Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian
One of the myriad minor schottische variations described in M.B. Gilbert’s Round Dancing (1890), is notable as the earliest appearance I’ve noticed of what has become the standard style for the first part of modern folk schottische: three running steps forward in “military position” (as described in my previous post, “À la Militaire“) rather than the step-close-step of the nineteenth century dance.
Gilbert attributes the Star Schottische to W.F. Mittman.
Like the Royal Gallopade, which I discussed here, the Original Gallopade was published in the Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (Second Edition) by J. S. Pollock (London, c1830) and is a specific choreography that combines galop round the room, short quadrille-like figures, and a final sauteuse waltz. I’m not sure about the original part; I suspect that the original form of gallopade was nothing but galop. But that’s the title Pollock published it under.
Here is the general description of the dance, as given by Pollock:
La Gallopade may be danced with an unlimited number of persons, standing circularly in couples, following each other round the room. In the first figure, the gent. passes his right arm round the waist of the lady, and with his left hand takes hold of the lady’s right, the lady’s left hand resting on the gent’s. right shoulder — the whole of the couples being thus placed, the ladies are all on the outside of the circle. At the end of the first four bars, the lady crosses to the left of the gent. resting her right hand on the gent’s. left shoulder and holding hands in front as before, which brings the ladies to the inside of the circle. This figure is performed four times over, and occupies sixteen bar of the tune. At the fourth time, the whole of the party fall back in a circle, the ladies all standing on the right hand of their partners, ready to commence the figures as they occur. This dance is performed with a particular and characteristic step, of which it is impossible to give such a description, as would enable any one to dance it, without personal instruction.
A telegraph from London updates Americans on the early twentieth-century dance scene in London:
London, Jan. 2. — The lancers, quadrille, polka, and mazurka, once popular dances, have now almost disappeared from the ball programmes of fashionable London. The American two-step to some extent has taken the place of the polka, but the dance most in favor is the waltz, which, according to an Italian expert, the English people seem to dance like persons in a dream, so slowly is the time usually taken.
— The New York Times, January 3, 1909
English dance teachers felt that this state of affairs called for high-level assistance, as a later article alerts New Yorkers:
Here’s an easy and interesting quadrille taken from Lowe’s Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide, Third Edition, published in Edinburgh by the “Messers. Lowe.” The manual is not dated, but internal references and the type of dances included suggest that it is from the late 1820s or early 1830s. Given the era, I would expect to dance the figures with early nineteenth century quadrille steps, but the steps and sequences required are few and easy.
The Gallopade Quadrille, or Quadrille Galope, is for the usual four couples in a square and consists of three figures, each with three parts. The format of each figure is:
16b Galopade
16b Various quadrille figures
16b Sauteuse
This gives a length of 48bx3. Following the third figure, the dancers continue to sauteuse until the end of the music.
A new waltz or redowa variation pops up in a few of the manuals of the very late nineteenth century. Presumably named after the wealthy resort town, the Newport appears in slightly different versions in different manuals, but the common element appears to be a series of quick sliding steps.
Apparently the Newport was too new to be included in New York dancing master Allen Dodworth’s Dancing and its relations to education and social life (New York, 1885). The earliest and clearest description I have found is in M. B. Gilbert’s Round Dancing, published in Portland, Maine, in 1890. His version, included “by permission of Russ B. Walker,” is essentially an ornamented version of the standard waltz of the late nineteenth century, with two rapid slides to the side rather than one in each bar for a “step-side-close-side-close” sequence rather than the usual “step, side, close.” A half-turn is made on each bar, just as in the regular late nineteenth-century waltz, with a complete turn every two bars.
Subtitled Nouveau Quadrille, Le Triangle is not actually a quadrille in the literal sense of a dance involving facing couples. It was composed by F. Paul and published in his manual, Le Cotillon, in Paris in 1877 and is danced by three couples rather than four, arranged in the form of a triangle. Paul composed it to address the difficulty of finding four couples for the quadrille croisé of the time. He adds modestly that he does not intend to impose it upon dancers, but gives the description only as a proposal. I have never seen Le Triangle in any other source; it may never have been danced outside of Paul’s immediate circles.
This is the final post in this month’s little series of easy and useful late nineteenth century waltz variations from M.B. Gilbert’s 1890 manual, Round Dancing. The first three posts in the series may be found here, here, and here.
Gilbert notes of the Bowdoin that he “applied these movements to the Waltz during the seasons of 1888-89, and found the application very pleasing.”
Once again, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding the waltz steps, with my preference being for the smoother transitions allowed by the gliding version.
Returning once again to my short series on some of the more useful waltz variations published by M.B. Gilbert in his 1890 manual, Round Dancing, here’s a third simple variation for the late nineteenth century waltz. The first and second posts in the series may be found here and here.
Le Metropole uses the same simple sliding and waltzing steps of the Gavotte Glide but mixes them in a different way. Gilbert attributes it to H. Fletcher Rivers.
Like the Gavotte Glide, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding. And as with the Gavotte Glide, its gliding feel makes me lean toward the latter for the sake of smoother transitions.
This is the second in my short series on some of the more useful waltz variations published by M.B. Gilbert in his 1890 manual, Round Dancing. The first post in the series may be found here.
Of all of the variations in Gilbert, this simple mix of sliding steps and waltz turns is probably the easiest and the one I use most frequently in teaching new dancers. Gilbert attributes it to “Constantine Carpenter, Son, and Charles C. Martel.”
As with the Diagonal Waltz, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding, though its gliding feel makes me lean toward the latter for smoother transitions within the variation.
By the end of the nineteenth century, American dancing masters such as M.B. Gilbert were coming up with long lists of little waltz variations of dubious utility and doubtful popularity. Many of these are minor variations on a few simple themes, often interpolating sideways slides and chassé steps between measures of waltz. I’m going to do a short series on some of the more useful and leadable of these variations this month, all taken from the pages of Gilbert’s immense manual, Round Dancing, published in Maine in 1890 and incorporating many variations from the 1870s and 1880s. Calling them “Victorian” is a bit of misnomer, since these are essentially American variations.
The Diagonal Waltz does not actually involve anything other than the normal step of the “new” waltz (step-side-close pattern) of the late nineteenth century. It is really just a sequence incorporating natural and reverse turns in such a way as to never make a complete turn in either direction. This is so basic a waltz skill that similar sequences are incorporated into most twentieth century versions of the box-step or Viennese waltz as well.
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Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian
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