The Highland Glide was the very last schottische given in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890). It reappeared in George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903) under the name La Highland Glide (Schottisch). The dance was created by Chicago dancing master C. A. Carr, who published sheet music advertising the dance, though the copy I have scans of does not include the dance instructions. Part of the cover of the sheet music may be seen at left; click to enlarge. It is dated 1890. Carr advertised himself as the creator of the "popular" Carlton (a polka sequence which appeared in Gilbert and Lopp) as well as "famous" Newports (plural), by which I suspect he means he composed music for dancing the Newport, rather than the dance itself. Gilbert and Lopp also credited him with the Ashland (another polka), Le Beau (a galop), and the America (a mazurka).
The Highland Glide follows the common "double" schottische pattern of four measures of slow steps followed by four of faster steps, the first part with minimal turning and the second turning continuously using the typical late-nineteenth century waltz-galop step (explained here). The measure count presents a minor reconstruction issue, since the steps are notated by Gilbert and Lopp in 4/4, but the sheet music is notated in 2/4. It is fairly obvious from the rhythm and tempo given that two measures of the sheet music are what Gilbert and Lopp considered a single measure.
The dance itself is not particularly exciting, and the reconstruction is challenging only in determining whether and how to turn.
The dancers take normal closed ballroom hold, with the gentleman starting on the left foot and the lady on the right, as usual. The steps given are the gentleman's, with the lady dancing opposite.
The Highland Glide (eight measures of 4/4 schottische)
1 Slide left foot to second position
2 Cut with right, raising left to a raised second position
3 Bring left to raised third in front of right
4 Bring left to raised third or fifth behind right
1 Slide left foot to second position
2 Close right to left, shifting weight to right foot
3 Leap onto left foot
4 Hop on left foot [raising right in third]
2b Repeat all of the above starting on the right foot.
4b Eight waltz-galop steps, making four complete turns
Here's a quick software-generated clip of the music, with a two-bar (counting four beats to the bar) introduction followed by enough music for the Highland Glide twice through.
The tempo is the "Moderato" 76 measures per minute given by Lopp, which I find quite brisk for a schottische. Gilbert listed no tempo for the Highland Glide specifically, though elsewhere he also gave 76 for schottische. The sheet music only says "Moderato".
Attempting to dance the Highland Glide four times through to that clip should remove any doubts about my interpretation of the 2/4 vs. 4/4 issue.
Reconstruction and Performance Notes
1. I have followed Gilbert and Lopp's convention of notating the dance in 4/4, making it an eight-bar dance. It actually requires sixteen measures of the 2/4 sheet music.
2. Raising the free foot on the hop is not specified, but it is unlikely that it was simply left waving in the air.
3. The cut in the first measure and the close-with-weight in the second measure are specified. There is no indication of any hops while the free foot moves during the third and fourth counts of the first measure, and while hops would not be out of character for the period, the general feel of the dance suggests to me that the dancers stayed on the ground.
4. The only really interesting question with regard to the Highland Glide is whether or not it turns. Neither Gilbert nor Lopp mention a turn, though that does not mean there wasn't one. The most likely options are (a) that the dancers moved sideways back and forth along and against the line of dance during the first part (two measures along, two measures against), (b) that the dancers made a full turn during the first part, turning halfway at the leap-hop at the end of the second bar and again on the repeat, and (c) that the dancers moved diagonally along the line of dance without turning.
(a) would work if this was danced exclusively as an all-hands sequence dance, with every couple moving in perfect unison, which I'm sure would have worked beautifully in Professor Carr's academy but possibly less so on the social dance floor. It also requires the dancers to make a quarter-turn on the fourth measure to put the gentleman's back to the line of dance to start a natural turn in the waltz-galop, which I find awkward and aesthetically displeasing when the dancers are moving against line of dance; the gentleman has to guide the lady around clockwise.
(b) is a perfectly reasonable option, much like the turning step of the first part of the early schottische, but slower. But I don't care for it much, because the dancers need to make a three-quarter turn at the end of the fourth bar to set the gentleman up correctly with his back to the line of dance for the waltz-galop. This is a bit much with the available steps. It would be easier to do a quarter-turn and put the lady's back to line of dance, but that would mean pushing the lady to leap backward (never a good idea) and doing reverse turns, which would have been unusual, and which I think Gilbert and Lopp would have spelled it out. It would work with a reverse turn on the first part, or the second half-turn only, but again, I feel that would have been stated outright.
That leaves me choosing (c) as the simplest and most likely option: moving on the diagonal, in this case with the gentleman moving backward, zig-zagging back and forth along the line of dance. The distance traveled actually isn't as large as two measures of schottische would suggest, since a quarter of the time is spent in place. The total travel in each direction is two slides and a leap, which shouldn't create too many problems or hazards if the dancers keep their step length under control.
Special thanks to Andrew Trembley for photographing the sheet music for me!
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