Late nineteenth-century American dance manuals are littered with Polacca quadrilles, comprising at least three distinct sets of figures plus variations. For this series of posts, I'm going to focus on the set of figures advertised as taught by Professor Asher of Philadelphia. I have at least six sources for this set of figures, none of which are completely consistent with each other, which makes it difficult to come up with an absolutely definitive reconstruction.
The music for this Polacca set was composed by William Coleman and published as early as 1857, when it appeared in Shuster's flute music, published in Philadelphia, which is online here. That is considerably earlier than any evidence I have for Asher's figures; the earliest source I have for any version of them is dated 1870. A Polacca appeared on dance cards from Professor Asher's academy in late 1878 and early 1879. It seems likely that the figures danced were Asher's own, but the first definitive source I have for them is a Boston reprint of Coleman's music, dated 1881, on which the figures actually appear with a credit to Asher. I've treated this as my primary source for the figures. A detail from the cover of this music is above at left; click to enlarge.
Coleman's music was also printed in J. W. Pepper's Universal Dancing Master (1882), appearing on pages 60-62. Asher's figures, more or less, appeared separately on page 13. Variant versions of the figures also appeared in The amateur's vademecum by E. B. Reilly (Philadelphia, 1870), A treatise on the elements of dancing by the anonymous T. Erp. Sichore (San Francisco, 1891), The American prompter and guide to etiquette by E. H. Kopp (Cincinnati, 1896), and A complete practical guide to modern society dancing by Albert W. Newman (Philadelphia, 1903). Given the date of the Reilly manual, I think it possible that this variant is actually a separate version of the figures, existing in parallel with Asher's, but it's similar enough that I can't be quite certain.
Musically, "alla polacca" means in the manner of a polonaise, but the music is more waltz than polonaise. The 1881 printing is labeled "Glide, or Polacca Quadrilles", referring to a glide waltz, and the T. Erp. Sichore source called it "The Polacca or Glide Waltz Quadrille". Reilly (1870) declared that it was danced with "plain waltz step" although he stated that it required mazurka steps in two of the figures. I don't recommend actual polonaise steps for the walked part of Asher's Polacca, just small walking steps counted in threes, and, despite Reilly's comment, do not suggest mazurka steps.
The first hurdle in reconstructing Asher's Polacca is that my two most reliable sources do not give any fixed amount of music for the figures. Kopp (1896) does, with figures that do not quite match those printed on the sheet music, but the amounts of music given are hard to believe: sixteen measures of music to waltz halfway around the set? I appreciate that this quadrille is supposed to be on the stately side, but that strikes me as ridiculous. The music for the first figure is also quite short: two eight-bar strains with repeats, played Da Capo, with the first one marked to repeat three times the first time through. That's not much for Kopp's total of 144 measures of music.
Reilly (1870) also gives measures, but his figures also do not match the Asher figures on the sheet music. His figure lengths are more realistic, however: eight measures to waltz halfway round. The figures in Newman (1903) do not match Reilly, but he gives more-or-less the same amount of music (ignoring figure issues). Eight bars for waltzing halfway around is what I've taken as a baseline. My overall figure length of twenty-four bars matches Reilly and Newman, even though the figures themselves are different.
I've structured the music AAA + BBAx2, allowing one of the A parts at the beginning for traditional quadrille honors (which are mentioned only by Newman) and two A parts for the short introductory figure that is not repeated.
My reconstruction:
Figure 1 8b honors + 16b introduction + 24bx2 (AAA + BBAx2)
8b Honors
8b All circle halfway around to left and take closed position
8b All waltz back to places
8b Heads forward, gents take opposite ladies and waltz to opposite place
8b Sides repeat
8b All waltz back to gentlemen's places (gents with opposite ladies)
8b Sides forward, gents take opposite ladies (orig. partners) and waltz to opposite place
8b Heads repeat
8b All waltz back to original places (partners together)
When performing the introductory figure, circle for about six measures to go halfway (small steps!) and then use the last two measures to turn into closed position and place the gentleman's back to the center of the set.
Similarly, on the heads/sides forward and change of ladies, the whole going forward and taking the opposite lady should take about two measures, leaving six to waltz around the other couple to the opposite place. That will be enough, since the dancers are already in the center of the set when they start to waltz.
Major Variant Version
The figures on the sheet music and printed in Pepper match the reconstruction given above. But all four of the other sources seem to feel that a balance and ladies chain, or possibly a "ladies change", belong in there somewhere. I'm not sure whether to classify this as a separate Polacca or not, since the rest of it is a fairly close match. Here, in chronological order, are the different versions of this variant offered:
Reilly (1870): introduction as above, then twenty-four bars of figures
8b Leads forward, change partners, waltz to opposite places
4b All balance
4b Four ladies half chain
8b All waltz to places
This makes no particular sense; the half-chain brings the head ladies to their partners, but leaves the side ladies with their opposites. If the figure were danced four times, this would work, but it seems odd. Reilly suggests the mazurka step, presumably meaning a coup de talon, for the initial circling during the introduction. That's nifty, but the music really does not suggest mazurka to me (though it's more mazurka-like than polonaise-like!)
T. Erp. Sichore (1891): no measures given, but introduction as above, then
Sides forward, change ladies, waltz to opposite places [probably a misprint for heads/leads]
Sides forward, change ladies, waltz to opposite places
All balance.
Ladies change.
All waltz to places
Sides forward, change ladies, waltz to opposite places
Leads forward, change ladies, waltz to opposite places
All balance.
Ladies change.
All waltz to places.
This at least moves the side couples before reshuffling the ladies but results in a lengthier figure.
Kopp (1896): introduction as above, then:
16b Leads forward, change ladies, waltz to opposite places
16b Sides the same
16b All balance, ladies' chain
16b All waltz to places
(Repeat)
This is the enormous quantity of music that I can't quite believe for this figure.
Newman (1903): same introduction and actually allows eight bars for honors ("Salutations") at the beginning:
8b Salutations
8b Grand circle left to opposite places and turn partners
8b Waltz to places
----
8b Leads forward, change partners, waltz to ladies' places
8b Sides repeat
8b Four ladies half chain, and all waltz to places
(Repeat)
This would be fine except that he somehow expects the ladies to cross the set and all the couples to then waltz home in only eight bars, which seems wildly optimistic.
Given the differences between these four sources, and the impossibility of reconciling the music and figures without just making arbitrary decisions, I'm sticking with the simple and straightforward Asher figures given on the sheet music and in Pepper.
To be continued with figures two through five...
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