Capering & Kickery

Four Tiny Polka Redowa Variations

Believe it or not, even I get a little bit tired of going through the seemingly endless list of insignificant couple dance variations published in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and reprinted in French in G. W. Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903).  Studying all of them is important for my overall project of analyzing late nineteenth century American couple dance variations, but a lot of them are just trivial as individual dances, though still useful as data points and material for improvisation. 

As with my trio of tiny galop variations a few years ago, here are four dances that fall in the mazurka/redowa classification that just don't have enough to them to warrant individual posts.

What these four have in common:

• They are all based around the polka redowa (polka in 3/4 time): (hop) slide-cut-leap, counted &123.  While three of the four are called mazurkas, they have very little obvious mazurka in them and a great deal of polka redowa; hence my post title.  All four will work to redowa and mazurka music in general.  Gilbert and Lopp both specify a tempo of 144 beats per minute for that entire genre of music.
  
  
• They almost certainly all have matching sheet music, their names being the names of the tune they were originally attached to.  But the music hasn't emerged in my searches so far, the dances are regular enough in pattern that specific music isn't critical, and they just aren't interesting enough for me to devote a lot of time to continued searching.  If the music turns up, it turns up.  If not, these make easy variations for improvisation.
  
  
• They all appear in both Gilbert and Lopp, and the descriptions match with only insignificant exceptions.
  
  
• They present no reconstruction issues.
  
  

So, in the interest of efficiency, here are the four dances, with brief notes about each.

So, in the interest of efficiency, here are the four dances, with brief notes about each.

Polka mazurka valsée par contretemps

Much more intriguing to me than the walk-and-pivot polka mazurka des bals publiques discussed in my previous post is the variant described most clearly by Desrat in his Traité de la danse (Paris, c1880; later edition c1900), in which he suggested dancing the polka mazurka using the "valse à deux pas" (his personal name for the valse à deux temps) but in counter-tempo (par contretemps), meaning with the steps shifted to different notes of the bar:

Quand les danseurs valsent la Polka-Mazurka au moyen de la valse à deux pas, ils la dansent par contretemps exécutee en prenant le premier temps de chaque pas de Danse sur le troisième temps de chaque mesure.  

My loose translation:

When dancers perform the polka mazurka by means of the valse à deux pas [temps], they dance it counter-tempo, executed by taking the first movement of each step of the dance on the third beat of each measure.  

I gave this a try and found it a truly delightful way to dance to mazurka music, throwing the accent of the dance onto the third beat in a way that matches the music very well.

Polka mazurka des bals publics

This past weekend I got into an interesting online discussion about the definition of polka mazurka, during which one person sniffed that it was merely waltz invading mazurka.  That's not actually true in the original technical sense of the dance, but late nineteenth-century French dancing masters did note some things people did as "polka mazurka" that bore no resemblance at all to the original steps.  One of those things was the version supposedly done at public balls in Paris (by the lower classes), as opposed to in private salons (by the upper class).  It was not "codified", complained the dancing masters.  It was "untidy".  But at least it did not lack grace if the movements were "rapid and regular".

Spanish Waltz (sequence dance), 1918

No, not that Spanish Waltz!  This Spanish Waltz is a sixteen-bar sequence dance.  According to a short article published September 19, 1918, in The Lima Times-Democrat (Lima, Ohio), it was introduced at the recent meetings of the Ohio and International Associations of Dancing Teachers in Columbus, Ohio.  Instructions for the dance seem to have been published in full by the Springfield School of Dancing in The Daily Morning Sun of Springfield, Ohio.  I don't have a copy of that publication, but the directions and illustrations were reprinted in The Two Step, Volume XXIX, No. 3, dated March, 1919, with a reference to The Daily Morning Sun publication. 

The Spanish Waltz was credited to W. D. Lynch of Akron, Ohio, head of both the Ohio and international associations, who self-interestedly assured readers of The Times-Democrat article that it was one of three new dances that would be popular during the upcoming season, along with the old standbys the one-step, waltz, and foxtrot.  The Two-Step, which apparently copied the Springfield article verbatim, included a note that the dance would be taught at a lesson series by a Mr. and Mrs. Goodfellow at the Springfield School of Dancing beginning January 8th, 1919, which would not have been the most useful information by the March issue!

The Two-Step/Daily Morning Sun introduction to the dance was:

A Simplified Ballroom Dance Novelty adapted after the Attractive and Beautiful Spanish Dancing which has been and is yet the rage in the larger eastern cities.

The article in The Times-Democrat described it as follows:

"The Spanish waltz is a simplified version of the Spanish dances seen on the stage with partners facing each other.  Any Spanish music, played a trifle fast, may be used.  The dance is somewhat complicated."

Standards vary, and I can't speak to what the stage versions were like, but along with being simplified, I would call the Spanish Waltz simple rather than complicated.  Judge for yourself!

The Sage Maidens Dance, 1891

An entertaining article somewhat misleadingly titled "Sage Maidens of Cornell University" appeared in Demorest's Family Magazine in January, 1891.  Cornell was one of the first universities to become coeducational (in 1870) and the campus life of female students was of general interest.  Cornell's class of 1890, with about a dozen female students, is pictured at left; click to enlarge.

The article, written from a fairly feminist (for the nineteenth century) perspective, makes it clear that while "Sage maidens" is a pretty turn of phrase, not all of the female students at Cornell lived in Sage Hall (completed in 1875), and that in any case, neither building nor female students were isolated from the campus as a whole.  The building contained classroom space as well, and male and female coeds (the article makes a point of using the term for men as well!) studied together and socialized together rather extensively.  Including, of course, dancing!

January 2024 Gig Calendar

Happy new year!

Since I didn't really get a holiday break in December, and I'm traveling overseas again the first week in January for a conference, the rest of January will be my Official Post-Holiday Break -- the first time in several months I won't be preparing a gig, preparing a paper, preparing to travel, or recovering from some/all of the above.

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Wednesday-Friday, January 3-5th ~ Oxford, England
British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies 53rd Annual Conference “Work and Play”
Academic conference.  On Friday morning, I will be presenting a paper on manuscript annotations in different copies of John Essex's 1710 translation of Feuillet.  Conference members only; registration is closed.

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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!

Coming in February: for the overwhelming majority of the world who were not in the room at the BSECS conference, I'm going to present the same paper online at the Early Dance Symposium 2024: New Work on Old Dance: A Pre-1800 Dance Studies Symposium.  Registration is free!