Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian
I spent a lot of time thinking about quintuple-meter (5/4 or 5/8 time) dances earlier this year, though not much of it showed up on Kickery at the time. Since historical dance description and terminology are not standardized, there’s an important distinction to keep in mind for all dances with some association with the number five:
Five steps (or movements) in a dance do not necessarily imply 5/4 or 5/8 time.
(more…)The English and French seem never to have been shy about taking sly little pokes at each other. In 1834 a New York newspaper reprinted from an unnamed London paper an article, “On the Exclusive in Dancing”, which took aim at French ballroom etiquette. Apparently the French were questioning the propriety of the country dance:
[The French] appear to be growing fastidious in their amusements, and have learned to be English enough to question certain minor points of propriety and etiquette in their public balls; as, for instance, whether it be proper for a gentleman to resign the hand of his partner to contact with strangers for the mere preservation of a figure in a country dance,
and had in fact discarded country dances completely, in favor of
some more conjugal kind of movement, either waltzes, mazurkas, or galopes, that rivet a couple together for a whole evening till (we would fain hope) they were sick of one another and themselves.
This month I am staying home and writing a lot (or going somewhere else to alternate writing and swimming) then making one extended research trip before spending most of August far, far away. Check back for possible added DJ gigs, but don't expect anything else this month. I am hibernating, socially speaking.
I have so, so, so much to do before I leave that at five-plus weeks out I am already in a pre-trip panic.
I wrapped up my New England Regional Fellowship at the end of May, and other than a few loose research ends that I will be making more library trips this summer and fall to wind up, I've mostly completed the initial stage of my cotillon project: gathering lots and lots of cotillons so that I have enough of them to make some meaningful analysis of the genre.
In 1914, Victor Records made a celebrity-endorsement deal with Vernon and Irene Castle, “the greatest exponents of Modern Dancing who supervise the making of Victor Dance Records”. The company put out a little booklet, Victor Records for Dancing, which included short instructions for various couple dances (including the brand-new foxtrot) plus an enthusiastic note from Vernon Castle about the superiority of Victor records and the indispensibility of the Victrola in teaching classes.
The instructions for each dance were accompanied by a convenient list of suitable Victor recordings. Tucked at the end of the book were instructions for a country dance and a Paul Jones circle mixer “as taught at the Castle School of Dancing, New York City”.
In the past, I’ve discussed a very simple 1903 two-step circle mixer and a more complex English Paul Jones from the 1920s. The Castles’ version is quite similar to the 1903 one, but it’s physically rather livelier while mentally less taxing; the dancers don’t have to count.
A comment from one of my Russian correspondents that the schottische was rarely, if ever, danced in Russia in the nineteenth century* started me thinking, after a series of mental jumps**, about how well-accepted (or not) the schottische was in America in its early years.
There appears to have been some dissension on the merits of the dance after its introduction to America around 1849. Edmund Ferrero claimed in The art of dancing (New York, 1859) that the schottische had “acquired great favor”, and all the major dance manuals from the end of the 1850s onward include it. But the anonymous author of Beadle’s dime ball-room companion and guide to dancing (New York, 1868) claimed that the schottische was considered “vulgar”. Since it appeared regularly on dance cards from at least the late 1850s all the way into the early twentieth century, that can’t have been a universal opinion. But was it really anyone’s other than, presumably, those of ministers and others who condemned dancing altogether?
The Newburgh is a longer and more complicated foxtrot sequence taken from Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916). Like her Left Glide, it changes the lead foot against the music, with same opportunities and issues previously discussed for that move.
As is typical, the gentleman starts on the left foot, moving forward, and the lady on the right foot, moving backward. The steps below are the gentleman’s steps; reverse everything for the lady. The numbers are beats, not measures.
The Newburgh
12345 five walking steps (left, right, left, right)
6 cross right over left (lady crosses left behind right)
7&8 two-step (left-right-left)
1 cross right over left
(lady crosses left behind right)
2&3 two-step (left-right-left)
4 cross right over left (lady crosses left behind right)
5&6 two-step (left-right-left)
7 step side right
Continuing on with my little celebration of the centennial year of the foxtrot:
I’ve discussed before how the two-step and sliding sequences similar to the four-slide galop of the nineteenth century were incorporated into the foxtrot in its earliest years. Other than one 1919 variation from Charles Coll, the two-step sequences described were generally symmetrical, with even numbers of two-steps either in sequence or broken up by walking steps. Slides were generally done in sets of four.
