Capering & Kickery

October 2019 Gig Calendar

I am once more happily ensconced in Russia!  I am not launching a full public schedule this month, but I will be experimenting with teaching a short class at the American Center in Moscow (part of the U.S. Embassy); if it goes well, it will become a regular series.  And I may throw a small party at the end of the month - watch this post for updates!  (Edited to add - but I decided not to!  Maybe later in the autumn!)

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Tuesday, October 1st ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Tuesday, October 8th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Saturday, October 12th ~ Moscow
17:15-19:15.  Private lesson

Tuesday, October 15th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Friday, October 18th ~ Moscow
Masterclass: 19th Century American Social Dances
for the American Center in Moscow (VK post)  (Facebook post)
18:30-20:00.  Free, beginner-friendly class on mid- to late nineteenth century contra dances and quadrilles.  No experience necessary, no partner needed.  Note that (1) we will be dancing on lightweight carpet, so the slipperiest possible shoes are encouraged (but dance-floor-restricted shoes are not necessary), and (2) embassy security procedures are in effect, so pre-registration is required; see the form here (in Russian).  If all goes well, this will be the first class in a regular series in November and December.

Saturday, October 19th ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson

Tuesday, October 22nd ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

Saturday, October 26th ~ Moscow
Festival-Competition Planet of the Arts-Moscow (Event website - in Russian)
11:00-18:30.  Dance school contest and showcase.  I am serving as a judge and offering a short class on a couple of historical American contra dances.

Tuesday, October 29th ~ Moscow
19:00-22:00.  Private class

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I am available for private lessons in Moscow (primarily Thursday nights and irregular weekends) 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: classes in Kyiv, Ukraine, and back to the USA for Remembrance Day Weekend!

Wilson's "Maze" figure

Stating that Regency-era dancing master Thomas Wilson's personally created new figure, "The Maze", appeared in published country dance figures is a bit of an exaggeration: I've found it exactly twice, once in Thompson's 24 Country Dances For the Year 1814 and once in L'Assemblée, the latter being a book of forty-eight country dance tunes with figures by Wilson which was published in 1819.  (The Thompson book also noted prominently on its cover that its figures were by Wilson.) 

I can't rule out other appearances of the figure, but after skimming through most of my Wilson sources with no further luck, I'd say that The Maze, like True Lover's Knot (but unlike Double Triangle) qualifies as a genuine rarity.  That means that it's not a typical Regency dance figure, the odds of anyone other than Wilson's own students knowing it were fairly low, and one shouldn't call it today unless certain one's set already knows it or prepared to explain or teach it.  I'll provide a simple explanation below.

Like Wilson's other new figures, The Maze appeared in at least three of in Wilson's country dance figure books, the earliest of which I've found it in is the 1811 third edition of An Analysis of Country Dancing.  It also appears in the fourth edition of Analysis (1822) and in  The Complete System of English Country Dancing (c1820).  Happily, the diagram shown at left (click to enlarge) is the same in all three sources and the description varies only in the location of the line breaks.  This particular image is taken from Complete System.

Wilson's "Double Triangle" figure

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.

CD Review: The Ragtime Women

The Ragtime Women is an old recording -- it's dated 1977 and was originally issued as a vinyl LP.  But it's a new acquisition for me, the third and last of the albums expanding my ragtime music collection this summer.  The theme is, obviously, female ragtime composers, and the liner notes give some interesting background on how a smattering of women (and middle-class white women, at that) contributed to a field primarily (and properly) associated with black composers.  The short answer: upright pianos in the home, access to plenty of ragtime sheet music, and the huge number of female home pianists created the conditions for some successful composers to emerge.  Resurrected from historical obscurity on this album are Julia Niebergall, Gladys Yelvington, Muriel Pollock, May Aufderheide, Mabel Tilton, Charlotte Blake, Louise V. Gustin, and Adeline Shepherd.  The liner notes include as much biographical information as was available at the time for each.

The album was assembled by pianist Max Morath (1926-), an accomplished performer as well as an author and a composer in his own right who is something of a modern legend himself as "Mr. Ragtime".  More information about his career and huge backlist of recordings may be found here and here.  His musical quintet for this album also includes Ruth Alsop (cello), Allen Hanlon (guitar, banjo, mandolin), Lynn Milano (bass), and Remo Palmier (guitar).  The sound of the album varies from pure piano-rag to more of a southern string band sound.

All the pieces except one on The Ragtime Women date from 1899 to 1917, with the exception being a modern composition by Kathy Craig, "Romantic Rag", which has some issues with danceability but an authentic feel that will fit in just fine as background music at a 1910s event.

