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:
Author: Susan de Guardiola
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Cross Steps in the Early Foxtrot
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) -
Two Easy Foxtrot Hesitations
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 rightThese are the gentleman’s steps; the lady starts on the right foot and moves backward along line of dance.
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Twinkle, Twinkle: Fast and Slow
- Era: 1910s
- Dances: Foxtrot, One-Step, Hesitation Waltz
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?
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May 2014 Gig Calendar
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:
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Two-Stepping en français
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.
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April 2014 Gig Calendar
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!
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Half & Half Variations: A Complex Hesitation
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.
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Half & Half Variations: The Scissors
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. -
Half & Half: Switching the Lead Foot
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.
