I probably should start calling these summer calendars non-gig calendars, since I'm having a quiet summer dance-wise. I don't have anything planned this month, nor am I planning to change that. I am still available for private lessons in Connecticut when I'm there. Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.
Author: Susan de Guardiola
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July 2019 Gig Calendar
I am still mostly on my summer reading/research/writing break, but I plan to emerge briefly for my second lecture to the Beau Monde (Regency-focused) subgroup of the Romance Writers of America at their conference in New York in July. Other events may emerge, but I'm not really seeking them. Lots of work to do!
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Early Foxtrot: Quick Dips
Ah, June, when one turns one's thoughts (and feet) to…weird little foxtrot variations!
This time around, let's look at a pair of steps, or rather step-sequences, from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) that both involve quick dips. These are actually ever-so-slightly harder to do than the usually run of walks, trots, glides, and two-steps that make up a great deal of the 1910s foxtrot repertoire. Lee noted that the first of these, The Coney Island Dip, is "very exhilarating and excellent exercise for the lungs."
The gentleman's steps are given; the lady dances opposite.
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June 2019 Gig Calendar
I have some personal and research travel planned during June, but otherwise am taking my annual summer reading/research/writing break. I don't expect (and am not looking for) any public events at all this month. I am still available for private lessons in Connecticut, or while on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space. Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson.
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The Latest York
Years ago, when I was working intensely on the “York set” of variations (see here, here, here, here, and here), I somehow skipped The Latest York, possibly because, unlike all those other “Yorks”, it does not feature the characteristic York step sequence of slide-close-slide-cut/close in “1&23” rhythm.
M. B. Gilbert published The Latest York in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) “by permission of Constantine Carpenter, Son, and Charles C. Martel”. This style of credit generally refers to the choreographer of the sequence and/or composer of the music. The same pair are also credited with the Gavotte Glide. Carpenter is listed in Gilbert’s directory of dancing masters as living in Philadelphia. Martel is not in Gilbert’s directory, but his name appears in Philadelphia newspapers (The Times, October 21, 1894, e.g.) during the 1890s offering parties and lessons.
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Wayside Gavotte
Just to be thorough, here's a quick reconstruction of the Wayside Gavotte I mentioned in my previous post on the Stephanie Gavotte. This is another short couple dance sequence, but unlike M. B. Gilbert's Stephanie Gavotte, it moves normally along line of dance throughout and loosely follows a "doubled" schottische pattern with four bars of forward travel and four bars (more-or-less) of turning. Though it is meant to be danced to "Stéphanie-Gavotte", there is no reason it can't be danced to other schottische music.
Per Gilbert Dances, Vol. II (1913, Susan Hoffman Gilman, ed.), the Wayside Gavotte was choreographed by Helen C. Way, whom I presume to have been a student of Gilbert's. It is undated, and since, according to the biography in Gilbert Dances, Vol. I, Gilbert was teaching until his death, it could be from as late as the beginning of 1910. The use of the waltz-galop step feels to me more reminiscent of the schottische sequences of the 1880s-1890s, however, so I suspect it is from closer to 1900.
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May 2019 Gig Calendar
Last month in Moscow! Along with preparing for my homeward migration at the end of the month, I'll be traveling to Odessa for Vintage Dance Exchange 2019 – By the Sea and teaching a full slate of waltz and nineteenth-century classes and private lessons.
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Three Tiny Galop Variations
Wrapping up my impromptu miniseries of posts on galop variations found in M. B. Gilbert’s Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and G. W. Lopp’s La Danse (Paris, 1903), here’s a trio of galop variations which I don’t feel warrant sufficient time or analysis for individual posts:
- Two of the three are short “do something, then some galop” sequences; the other is even shorter and rather dull
- None of them are very challenging to perform, and two have repeated leaps from a complete stop, which, as a dancer, I don’t really enjoy.
- None of them have any conflicts between sources.
- One has a reconstruction problem, but it’s minor and easily resolved.
- I fully expect that all of them have matching sheet music and that the names of the variations are actually the names of the tunes to which they were choreographed, but I haven’t been able to locate any of it, and none of them are sufficiently attractive to inspire me to spend much time searching.
So, in the interest of efficiency, here’s the trio together with brief notes about each.
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Late Victorian Waltz Variations: The College Step
Working my way through the waltz variations in Round Dancing (M. B. Gilbert, Portland, Maine, 1890) and La Danse (G. W. Lopp, Paris, 1903), here’s one that can fairly confidently be classified as a step rather than a sequence written for a particular piece of music. It’s actually quite interesting, though less for the step than for the fact that though at first glance it looks like a two-part sequence, it’s actually not. Gilbert specifically (and ungrammatically) wrote:
Repeat ad lib, commencing at the second part. At the termination of the side movement. Waltz at pleasure, introducing the second part at will.
In other words, waltz (the first part) for as long as you like, then do the second part (a set of sideways movements akin to a racket) for as long as you like. In short, use the second part as a variation in your waltzing. That’s in line with how I suspect many of these variations were actually used, but it’s unusual to see it stated so explicitly.
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April 2019 Gig Calendar
April is going to be busy with local teaching for me: my regular weekly cross-step and "polka mazurka" (now expanding to all sorts of late-nineteenth-century dance) classes and waltz party plus private lessons and an Easter ball! In between, I'll be preparing a whole list of classes for Vintage Dance Exchange 2019 – By the Sea, coming up in mid-May in Odessa!
