Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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Author: Susan de Guardiola

  • Late Victorian Waltz Variations: The College Step

    Working my way through the waltz variations in Round Dancing (M. B. Gilbert, Portland, Maine, 1890) and La Danse (G. W. Lopp, Paris, 1903), here’s one that can fairly confidently be classified as a step rather than a sequence written for a particular piece of music.  It’s actually quite interesting, though less for the step than for the fact that though at first glance it looks like a two-part sequence, it’s actually not.  Gilbert specifically (and ungrammatically) wrote:

    Repeat ad lib, commencing at the second part.  At the termination of the side movement.  Waltz at pleasure, introducing the second part at will.

    In other words, waltz (the first part) for as long as you like, then do the second part (a set of sideways movements akin to a racket) for as long as you like.  In short, use the second part as a variation in your waltzing.  That’s in line with how I suspect many of these variations were actually used, but it’s unusual to see it stated so explicitly.

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  • Late Victorian Waltz Variations: The Eugénie

    The Eugénie, or Eugenie-Trot, is yet another of the many variations published in M. B. Gilbert’s book of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and later, in translation to French, in G. W. Lopp’s La Danse (Paris, 1903).  It was attributed by both authors to St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler, as is confirmed by the cover of the sheet music shown at left (click to enlarge).  I would not regard it as a particularly important or significant variation; it warrants a reconstruction only as part of my overall progress through every dance in those two books.

    The Eugénie begins in the “military” position (described at length, with a photo, here) with the dancers opened up side by side, the gentleman’s right arm around the lady’s waist and her left hand resting on his shoulder or upper arm, depending on their relative heights.  The gentleman starts with the left foot and the lady with the right.  The gentleman’s steps are given; the lady dances opposite.

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  • April 2019 Gig Calendar

    April is going to be busy with local teaching for me: my regular weekly cross-step and "polka mazurka" (now expanding to all sorts of late-nineteenth-century dance) classes and waltz party plus private lessons and an Easter ball!  In between, I'll be preparing a whole list of classes for Vintage Dance Exchange 2019 – By the Sea, coming up in mid-May in Odessa!

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  • Death of a dancing-master, 1699

    While on the topic of late seventeenth-century dancing masters behaving badly, I came across information on one George Norton, seventeen years old, condemned to die for the murder of Thomas Harris, a dancing master whom he accidentally killed with Harris’s own sword in a street fight.

    Here’s Norton’s brief confession, excerpted from A True Account of the Behaviour, Confessions, and last Dying Speeches of the Condemn’d Criminals, that were Executed at Tyburn on Wednesday the 2d. of August, 1699, by John Allen, Ordinary.

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  • March 2019 Gig Calendar

    Local classes only this month as the Moscow winter hopefully wraps up: cross-step waltz (two intermediate classes) and polka mazurka variations with a bit of a wander through other musical rhythms as well, plus my monthly waltz evening.  Lots of research and writing in between…

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  • Schottische Gavotte

    I suppose this could be considered the next post in a very stretched-out series covering American “gavotte” variations for the late nineteenth century schottische; my first post on the topic appeared almost ten years ago.  I’m glad I put this one off a bit, however, since my experience since then with reconstructing, dancing, and teaching rackets has given me a better appreciation for how this “gavotte” variation works.  Essentially, it’s two halves: a slow schottische turn and a racket.  It’s kind of beautiful.

    The Schottische Gavotte, like so many other variations, is found in M. B. Gilbert’s book of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and in G. W. Lopp’s La Danse (Paris, 1903).  Gilbert does not attribute it.  Lopp attributes it to Gilbert.  Lopp also lists it as 3/4, but since it is under schottische, notated like a schottische (in 4), and has a given metronome speed of 76 beats per minute in schottische time, I think that 3/4 is an error and it is intended to be in 4/4.  Other than that, the two descriptions agree nicely and the reconstruction is quite simple and straightforward.  The gentleman starts with the left foot, the lady with the right.

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  • Heart Figure, 1900

    Continuing the Valentine's Day theme, here's a heart-themed dance game from St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler's 1900 compilation Original Cotillion Figures.  I'll give the full text from Mahler first, then a few notes on the listed music.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Heart Figure
    Jacob Mahler, St. Louis, Mo.

    Music — Waltz — "Just One Girl."

    Properties — White card board hearts about three inches wide and four inches long, tied with baby ribbon four inches long.  These hearts are handed to the ladies; they write their names upon the heart (upon one side only), the leader hangs these hearts upon a curtain at one end of the room, The [sic] written side turned to the curtain.

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  • February 2019 Gig Calendar

    I will spend most of February in Moscow, with one trip to Saratov at the end of the month for a weekend of classes on late nineteenth and early twentieth century dance, with an emphasis on improvisation in everything from tango and foxtrot to polka mazurka and quadrilles.  This is something of a sequel to my intensive weekend in Samara three years ago.  I'm really excited about teaching this material — finally, back to advanced nineteenth century! — and visiting a new Russian city!