Here’s another pair of simple “glides” from Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) that break that pattern with single two-steps and a set of three slides. The “Right Glide” and “Left Glide” are very accessible variations for foxtrot beginners.
After some welcome downtime at home, I'm back on the road in June with two trips each to New York City and Massachusetts, but keeping a light schedule since I have a rather enormous amount of writing to do this month. A couple more DJ gigs may pop onto the schedule at some point, but here's how it stands for now:
Rounding out my little miniseries celebrating the centennial of the first burst of popularity for the foxtrot, here’s another pair of variations from Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) that each feature a moment when one foot crosses over the other.
The “Side Swing” starts with the usual four walking steps, followed by a pair of quick-quick-slow moves. The first quick-quick-slow moves diagonally forward to the left (back to the right for the lady), but instead of being a two-step, the sequence is step forward – cross in front – step forward. The second quick-quick-slow is an actual two-step, done to the right, with my preference being for a slight diagonal angle rather than directly out toward the wall of the room. Here’s the gentleman’s step sequence:
1234 Four walking steps (starting left)
1&2 Step diagonally forward left, cross right over left, step forward left
3&4 Two-step (step-close-step, not turning, starting right)
Continuing my little foxtrot miniseries, here are two more very easy hesitation variations from Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916).
The “Rock-a-Bye” is a single hesitation, as described for the one-step by Albert Newman in Dances of To-day (Philadelphia, 1914), but done twice at double speed with four walking steps as a preface. What that actually means in practice:
1234 Four walking steps (starting left)
1& Step forward left, rock back onto right foot
2& Rock forward onto left, rock back onto right
These are the gentleman’s steps; the lady starts on the right foot and moves backward along line of dance.
2014 marks one hundred years since the foxtrot made its first big splash, so it’s very timely for me to have come across a copy of Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916). This is by far the largest single collection of 1910 foxtrot step sequences I’ve ever found in one place, and many of them are completely new to me.
Lee’s sequences were billed as “suitable for the ballroom, gymnasium, or playground, as well as for private exercise at home, either with or without a partner.” While several of them match foxtrot variations that I’ve previously discussed, they’re given a poetic new set of names. Can anyone guess which common sequences Lee endows with names like the Meditation Glide, Barcarolle, and Viola Dana?
After a perfectly crazy April, I am devoting most of May to staying home and catching up on research and writing as I wind up my fellowship year. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, and my cats will be ecstatic!
By some weird coincidence, all of my gigs this month are Regency-era, though I might tag on something else if the opportunity arises. Here's the calendar:
As previously noted, European descriptions of American dances like the late nineteenth-century two-step are sometimes more helpful than American ones. Having spent more time than expected this past weekend speaking French in Toronto (with a bunch of folks from Montréal), I’m inspired today to point out a couple of American-influenced descriptions of the two-step from Paris around 1900.
I ordered the Grandview Victorian Orchestra‘s CD Elegant Music from Times Gone By in the wake of a pleasant email exchange with musical director John Reading about quadrille music last autumn. The album is a mix of country (contra) dance medleys of various sorts mixed with a few other tunes and played on an interesting instrumental mix of piano, fiddle, hammered dulcimer, bodhran, shaker, banjo, and acoustic bass. I’m not sure about the acoustic bass, but the other instruments are legitimate for late nineteenth-century America and provide a more “rural” sound than most of the music I use, very appropriate for country dance tunes.
The music mix is definitely from “times gone by”, though not all of those times are actually Victorian and will need to be considered on a case-by-case basis for historical events. The arrangements are really lovely, though, and it makes a great listening CD even if not every track is strictly correct and/or usable for historical dancing.
My comments on the individual tracks follow.
April is going to be a crazy month for me, with a slow start, then three weeks of near-constant travel to New York, Boston, Chicago, New York (again), and Toronto! Regency everywhere, a little bit of waltz, blues DJing in Boston, and a fancy dress ball in New York City!
