Throughout the mid- and late 19th century, dancing masters had mixed quadrille figures and couple dances such as the waltz, polka, schottische, and galop into single figures or entire quadrilles.  A popular variation on this idea was a “varieties” or medley quadrille in which each figure used a different kind of music and incorporated a different couple dance.  Such a one is this Fancy Medley, published in Boston in 1893 in The Prompter’s Handbook by J.A. French.  The three figures of the quadrille include a polka figure, a schottische figure, and a waltz figure.  The original instructions may be seen here (page one) and here (page two).  The individual figures are quite similar to some of French’s single-figure quadrilles, such as the Waltz Quadrille and Polka Quadrille discussed in earlier posts here (waltz) and here (polka) and bear a close family resemblance to other single-figure quadrilles of the era.

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By the end of the 19th century,  many quadrilles were being published that didn’t follow the earlier form of having multiple separate figures.  Although this short dance does have two distinct parts, they are treated as one long figure.  The source of the dance is The Prompter’s Handbook by J.A. French, published in Boston in 1893.  The original instructions may be seen here.  There are significant similarities in the figures to the Waltz Quadrille from the same source, which I described in an earlier post, as well a a generic similarity to other one-figure quadrilles of the late 19th century, which typically involve a mix of very simple figures interspersed with the entire set dancing in couples (waltz, polka, galop, etc., depending on the type of quadrille).

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