Capering & Kickery

Regency Oddities: Roger de Coverley

Wrapping up my little series on extended-Regency-era oddities, let's talk about an unusual version of the English finishing dance, Sir Roger de Coverley!  This is one of the rare dances where tune and dance are so tightly associated that it's reasonable to give the dance the tune name.

I discussed a typical Regency-era version of the classic Sir Roger de Coverley figure long, long ago.  Since then, I've accumulated a number of other versions of the figure with the same characteristic elements: opening figures performed on the long diagonals followed by whole-set figures that end with the original top couple progressed to the bottom.  I've written up a couple of later nineteenth century versions here and here.

Now, this is not to say that there were never any other, more typical, country dance figures set to the "Roger de Coverley" tune.  In its earliest appearance with dance figures in the ninth edition of Playford's The Dancing Master, published in 1695, it is printed with a normal progressive figure, completely unrelated to the later dance.  One hundred and thirty years after that, a different figure, very generic-Regency, was published with it in Analysis of the London Ball-Room (printed for Thomas Tegg, London, 1825).  Never underestimate the willingness of music publishers and dancers, to recycle a tune.

But there's one set of figures I've found printed with "Sir Roger de Coverley" which is a real oddity:

Regency Oddities: Heys for Four

When I add new extended-Regency-era country dance tune books to my collection of photos and scans, one of the things I do is quickly skim through the figures looking for anything out of the ordinary.  And while heys (or reels) are quite common figures for country dances in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (indeed, all the way back to the seventeenth century!), in this period, they are almost always heys for three.  Figures like "hey your own sides", "hey contrary sides and hey your own sides", "hey top and bottom" (where one dancer in a couple goes up and one goes down the set), and the corner-formation heys where the lady heys with two gentlemen and the gentleman with two ladies are all very common.  But these are all heys for three dancers.  A "right and left" quite round is technically a circular hey for four, but a classic, Scotch reel-style hey for four dancers in a line is not listed as a standard figure and doesn't really turn up.  

Until, of course, it does. 

The Thé Dansante, 1891

Dropping back to the late nineteenth century, here's another short blurb from the pages of Demorest's Family Magazine, following the Thanksgiving Pumpkin Party I described last year.  This little tidbit appeared in the "Chat" column of the February, 1891, issue, along with a description of a Valentine's party and comments on the overuse of floral decorations.  The anonymous author described the fashion that season of using a thé dansante (tea dance) held at the "usual hours" for a reception, four o'clock to seven o'clock in the late afternoon, for the purpose of introducing debutantes to the fashionable world. The thé dansante could stand on its own as an event or might be the lead-in to a dinner.

One might assume that this reception-with-dancing (and, presumably, afternoon tea) was less work than giving a full-scale ball, but lest the name give you the idea this was an intimate event, be aware that the Demorest's description claimed that five hundred non-dancing "friends" (meaning a large chunk of upper-class society) were said to attend such an event just as a reception, while the debutantes and their partners danced with a "delightful informality".  The potential following dinner would be a much smaller affair.

There's not much to the description -- no details of the dancing -- and what there is is mostly concerned with a set of coordinated outfits, but here is the original text in full:

Newman Hesitation Boston

Wrapping up my rather drawn-out examination of Albert W. Newman's Boston variations, here is an actual sequence mixing his Long Boston with various hesitations.  As usual, it's not clear how he distinguishes between Boston and hesitation waltz.  The Newman Hesitation Boston was published in Newman's Dances of to-day (Philadelphia, 1914) and later reprinted, with some minor edits, in F. Leslie Clendenen's Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914). 

Newman called his little sequence "one of the most popular dances at the present time", though I doubt that was actually true anywhere outside Newman's own sphere of influence.  In Dance Mad, he edited his claim to "The most popular Hesitation Waltz in Philadelphia at present."  He also described it in his own book as "very easy" and "most restful".  It is not only simple to dance, it's actually quite lovely.

December 2022 Gig Calendar

Winding down for the year after a busy late autumn with a final trip up to Boston.  Then home for a few weeks to attempt to catch up on writing projects!

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Saturday, December 10th ~ Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Boston Gender Free Contra Dance (Facebook group) (Facebook event)
7:30-10:30pm.  The main caller is Rich Sbardella, but I will be doing a single guest slot calling my circle mixer, Masha Poka!  Live music by Woody & The West Side Warblers.  Role identifiers: Larks and Robins.  Fragrance free (helpful info here).  Masks and proof of vax + booster required.  Sliding scale $5-15 plus donations requested for the music fund.  

Sunday, December 11th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)
Second Sun Rising (Facebook page) (Facebook event)
7:00-11:00pm (plus).  Lesson (not me) from 7:00-8:00, then I will be DJing fusion for partner dancing from 8:00-9:30, followed by another DJ (TBA).   Top-tier masks (or buy at door for $1-2) and proof of booster (or vax + test at door) required.  Sliding scale $5-20; volunteer opportunities available.  

 

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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 2023: a festival in Belgium, workshops in Germany, and more!