Capering & Kickery

July 2022 Gig Calendar

Well, now I have two months of a fairly long, hot summer ahead of me without much going on before things kick back into gear again in the autumn.  I've been making a project for the last month or so of organizing and cataloguing my rather enormous collection (and, um, backlog) of research photos from various libraries, so I expect I'll continue with that, and I have plenty of writing to do!  But first, one more online lecture!

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Sunday, July 17th ~ ONLINE / Maryland-based
Lecture for the Jane Austen Society of North America - Maryland Region (JASNA-MD)
2:00-3:00pm.  Private event for JASNA-MD members; see their website to join the group.

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting, pandemic permitting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

 

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Coming in August: a quiet month at home!

Foxtrot with diagrams, 1919

Once again, we return to the pages of H. Layton Walker's The Two Step for that rarity of the 1910s: helpful footprint diagrams!

The Springfield School of Dancing of Springfield, Ohio, advertised a basic set of four foxtrot sequences, complete with little footprint diagrams, in the January, 1919, issue (Buffalo, NY; Volume XXIX, No. 1, p. 11). 

These diagrams are particularly helpful for a dance like the foxtrot in which the speed of the steps varies ("quicks and slows") because the little feet are numbered, with "+" standing in for "&".  This makes it simple to understand the timing. 

The four sequences presented, going counter-clockwise from the upper right quarter, are:

A.    One Step and Two Step Combination

B.    One Step and Syncopated Combination

C.    One Step and Two Step or Jazz Combination

D.    One Step and Waltz Step Combination

The Castle Fox Trot (2 of 2)

Please see the previous post for the introduction to the Castle Fox Trot and the first three step-sequences.

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Moving right along with the Castle Fox Trot, the two photos below (click to enlarge) illustrate the fourth step-sequence:

4. "Get over, Sal" and trot.  This is an odd little sequence, with two movements on each of the slow steps.  Let's start with Vernon's description, with an advance apology for his use of a racial term which was polite at the time but is no longer considered so:

For the next step, instead of taking two slow steps forward we take two drags to the side.  This drag is a very old negro step, often called “Get over, Sal.  It is done this way: You first take a small hop on your left foot, then quickly throw the weight of the body on the right, dragging the left up to the right.  This should take up one long beat.  I realize how difficult it is to understand this, but I can think of no simpler way of explaining it, and the sixth photograph should help considerably.  In it my wife is just about to drag the left foot up to the right.

After this you do exactly the same step on the other side (see the seventh photograph). 

The Castle Fox Trot (1 of 2)

In previous discussions of early foxtrot, I've examined individual step-sequences across multiple sources, if I have them -- many variations were unique to a single source.  Taking a different approach, I'd also like to look at the published sets of step-sequences of some of the famous and accomplished dancers of the period and see what repertoire they recommended.  I'll begin with the most notable (then and now) of these dancers: the powerhouse couple Vernon and Irene Castle.

In the December, 2014, issue of The Ladies' Home Journal, the Castles published an article illustrated with a series of photos, beginning with the pair at left, of a set of five step-sequences which they labeled The Castle Fox Trot.  This article was the third in a series of dance descriptions which began with the Castle Polka (October) and continued with the Castle Gavotte (November). 

Vernon Castle wrote in first person, addressing the presumably female readers of the magazine directly.  His introduction to the foxtrot:

In presenting the last of our three modern dances I am obliged to revert to the very old and true saying that “There is no new thing under the sun.”  However in the present dance you will find it a pleasant change, and as it is very like the one-step I think it should become popular.  On and off for the last three months we have been introducing this dance at various parties, and it has always been received with a great deal of enthusiasm. 

 

For the Queen's Jubilee

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Portrait

This being the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II of England's official Platinum Jubilee celebration, it seems appropriate to look back almost 125 years to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, for which English dancing master Walter Humphrey composed a sequence called, logically enough, The Victorian:

This dance was arranged as a novelty for the ball-room, to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen in 1897, and, as it can be danced to Two-step music or Washington Post, makes a pleasant variety.

The sequence itself is short and the reconstruction ought to be straightforward, but, unfortunately, Humphrey's instructions complicate matters.  I'll present my reconstruction first then talk about the problems.