Wrapping up my little half & half miniseries, here's a wacky little sequence that throws in everything but the kitchen sink: a hesitation, travel, turning, and a change of lead foot. This is from the Quinlan Twins description of the half & half in the 1914 compilation Dance Mad, second edition. The only name given it is the deceptively bland "Seventh Figure".
The sequence is unusual in two other ways as well: odd and even measures have different rhythm patterns, and it appears that both measure have no step on the fifth count, an unusual departure from the standard 1…4,5 half & half rhythm pattern. All of this makes it not particularly beginner-friendly.
Here’s a nifty little variation for the half & half, as offered by the Castle Assistants in 1914: the scissors.
To quickly recap: the half & half is danced in 5/4 time, with the dancers taking three steps (on beats 1, 4, and 5) to each measure of music. There is a lengthy hesitation on the second and third beats. A more detailed description may be found in my earlier post on basic traveling steps for the half & half.
Dancing the scissors
The scissors begin with the gentleman’s back to line of dance, his right foot free. He crosses right behind (1), hesitates in the usual half & half style (23), then makes two more steps along the same diagonal toward the wall, left-right (45), turning 90 degrees at the end to prepare for the repeat. On the next measure, he crosses left behind and travels toward the center. The lady dances on the opposite feet and always crosses in front on the first beat of a measure. The dancers should meander gently along the line of dance as they cross back and forth.
I touched briefly in a previous post on half & half variations on how to easily change the lead foot in this dance, but since the technique applies to other variations as well (and to other dances, for that matter), I thought I would break it out into its own little post.
The two classic ways to switch the lead foot are to either add a step or subtract one. Subtraction works especially beautifully with the gentle sway of the half & half, and in the 1914 Quinlan Twins description of the dance, it is explicitly recommended:
On counts 4 and 5 of 8th measure, take one step with left foot and pose, leaving right pointed in 2nd position.
An easy way to liven up the half & half, the 5/4 waltz of the mid-1910s, is to vary the promenade.
In the basic half & half promenade (previously described here), the dancers take ballroom hold and both face line of dance, gliding forward side by side with half & half step patterns (1…4-5, 1…4-5).
The second edition of the 1914 compilation Dance Mad offer two easy ways to vary this promenade:
In the Quinlan Twins' description of the half & half, the eighth figure is a more elaborate promenade that alternates dips and foot lifts:
123 Step forward (gent's left/lady's right) and dip to the floor
45 Walk forward two steps
123 Step forward (gent's right/lady's left) and raise free foot to 4th position forward
45 Walk forward two steps
The highlight of this month will be a trip to a historical dance conference in Russia. Not a lot else is happening around that other than my usual monthly classes and a fast trip to Boston at the end of the month.
February will be crazy travel month for me! Early in the month I'll be squeezing my usual New York, Middletown, and Boston-area Regency and blues-DJing gigs plus a waltz workshop all into eight hectic days. Mid-month, I will be a featured performer at the Dance Flurry Festival before heading south to North Carolina. I don't expect to be squeezing anything else into February — I'm just hoping the weather holds up for all this travel!
Happy New Year! After a wonderful holiday full of friends and family and library research, I'm back on the road again! Nineteenth century to start out the month, then a series of blues DJing gigs, wrapping up with a 1770s ball at the end of the month!
This list is not yet complete, as I'm still working out a set of waltz classes and events, so check back in a week or so for more listings and links!
Like the similarly-named Twinkle Hesitation and the Mistletoe Hesitation, the Twinkle Hesitation Waltz is a sixteen-bar hesitation waltz sequence found in F. Leslie Clendenen’s compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) that uses the quick step-change-step known as a “twinkle”. Clendenen attributes it to T. MacDougall. It can be used as a sequence dance to any fast 1910s waltz music, or the two parts can be used together or separately as variations in a regular hesitation waltz.
The dancers start in a normal ballroom hold, opened out to side by side facing line of dance. Steps below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.
The waltz step used would be the box-shaped “new waltz” of the era rather than the fast-spinning rotary waltz of the nineteenth century.
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Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian
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