Wrapping up Gilbert's Elite Lanciers, here are the fourth and fifth figures. Introductory material and the first figure may be found in my first post in this series; the second and third figures are in the second.
The fourth figure as given in Link:
8b Introduction [not repeated]
4b All swing corners with right hand half round address
4b All turn and swing with left hand half round, address
4b All join hands, forward & back, address
8b Four ladies cross right hand, half round, left hand back
Played 4 times
3rd & 4th time gents
This is another figure where Link's brevity completely obscures the interesting part: that this is a mixer figure, in which the dancers change positions and partners every time until they regain their home positions after the fourth time through!
My reconstruction:
The Elite Lanciers, Figure 4 (8b + (20bx4))
8b Introduction [not repeated]
4b All turn corners halfway by right hand, changing places (2b) and salute (2b)
4b All turn next person ("new partner") halfway by left hand, changing places (2b) and salute (2b)
4b All forward to center, salute vis-à-vis (2b), and back (2b)
8b All four ladies right hands across (2b), turn over left shoulders (2b), left hands back (2b), returning to new places turning new partner by right hand (2b) (see note below)
All dancers are now in new positions with new partners -- gentleman are one place to the left, ladies one place to the right. Each time through they will shift again, meeting their partners the second time in opposite places. After the fourth time, everyone will be back to original places.
Second time: gents perform the right hands across/left hands back; third time: ladies; fourth time: gents.
Here Link specifies that the gents lead the third and fourth times and Rivers says that they lead the second and fourth times. I have followed Rivers, as presumably being closer to Gilbert's original.
Lancers music does not always include a ritard for the third salute, and if it does, it tends to come at the end of the twelfth bar rather than the tenth, so the salute to the vis-à-vis needs to be brief -- more a nod of the head for the gentlemen and a brief bend of the knees for the ladies, all on the fourth beat. There's no time for anything more.
The moulinet figure (right hands across/left hands back) seems to be undecided as to whether it's a ladies' chain or not -- there's no turn of the opposite gentleman after the right hands across, but there is one squeezed in after the left hands back. That's an awkward asymmetry; dancers will tend to use the full four bars for the right hands across, which makes most sense musically but means they will be so far around that getting back to places in four steps to then have four steps for the final turn is virtually impossible. For a solution I hark back to a much older American source, A Treatise on Dancing (by the pseudonymous "Saltator", Boston, 1802) and have the dancers perform the "right hands across" and then turn individually (described by Saltator as a "bris(s)é", which is earlier described as a "casting off step") in four counts to take left hands for the return. This both prevents them from traveling too far and gives them a head start on returning, which allows time for the final turn.
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The fifth figure as given in Link:
8b Introduction [not repeated]
16b Grand right and left
4b Sides lead to right
4b All face partners, form lines and walk backwards
8b Lines chassa left and right twice
8b First couple down certre [sic], all follow march up the outside
4b All forward and back
4b Turn partner to place
Repeat 4 Times.
At last, a figure where Link is totally clear about the basic figure, though he mistakenly assumes an eight-bar introduction, which is not standard; the fifth figure of the Lancers is generally introduced by a chord only. He also doesn't mention that the grand right and left repeats at the end. But the major omission is the order of dance and direction: sides to the right, heads to the right, sides to the left, heads to the left. One can deduce all of these details just by being familiar with how Lancers in general and this Lancers in particular work, but it's nice to have it all spelled out by Rivers.
My reconstruction:
The Elite Lanciers, Figure 5 (chord + (48bx4) + 16b)
chord (not repeated)
16b Grand right and left
4b Side couples lead to head couple at their right and salute
4b All face partners and retire in lines of four
8b Lines chassez left and dechassez right twice
8b First couple leads down the centre, others following them down, then cast back up
4b All forward and back in lines
4b All turn partners [two hands] to places
Second time: head couples lead to right and third couple leads the march
Third time: side couples lead to left and second couple leads the march
Fourth time: head couples lead to left and fourth couple leads the march
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16b After the fourth time through, finish with a final grand right and left
This is a rather neat way of setting up the standard Lancers march, omitting the not-terribly-exciting promenade around by one couple in favor of getting everyone involved after the first four bars and substituting chassez-dechassez (twice!) by the entire lines instead of partners crossing each other. Note that this figure requires some space! The march itself is inverted, going down the center then casting up rather than casting down and then coming up, and then the final forward and back and turn to places is complete standard. Neither source specifies hands for the final turn; I would use two.
That's it for the Elite Lanciers; enjoy!
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