Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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Author: Susan de Guardiola

  • New York, New York

    The New York is another of the myriad “redowa and mazurka” variations given in M. B. Gilbert’s Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890).  Along with the Fascination, it is one of only a few variations credited to Indianapolis dancing master D. B. Brenneke.  It reappears among the material translated directly from Gilbert in [George] Washington Lopp’s La Danse (Paris, 1903), where it is listed as a mazurka and again credited to Brenneke.

    Gilbert gives both this “New York” and another dance called “The New York”, making it unclear whether the name refers to the city or whether it is simply a new version of the York.  Lopp lists it as La New York, along with two different dances called La Nouvelle York.  Lopp’s translations suggest that the reference is to the city as much as to the popular dance.  That might make it something of a pun, since the New York does include the characteristic sliding sequence found in the first measure of the York.

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  • The Independent York

    The Independent York is an interesting variation on the original York, albeit one that was probably rarely danced outside a studio context.  I have found it in only two sources.  The earlier is Melvin Gilbert’s Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), where it is uncredited, suggesting that Gilbert himself created it.  The later source is La Danse, by [George] Washington Lopp, published in Paris in 1903, much of which is simply a French translation of Gilbert.  It appears there as L’Indépendant York and is credited to Gilbert.  The sequence is identical in both sources.  Gilbert classifies it, as he does the York, under “redowa and mazurka”; Lopp lists it as a mazurka.

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  • April 2013 Gig Calendar

    April will be a crazy travel month for me, flitting between Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York repeatedly over the course of the month.  The schedule as it stands now is below.  I tend to add DJ gigs to my schedule at the relative last minute, so check back to see when those appear.

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  • March 2013 Gig Calendar

    March is going to be a very quiet month for me.  I'm clearing my calendar of most outside gigs for the last couple of weeks of the month to work on some writing and reviewing projects.

    I tend to add DJ gigs to my schedule at the relative last minute, so check back to see when those appear!

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  • Chassé-Croisé Sequences for Regency-Era Quadrilles (3 of 3)

    (This is the third and final post in a mini-series covering Regency-era step-sequences for the quadrille figure chassé-croisé.  Previous posts are here (with a general introduction) and here.)

    My third and (so far) final sequence for an eight-bar chassé-croisé comes from Elements and Principles of the Art of Dancing, a translation of J. H. Gourdoux published by Victor Guillou in Philadelphia in 1817.  The translation, presumably of the 1811 Principes et Notions Élémentaires sur l’Art de la Danse Pour la Ville, is inconsistent in how closely it hews to Gourdoux’s original.  This step sequence for chassé-croisé does not appear in the 1811 manual at all and may have originated with Guillou himself.

    Even more than Gourdoux’s own sequence, this one features different footwork for the gentlemen and the ladies.

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  • Chassé-Croisé Sequences for Regency-Era Quadrilles (2 of 3)

    (This is the second post in a mini-series covering Regency-era step-sequences for the quadrille figure chassé-croisé.  See the first post for a general introduction to the figure.)

    My second sequence for chassé-croisé actually comes from a French source, the second edition of Principes et Notions Élémentaires sur l’Art de la Danse Pour la Ville (Paris, 1811) by J. H. Gourdoux.  The same sequence reappears in his later manual, De l’Art de la Danse (Paris, 1823).  It is similar to the Strathy sequence described in my previous post, but the differences are quite intriguing.

    I won't cover steps in this post, since I just summarized them in the previous one and no additional ones are required for Gourdoux's sequence.

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  • Chassé-Croisé Sequences for Regency-Era Quadrilles (1 of 3)

    By far the most common sequence variations to be found in quadrille manuals of the early nineteenth century are those for setting, forward and back, chassez-dechassez, and crossing over.  But a few manuals give sequences for more elaborate figures such as chassé-croisé, in which two dancers, side by side, change places and back.  There are quite a few ways to perform the figure, but the most common is probably that danced with one’s partner in eight bars as follows:

    2b    Change places, gentlemen passing behind ladies
    2b    Set
    2b    Change back, gentlemen again passing behind ladies
    2b    Set

    This can be performed just by two couples (heads or sides) or by all four at once, as in the classic Finale figure of the first set of French quadrilles.

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  • Hollywood Line Hustle

    It’s been quite some time since I did any disco line dances, but here’s one for the folks who love these session at the Dance Flurry.  Sadly, I’m not teaching there this year, but you can do this one on your own!

    Unusually for one of these dances, I actually have it in two different sources: The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979) (paid link) by Ann T. Kilbride and A. Algoso, and The Complete Guide to Disco Dancing (1978) (paid link) by Karen Lustgarten.  The sequence is almost exactly the same in both books.  Kilbride and Algoso mention alternate names: the L.A. Line Dance or L.A. Line Hustle and note that it was popular in a particular area of the country, presumably southern Califoria.  Lustgarten calls it “one of the most popular line dances” and suggests disco hits to dance it to: Boz Skaggs’ “Lowdown” (paid link) for a slow version, and Vickie Sue Robinson’s “Turn The Beat Around” (paid link) for a faster one.

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  • Alternating racket waltz patterns

    • Era: 1880s into very early 1900s

    The last of the racket waltz patterns appears only in Allen Dodworth’s Dancing and its Relation to Education and Social Life (New York, 1885, reprinted 1900) and is thus saddled with his prosaic yet unwieldy title, “Alternating One Slide and Three Slide to Waltz.”  That’s more a description of the technique a name, but it’s what we’ve got.

    Unlike “Alternating the One Slide and Three Slide to Galop,” more usually known simply as the racket, the waltz-time version does not just combine the two existing racket waltzes (one-slide and two-slide) in a short/short/long short/short/long pattern.  That works in waltz time since both the “short” and “long” patterns take only one measure apiece.  Instead, this racket actually uses a three-slide racket, as in galop time, stretched in an irregular way from four beats to six, similarly to how the one-slide racket in galop is stretched from two beats to three in waltz time…but more complicated.

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  • Run, run…a redowa!

    To be perfectly specific, that’s a polka redowa, a polka step in slow waltz time.  This variation for it, called The Run, was, as far as I can tell, unique to the fifth edition (1892) of  William B. De Garmo’s The Dance of Society.

    The sequence is simplicity itself:

    1. In normal closed position, dance polka redowa, turning (six measures)
    2. Release hands and open up into “military” position, side by side (as described and shown here).
    3. Run forward six steps (two measures)
    4. Join hands again to repeat from the start

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Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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