"Dorothea" is a full choreographed march taken from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912). It combines some standard march figures used in unusual ways with less standard ones and enough mixer elements that it also qualifies as a fun cotillion (dance party game).
Like many figures in Walker's book, this one probably originated elsewhere. I don't know where, and I don't know the significance of the name. But how could I possibly resist a march whose creator fully expected it to devolve into chaos at the end?
"...when the dancers have become helplessly tangled at the sides of the room, trying to find out where to go next..."
It's comforting to know that if the figure goes terribly wrong the caller can just skip to the end and claim it was planned!
It is not at all comforting, however, for the first diagram to present a problem.
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