Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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Author: Susan de Guardiola

  • Lamb’s American Schottische

    English dance teacher William Lamb, in his Everybody's Guide to Ball-Room Dancing (London c1898-1900), published quite a few short dance sequences, most of limited interest to the average dancer.  His American Schottische has more potential than most of these because it does not involve any reverse-line-of-dance movement and thus can be easily used as a simple variation when dancing a late 19th-century schottische. 

    Despite the name, there is nothing specifically American about this particular sequence, and it does not seem to have been taken up by other writers/compilers of dance manuals, even those who otherwise plagiarized Lamb quite freely.  I suspect it was not a particular hit, perhaps never having any life in period outside the pages of Lamb's book.  Nonetheless, I find it quite danceable and an interesting break from more typical schottische patterns.

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  • The Line Walk

    Here's another very basic line dance; any Kickery readers planning a 1970s-theme party are going to be all set this week.  This one is also from The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979).  It's thirty-eight beats long, but very easy, though the odd length means it will cross the phrase of the music.  That's not unusual in disco-era line dances but drives some people crazy.

    Unusually, the Line Walk starts on the left foot.

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  • The Disco Duck

    Yes, here I go again with another easy line dance from The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979).  I actually like these dances (which date back to my childhood), though I don't usually do them in batches.  The immediate excuse for this extended excursion into the 1970s is that I'm going to be teaching an entire session of disco line dances a week or so from now at the Dance Flurry.  This one is twice as long as Hot Chocolate/Bonaparte's Retreat (described here and here) and has slightly harder steps and "quick-quick-slow" rhythm sections which make it a more interesting dance.

    The obvious music is the song "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees, which was a top Billboard hit for a couple of months in 1976, but it will work to any piece of lively disco music.  Happily, the dance does not include any arm-flapping or other duck-like miming.

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  • Bonaparte’s Retreat

    No, this has nothing to do with the Regency era!  This is one of a trio of easy line dances I’ve drawn from The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979).  It’s only sixteen beats long; line dances don’t get any easier than that.  The name supposedly derives from the floor pattern of the dance:

    …first the dancers mobilize, as they move in a line down the side, then they “retreat” backward and perform a “holding” action, before wheeling to the left and “defending” in another direction.

    I find it’s best not to think too deeply about this.  The book states that it’s also known as the “Hot Chocolate Line Dance,” and it is in fact the same step pattern as the dance “Hot Chocolate” I described in a previous post.  (So yes, this is kind of a cheat of a post; the only new material here is the stuff above.)

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  • Tantivy: The New Hunt Dance

    • Era: late 1890s-1900 England/France

    “Tantivy: The New Hunt Dance,” was invented by English dancing master R. M. Crompton, later to become the first president of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing and a part of the early 20th-century movement to keep ballroom dance out of the hands of the “wrong” people, which primarily meant American, and especially African-American, influences.  That was all in the future in the 1890s, however, when this dance first appeared.  It may have first been published in Crompton’s own book, Theory and Practice of Modern Dancing (London, c1891).  Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of Crompton’s work.  The dance, however, can be found in at least three other works of the late 19th century, attributed in each case to Crompton.

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  • The Très-Chic

    • Era: late 1890s-early 1900s
    “The Très-Chic is a dance for couples in six-eight time, and is of very animated and lively character.”

    With these words, William Lamb introduces “A new Round Dance for the Ball-Room.”  Lamb was a noted English dance teacher and writer who served as president of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing.  The Très-Chic appeared in his book Saxon’s Everybody’s Guide to Ball-Room Dancing (London, c1898-1900; it is listed in the 1901 English Catalogue of Books for those years), from which it was blatantly plagiarized by two dance writers publishing in the American Midwest in the first few years of the twentieth century, including A.C. Wirth in his Complete Quadrille Call Book (Chicago, 1902) and D.F. Jay in his ABC Guide to Ballroom Dancing (Chicago, c1900), both using Lamb’s language to describe the dance.  (Some biographical information about Wirth may be found in my earlier post on the Rye Waltz.)

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  • Mr. Newman’s Two-Step Variations

    • Era: circa 1900

    Given the popularity of the two-step in the early years of the 20th century, it is surprising how few variations were recorded for the dance.  But in his 1903 dance manual, A Complete Practical Guide to Modern Society Dancing, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman included two short and easy two-step sequences, the “Glide Two Step” and the “Military Two Step.”

    The basic turn of the century two-step (not the same as either today’s country western “Texas Two-Step” or today’s “Nightclub Two-Step”) is a slide-close-slide, similar to the polka but performed smoothly with no hop, turning to the left or right as desired.  Newman specified that the “close” of the feet should be to third rear position, which happens fairly naturally if the leading foot is turned so that the toe points along the line of dance.  The steps are described below for the gentleman; the lady dances on opposite feet.

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  • The Union Dance

    • Era: 1860s-1880s

    The Union Dance is a short, schottische-like dance sequence which I have found in only two sources: Thomas Hillgrove’s 1863 A Complete Practical Guide to the Art of Dancing (pp. 170-171) and the 1883 Professor M.J. Koncen’s Quadrille Call Book and Ball Room Guide (p. 89)  The latter is a compilation of numerous other sources and the instructions therein are nearly identical to the earlier ones, so Hillgrove may be regarded as the preferred source for dating this dance.  Given the timing and Hillgrove’s location in New York, it is possible that the name of the dance was meant as a political statement, though it is also possible that it was simply the name of a tune to which it was danced or a completely random title.

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  • The Pan-American Glide (a 1910s Schottische)

    An early anniversary gift for Michelle & Peter, who asked about 1910s schottisches:

    By the 1910s, the schottische had almost complete vanished from the ballroom floor.  But a few dancing masters were still creating variations, among them the “Pan-American Glide,” published in the F. Leslie Clendenen’s collection Dance Mad, or the Dances of the Day in St. Louis in 1914.  It is attributed to F.W. Bouley.

    The name of the dance does not signify anything special about it choreographically.  It appears to merely be one of many uses of the term “Pan-American” in the early 20th century, playing off of the Pan American Union (so named in 1910) and the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.

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  • Regency & Victorian Dance Workshops, NYC (Sunday, January 4, 2009)

    I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, January 4th.  Logistical details are below.

    The first (1:00-3:45pm) will focus on the dances of the Regency era (1810-1820), including steps and figures for country dances, French quadrilles, and the nine-person reel known as The Country Bumpkin.  Specifically, we will dance and look at a step-sequences to use in L’Été and La Finale (second and fifth figures of the French quadrille) and will enjoy a Spanish Dance and an 1816 version of the classic Money Musk.

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Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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