Like the True Lover's Knot, the Double Triangle is another of Regency-era dancing master Thomas Wilson's personally-created country dance figures, used, as far as I can tell, exclusively by Wilson himself. Since it is not a standard Regency figure, it is of limited utility. I myself would use it only if, for some reason, I were doing a very Wilson-focused workshop or event. In general country dancing, a lady calling "double triangle" will simply create confusion, since no one but a serious scholar of Wilson's work is likely to have the slightest idea what it is.
One reason to look at it in a bit more detail, however, is that Wilson himself seems to have been fond of it. It appears over and over in Wilson's own country dance figures. While I haven't made an exhaustive survey, it would not surprise me if he used it more than any other of his new figures. It appeared in numerous figures in Wilson's enormous compilation of country dance tunes, A Companion to the Ball Room (London, c1820) and in L'Assemblée (London, 1819), a book of forty-eight country dance tunes with accompanying figures. But it also turned up in figures Wilson did for books published by others. There are several occurrences of it in, for example, Thompson's 24 Country Dances For the Year 1813 and Thompson's 24 Country Dances For the Year 1817, both of which are advertised on their covers as including figures by Wilson.
Since this makes it a figure which dancers looking for country dance figures might come across and be puzzled by, and, I suppose, slightly more likely than most of Wilson's new figures to have filtered out into the world beyond his studio, it seems useful to talk a little about how to dance it and how to explain and teach it efficiently.
At left is the diagram of the Double Triangle as it appeared in the third (1811) and fourth (1822) editions of Wilson's An Analysis of Country Dancing. The 1811 edition is the earliest source I have for the figure.
This particular image (click to enlarge) is taken from the fourth edition. Calling the dancers' paths triangles involves a bit of artistic license, given the loops on the corners, but the connection between name and figure is clear.
Wilson's text, unfortunately, is not only completely dependent on the diagram, it's also confusing in referring to the active gentleman in two different ways:
The Lady at A moves in the direction a round the top Gentleman, then outside the second Gentleman, round the third Gentleman, and returns to her situation in the line b; at the same time the Gentleman at B moves in the direction c and performs the figure on the opposite side, returning to his situation in the direction d.
Fortunately, the Double Triangle is actually quite easy to describe, particularly if the dancers are already familiar with common "corners" figure such as "swing corners" and "turn corners", which I discussed in detail here. Unlike those figures, the Double Triangle involves only the active couple, but they loop around their "first corners" (across the set on the right diagonal) and "second corners" (across the set on the left diagonal) on a track which is basically a simplified version of "turn corners". Assuming that the dancers know those terms -- if not, quickly point out their corners -- here's how I'd explain the Double Triangle, instructions being directed at the active couple, currently in the center of the set:
- Pass your partner by left shoulders and move diagonally to the right to go clockwise around your first corner.
- Pass your partner by left shoulders again and move along the side of the set to go clockwise around your second corner.
- Pass your partner by the left shoulder once more and head straight back to your original place.
If the dancers have trouble with "clockwise", one could also explain the loops as keeping the corner dancers to one's right as one goes around them.
Double Triangle takes the same eight measures to dance as "turn corners", but it is much simpler because all the passes of the active couple are done by the left shoulder. This is both easier to explain and a shorter track for the dancers to travel. And, of course, no one but the active couple is moving -- a plus for simplicity, but a minus for dancers who like to be in constant motion during a dance. This is characteristic of many of Wilson's new figures.
It would be nice to be able to end the discussion of the Double Triangle there. But, of course, there's a complication. Take a look at the diagram below (click to enlarge), which is the way the Double Triangle was printed in Wilson’s The Complete System of English Country Dancing (c1820):
The description of the figure is exactly the same, but the dancers' paths are different: instead of looping clockwise around their second corner, they loop counter-clockwise. This alters the figure to the point where, having looked at this diagram first, I was initially baffled as to why it was called a Double Triangle at all.
Was the diagram for Complete System intended to be different, an improved version? The path of the dancers between corners is slightly more realistic in this diagram because they don't have to go around a nonexistent fixed "second Gentleman" and lady. That might account for the decision to do a new engraving of the diagram, though one would think Wilson might have taken the chance to fix the text at the same time. One could classify the change at the second corners as a minor improvement in that the dancers would have a slightly easier path (because the second loop is no longer really a loop) and the movement around both corners could be consistently explained as going out the sides of the set and in through the top or bottom. But I'm not convinced that either of those reasons is sufficient justification for altering the path of the dancers to the point of destroying the figure's triangular character. And then why not change it in the fourth edition of Analysis as well?
Overall, I'm not convinced by the new diagram. I don't think Wilson meant to change the figure; the new diagram's path is just too non-triangular. Though I can't prove it, I think that in trying to get an engraving that did not have the dancers moving outside to avoid the "second" couple, which is a genuine problem in the original diagram, a mistake in the path was introduced and not caught before printing. Given the option of choosing one version or the other, or having two different versions, I come down on the side of using the one published in Analysis.
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I'll wrap up by noting that when Wilson used the Double Triangle in dance figures, he often, though not always, made it the last or second-to-last figure, and when it was second-to-last, it was often followed by another "corners" figure. Here are a few examples. The strain markers ( |. .| |: ) are my attempt at mimicking the historical symbols.
- one of two possible figures for "The Domino", in Thompson's 24 Country Dances For the Year 1813:
DOUBLE FIGURE (Each strain repeated)
Chain figure 6 round .| lead down the mid: up again allemande |: the double triangle .| & turn corners |:
- one of two possible figures for "Fanny Lisp", in Thompson's 24 Country Dances For the Year 1817:
DOUBLE FIGURE (Each strain repeated)
Cast off 2 Cu: & back again |. chain figure 6 round |: lead down the mid: up again allemande |. & the double triangle |:
- one of two possible figures for "Miss Chipendale", in L'Assemblée:
DOUBLE FIGURE (Tune played straight thro' with Da Capo)
Set & half right & left with 2nd Cu: set & back again |. whole poussette |. set 3 across set 3 in your places |. lead thro' top & bottom |. double triangle |. set contrary corners |.
- one of five possible figures for "Morgan Rattler" in A Companion to the Ball Room:
[DOUBLE FIGURE Each strain repeated]
...
OR THUS Cast off 2 Cu: & back again |. whole figure at top |: cross over 2d. Cu: half figure round the 3d. Cu: |. the double triangle |: whole figure round the top Cu: |. set & change places with bottom Cu: set & back again |:
Here's the actual appearance of the latter figure, taken from the third edition of A Companion to the Ball Room:
I could find literally dozens more examples.
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