Still working my way through my collection of 1970s line dances, here's another one from The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979). The California Bus Stop, a.k.a. the California Hustle, is an easy thirty-six-beat dance. It's most notable characteristic is that it features claps and stamps on every fourth beat throughout the first two parts of the dance.
Author: Susan de Guardiola
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Lamb’s Waltz Two Step
Here’s an easy waltz variation from English dance teacher William Lamb’s Everybody’s Guide to Ball-Room Dancing (London c1898-1900). The Waltz Two Step is a short sequence of two-step done in waltz time which can be used as a variation in a late 19th-century waltz or as a short standalone sequence dance. Because the movements are quite slow-paced, it is best suited to extremely fast music.
This sequence represents the an early form of “hesitation waltz” from before that term came into use in the 1910s. In this case the normal two-step movement (briefly described in a previous post here) rather than being counted “1&2” in 2/4 rhythm, as is more typical in this era, is danced in 3/4 rhythm with each two-step stretched over two full bars of music, so that the slide-close-slide happens on the first, third, and fourth of the six beats.
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Waltz Step, Galop Time
- Era: 1880s-1890s (America)
In his sizable manual of couple dance variations, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), late 19th-century dancing master M.B. Gilbert describes the Waltz-Galop succinctly as:
Waltz step, Galop time
While no other dancing master that I have found includes the waltz-galop by name, the accenting of a waltz step done in duple rather than triple time is discussed by Allen Dodworth in Dancing and its relations to education and social life (1885, reprinted several times through 1900) and is included in dances such as the turn-of-the-century Pasadena, and the idea that waltz steps can be transposed from triple to duple and vice-versa dates back as far as the sauteuse waltz of the first quarter of the 19th century.
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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.
