the time period is not enough.  There are at least two other external factors to consider: the geographic setting and the specific type of ball and ball attendees.  A ball held by a member of high society in New York City is not going to have the same dance repertoire as a ball set in a frontier town in Oregon, even if they are both set in 1898, and a middle-class French ball would be even more different. 

There is also an internal element, which is the mix of dances and the proportions of different types of dances.  It's fairly clear to me that the most typical ball format for an American ball in the last half of the nineteenth century included large numbers of quadrilles (choreographed classics like the Lancers and Caledonians and some that were probably called on the spot by the ball's master of ceremonies), smaller numbers of couple dances, and a modest number of contra (country) dances, which included both ones "formed as for the Spanish Dance", meaning in a "Sicilian circle" of couple facing couple, and more conventional longways proper dances.  This would vary somewhat by location and social class, of course.

Note that this applies only to balls which are actually attempting to reenact specific times and places.  Events along the lines of "everyone put on a costume and lets dance some random dances" are not what I'm talking about.

Death by Persuasion (Midsomer Murders, Season 19, Episode 5)

I'm always pleased to see any film or television production make an effort to get the historical dancing right, but it's a big surprise when it more-or-less happens in a television series, which one doesn't necessarily expect to have the budget for a dance historian as choreographer and the proper music, or anyone on staff who even knows they need such.  I plowed reluctantly through a ninety-minute episode of a television show that, on the whole, I had no interest whatsoever in only to experience the delightful surprise of just under seven minutes of historically correct music and dancing that ranged from "acceptable kludge for television" to "wow, they got it RIGHT!"

That, as they say, was unexpected.  

Spoiler: I think I spotted Ellis Rogers, who literally wrote the book on quadrilles, in the background of a couple of scenes.  His involvement would explain a lot.  Unfortunately, the credits for the episode list Jim Parker for the music (which he may have played, conducted, or arranged, but certainly didn't compose) and no one at all for dance or choreography.  Edited 2/28/20 to add: Meryl Thomson of Green Ginger confirmed in the comments below that some of their recordings of Duval's Lancers were used in this episode.

"Diamond" Reel of Six

This is an interesting little reel for two gentlemen and four ladies which I would consider reasonable for anywhere from the late 1820s to, at least in Scotland, the 1870s or even later.  I'm hesitant to date it too specifically since neither of the sources I have are precisely dated, and while one is at best late 1820s and the other well into the mid-nineteenth century, this reel is perfectly compatible with Regency style.  Unless I were in a particularly strict-constructionist mood, I wouldn't blink an eye to see it performed at a Regency event.

I have only two sources for this Reel of Six: Lowe's Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide, third edition (Edinburgh, c1830) and The Excelsior Manual of Dancing, by J. F. Wallace (Glasgow, c1875).  The dating on The Excelsior Manual is especially fuzzy.  The dances could be from as early as c1860, but the illustrations of the ladies dresses suggest the early 1870s to me.  In Traditional Dancing in Scotland, J. P. and T. M. Flett list it as c1872.  A later edition of The Excelsior Manual (datable from its contents to no earlier than the mid-1890s and listed by the Fletts as c1900) does not include this Reel of Six.  Nor have I found it in any other Scottish dance manuals of the nineteenth century, though my collection of those is thin enough that I wouldn't take that as a definitive statement about it having never appeared elsewhere.

Unlike most reels for six dancers, this reel is in "diamond" formation, like a Reel of Five.  The four ladies are at the four points of an imaginary diamond with the two gentlemen back to back in the center, and the reels are reels for four dancers rather than for three.  

In complexity, this Reel of Six falls somewhere between the simpler Reels of Five and the very elaborate one created by Regency London dancing master Thomas Wilson, which I described here.  There is no added circling or passing under arms, but it does include the fast cross by the outside dancers between the heying (reeling) dancers.  This is actually easier to pace with six dancers rather than five.  Other than that little detail, it consists of a standard alternation of heying (reeling) and setting, tweaked to accommodate the two extra ladies.  But unlike Wilson's choreographed reels, the sources for this one are impeccably Scottish.

CD Review: The Grand Victorian Ballroom

The Grand Victorian Ballroom: Waltzes, Quadrilles, Contras, Polkas, and Other 19th Century Dance Music (Gaslantern Records, 2012), with its accompanying sheet music, is the second of two CDs I received for my birthday earlier this year, along with North & South.  But unlike North & South, this album was designed for dancing, so it is both beautifully played for listening pleasure and entirely functional as dance music.  The musicians, once again, are the members of the Orchestra of the Gilded Age (I still don't know exactly who those members are) conducted by Jeffrey Hunter.

As with North & South, there are no liner notes included with the disc, but the Gaslantern website has all the details of sources, composers, dates, etc.  All of the tunes except the two contra dances are dated between 1850 and 1870, perfect for a mid-century or American Civil War-themed ball.  The contras are also quite appropriate; though their tunes are older, they were still popular and attached to common dances in this era. 

While the focus is on American composers, the album includes the two quadrilles with European connections: the Prince Imperial Quadrille (French, but popular in America) and a Lancers set adapted from Jacques Offenbach's opera, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein.

My immediate advice: if you enjoy mid-nineteenth-century dancing, proceed directly to Gaslantern's website to order this CD.  It's not available digitally; you have to buy the actual disc.  The sheet music can be ordered in either physical or PDF format and includes dance notes for the quadrilles and contras. 

If you want more information first, a track-by-track breakdown is below.  

The Grand Victorian Ballroom: Waltzes, Quadrilles, Contras, Polkas, and Other 19th Century Dance Music (Gaslantern Records, 2012), with its accompanying sheet music, is the second of two CDs I received for my birthday earlier this year, along with North & South.  But unlike North & South, this album was designed for dancing, so it is both beautifully played for listening pleasure and entirely functional as dance music.  The musicians, once again, are the members of the Orchestra of the Gilded Age (I still don't know exactly who those members are) conducted by Jeffrey Hunter.

As with North & South, there are no liner notes included with the disc, but the Gaslantern website has all the details of sources, composers, dates, etc.  All of the tunes except the two contra dances are dated between 1850 and 1870, perfect for a mid-century or American Civil War-themed ball.  The contras are also quite appropriate; though their tunes are older, they were still popular and attached to common dances in this era. 

While the focus is on American composers, the album includes the two quadrilles with European connections: the Prince Imperial Quadrille (French, but popular in America) and a Lancers set adapted from Jacques Offenbach's opera, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein.

My immediate advice: if you enjoy mid-nineteenth-century dancing, proceed directly to Gaslantern's website to order this CD.  It's not available digitally; you have to buy the actual disc.  The sheet music can be ordered in either physical or PDF format and includes dance notes for the quadrilles and contras. 

If you want more information first, a track-by-track breakdown is below.