Military Times is one of the many, many, many little couple dance variations included in both M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903) but not, so far as I can tell, to be found in any other period source. I'd mentioned it (negatively) in passing many years ago when I wrote about the other "military position" variations in Gilbert, but hadn't ever published a reconstruction. In the interest of being thorough, and since I feel more positively about it now than I did eleven years ago, here it is!
Military Times is attributed by Gilbert to Ralph Warren of Denver, Colorado. Like the other dances with "military" in their names, Military Times begins with the dancers side by side, the lady on the right, the gentleman's right arm around the lady's waist and her left hand resting on his shoulder or upper arm. Their free arms can hold a gentle curve at their sides, or (French style), her hand can hold her skirt while his rests at his waist, palm out. Unlike those other "military" dances, however, Military Times has both dancers beginning on the same foot, the left. The reconstruction of the dance is fairly straightforward, though some performance details have to be filled in, given the brief (Gilbert) and confusing (Lopp) descriptions available.
A quick summary of the dance is that the dancers perform four measures of gentle skipping steps followed by the lady doing two full turns of reverse waltz while holding right hands with the gentleman, who travels along with her. This is an unusual example of an underarm turn in the nineteenth century.
The specifics:
4b Step (1), pause (2), hop, passing free foot to fourth raised in front (3); all this four times, starting with the left foot
1b The gentleman marks time in place while the lady steps forward left, side right, close left to make a half waltz-turn in reverse, ending diagonally to the gentleman's right, a bit ahead of him, and taking right hands with him
3b The lady continues her reverse waltz, with the gentleman gliding along beside her. Her three bars of waltz are:
right back, left side, right close
left forward, right side, left close
right back, left side, right close
As she completes the final half-turn, she should make sure her left arm is raised. The gentleman should drop her right hand and move smoothly forward to take her around the waist with his right arm and restart from the beginning. Shorter gentlemen will need to be careful that her elbow does not smack them in the face.
Performance Notes
1. The initial skipping steps are specifically step, pause, hop rather than leap, pause, hop, as in the Military Schottische (see its description here).
2. The entrance into the reverse waltz and shifting to holding right hands is a little bit awkward, since his right hand is behind her back when they start. The reverse turns will be hard to start cleanly if she doesn't know the variation. If she does, a gentle push to turn her counter-clockwise to face the gentleman in three steps will get her positioned correctly. She needs to offer her right hand, or at least have it raised and available for him to take. Once they have joined hands, he can easily guide her through the next reverse turn and a half.
3. The exact footwork for the turns and for the gentleman's accompanying travel is not actually specified, just that she "turns in reverse" (Gilbert). I'm a bit skeptical that this was done as a serious of six pirouettes, six pivots, four canter-rhythm (1...3) pivots, or anything else that requires rapid spinning in 1880s costume. And I am never fond of sort of wandering in circles with no specific footwork. My preference therefore is for her to dance these turns as an actual reverse waltz. The gentleman can likewise do waltz steps moving forward along line of dance, or simply glide along in waltz time, three steps per measure, to keep pace with her.
4. Lopp's instructions for the last part are:
Après quoi, le danseur prenant de sa main droite la main droite de la danseuse, la lève au-dessus du niveau de la tête; et alors la danseuse tourne autour du cavalier durant quatre mesures, et ces pirouettes se font en avançant devant soi.
My loose translation:
After that, the gentleman taking with his right hand the right hand of the lady, raises it above the level of the head; and then the lady turns around the gentleman for four bars, and these pirouettes are made advancing in front of him.
There's a little problem there: "around the gentleman" (autour du cavalier)? I don't think trying to actually dance in a circle around him would work terribly well, and it is contradicted by the following phrase, en avançant devant soi (advancing in front of him). My best guess is that autour du cavalier means something more like rotating "around his hand", which is roughly what happens during these turns.
The lady dancing directly in front of the gentleman also doesn't work well; it makes it difficult for the gentleman to extend his hand over her head (unless he is extremely tall) and very awkward to get into position to restart the sequence. Moving along beside the gentleman, on the "outside track" of the line of dance, a bit ahead of him, works just fine. Since Gilbert saw no need to position the lady anywhere specific, I feel justified in placing her where it's easiest for the dancers.
As noted above, I don't think these are literal pirouette steps. I think that Lopp just used the term to mean turning oneself, as opposed to dancing with a partner. The steps need to travel, if the dancers are not to just make an obstacle of themselves on the dance for four bars at a time.
Music
It's hard for me to say whether this variation was meant for specific music or not; the name "Military Times" could be the name of a tune or just a reference to the position. It certainly needs to be done to fairly brisk waltz music, or the initial four measures of "step...hop" feel leaden. The music should be fast enough for them to feel like slightly stretched skipping steps.
Special thanks to Denis and Sofia for helping me dance-test Military Times!
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