Lawn Tennis Quadrille (3 of 3)

Winding up my Lawn Tennis Quadrille mini-series (see here for the introduction and first figure and here for figures two and three), here are the final two figures.

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Figure Four: The Double Pastourelle
Music: A=8b, B=40b, played A+ (BA x4)

8b   Introduction (not repeated)

4b   Six (along top/bottom of set) forward and back
4b   Two raise arms and side lady (on left) passes under; ladies cross to side gentlemen
4b   Six (along sides of set) forward and back
4b   Two raise arms and side lady (on left)  passes under; ladies cross to head gentlemen
4b   Six (along top/bottom of set) forward and back
4b  Two raise arms and side lady (on left)  passes under; ladies cross to side gentlemen
4b   Six (along sides of set) forward and back
4b  Two raise arms and side lady (on left) passes under; ladies return to original places
4b   All four ladies forward and back
4b   All four gentlemen forward and back
8b   All forward and back to partners and turn by two hands

Repeat all of the above as written once more.
Repeat all of the above twice more with side couples leading.

Lawn Tennis Quadrille (2 of 3)

Continuing my short series on Lawn Tennis (see here for the introduction and first figure), here are figure two and the very exciting figure three!

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Figure Two: The Varied Chains
Music: A=8b, B=16b, played A+ (BA x4)

8b   Introduction (not repeated)

8b    Head couples turn to right diagonal, sides to left; right and left (chaîne anglaise)
4b   With same couples, half ladies' chain
(Pairs are now: 1st lady/3rd gent, 2nd lady/4th gent, 3rd lady/1st gent, 4th lady/2nd gent)
4b   All turn new partners
8b   All balance to corners and turn corners

8b    Head couples turn to left diagonal, sides to right; right and left (chaîne anglaise)
4b   With same couples, half ladies' chain
(Ladies are now opposite their original places)
4b   All turn new partners
8b   All forward and back at corners and turn corners

Repeat all of the above to bring ladies back to original places.

Lawn Tennis Quadrille (1 of 3)

This is the week of the U. S. Open, one of the four major tennis tournaments, so it's a perfect time for Lawn Tennis!

The Lawn Tennis Quadrille, usually referred to just as "Lawn Tennis", was published in 1881 as sheet music by George W. Allen with figures "composed by the society of Professors of Dancing, New York".  This raises the frightening specter of a quadrille composed by committee, which is unusual but not unprecedented in the nineteenth century. 

New York dancing master and author William De Garmo, in the third edition of The Dance of Society (reprinted exactly in the fourth and fifth editions) added some detail, noting that Lawn Tennis was introduced on January 2, 1881, and attributing it specifically to Lawrence De Garmo Brookes, it merely having been "accepted" by The American Society of Professors of Dancing, New York.  The cover image at left (click to enlarge), from a copy online at IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana at Indiana University, shows a nice mixed doubles set with a trio of spectators, the ladies in lovely "natural form" gowns.  Only one of them is actually watching the game.

Lawn Tennis pops up in a number of American dance manuals and call books during the 1880s, but it's difficult to say how popular it was with the general public.  Dancing masters would certainly have tried to push it with their students; it was advertised, for example, on the list of dances taught for the 1882-1883 season by A. J. Webster in Wilmington, Delaware (Daily Gazette, September 16, 1882).  It turns up now and then in newspaper coverage of balls -- for example, on a list of dances from a children's recital in St. Paul Minnesota in 1883 (covered in the Daily Globe).  There was enough general awareness of its existence for it to have appeared on a sort of hypothetical program from 1888 that was never actually danced (more about this program here) and in a rather gooey romantic tale in 1886, "Love to Rescue", that appeared in The Butler [Missouri] Weekly Times on March 10, 1886:

He was a fine fellow, and Betty knew it.  He had never looked nobler than he did at that moment; but De Vaux was a gentleman with invisible means of support; his hands were white, and he could dance the lawn tennis quadrilles beautifully.

September 2019 Gig Calendar

One last non-gig calendar for my extended summer vacation!  This month I am moving back to Russia, and starting in October there will once more be classes, parties, and the occasional weekend of travel.  I don't expect any public events this month.  In the meantime, I am still available for private lessons in Connecticut before I leave (though I will be super-busy packing!)  and in Moscow once I arrive.  Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.

See you in October!

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Saturday, September 21st ~ Moscow
17:30-18:30.  Private lesson

Saturday, September 28th ~ Moscow
17:30-19:30.  Private lesson

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Connecticut: September 1-14
Moscow, Russia: September 17-30