    Other than that — my usual classes, a waltz party, and balls to attend!

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  • January 2019 Gig Calendar

    Happy new year!  January is going to be a quiet month for me.  I'm going to DJ blues in Russia for the first time at a swing dance camp, which I'm really looking forward to, and restart my regular waltz and historical dance classes and parties at some point (edited 1/27/19 to add) with a waltz evening at the end of the month before beginning regular classes in February.  Most of my time after the holidays (through January 8th in Russia!) is going to be spent on some research projects and pulling together a bunch of material for my February weekend in Saratov.

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  • “La Contre Danse”, cotillion figure (1900)

    There are plenty of cotillions – in the sense of “nineteenth-century dance games”, not “eighteenth-century French square dances” – that are some variation on “form a square or longways set and do a quadrille figure or country dance”.  “La Contre Danse” is an interesting take on this theme from W. Gilbert Newell, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was published in St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler’s compilation, Original Cotillion Figures (St. Louis, 1900).  It caught my eye because of the unusual formation: couple facing couple across a longways set, as in the American contra “The Tempest“, the English “Polka Contre Danse“, or quadrille figures done in columns rather than squares.  I can’t be certain that this is the only cotillion figure using this formation — hundreds of them were published from the early nineteenth into the early twentieth century, and I can’t claim to have looked at them all — but it’s the only one I’ve found so far.

    “La Contre Danse” is relatively complicated as figures done in sets go.  It opens and closes with two-step done in couples, and in between there is a brief march to set up the longways set before the actual contra/country/contre danse figures begin.  Here’s how it works:

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  • Against the odds

    I recently made note of a mailing list post that referred to dances done at American Civil War reenactments, such as the Virginia Reel, and couple-facing-couple dances like the Spanish Dance/Waltz, as "historically-flavored".  I don't think the poster meant to imply that these dances were actually ahistorical; this is someone whom I'm certain knows better.  But there's an interesting underlying point I wanted to expand on in this, which is that it's possible to have an entire ball full of historically-appropriate, accurately-reconstructed dances, and still have the ball as a whole not be convincing as a historical event.  Because having all the dances accurate to the time period is not enough.  There are at least two other external factors to consider: the geographic setting and the specific type of ball and ball attendees.  A ball held by a member of high society in New York City is not going to have the same dance repertoire as a ball set in a frontier town in Oregon, even if they are both set in 1898, and a middle-class French ball would be even more different. 

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  • CD Review: The Grand Victorian Ballroom

    The Grand Victorian Ballroom: Waltzes, Quadrilles, Contras, Polkas, and Other 19th Century Dance Music (Gaslantern Records, 2012), with its accompanying sheet music, is the second of two CDs I received for my birthday earlier this year, along with North & South.  But unlike North & South, this album was designed for dancing, so it is both beautifully played for listening pleasure and entirely functional as dance music.  The musicians, once again, are the members of the Orchestra of the Gilded Age (I still don’t know exactly who those members are) conducted by Jeffrey Hunter.

    Edited 1/26/2026 to add: Sadly, this company seems to be out of business and the CD and sheet music book are no longer available for sale, though they might still be found used somewhere.  All links have been changed to archive links.

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  • December 2018 Gig Calendar

    I'll have just one short trip in December, plus a Christmas waltz party and wrapping up my classes for the year!  Plus, I'll be teaching a quick lesson in cross-step waltz (probably the standard mixer) at a Russian-organized ball.  I'm hoping to do this entirely in my still-fragmented but (hopefully) comprehensible Russian, with no English at all and without using a translator.    We'll see how that goes…

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  • Giving Thanks!

    It’s that time of year again!  America celebrates Thanksgiving, and this American living abroad, sans turkey and trimmings, celebrates by thanking two sets of organizers who have hired me regularly for events.

    As everyone who knows me understands, I love visiting new places and teaching new groups.  But it’s also a special delight to have places and events I return to regularly, making friends and developing communities and watching dancers progress over time.

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  • La Lyonnaise

    Third in my impromptu mini-series of late-nineteenth century French dances based on the schottische or pas-de-quatre is La Lyonnaise, which appears to me to be unimportant in and of itself but somewhat interesting as an example of typical variations and a source for variations to use in improvisation.  Despite having been published in 1890, it does not appear in the seventh edition of Eugène Giraudet’s Traité de la danse, published in the early 1890s.  It does turn up by the 58th edition (c1900), which informs us (via the extensive dance glossary in volume II) that Giraudet choreographed it himself.  I don’t think it does him any particular credit; it’s just a mishmash of steps.

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  • November 2018 Gig Calendar

    November will be rather hectic, with a journey to Kyiv, Ukraine, for our third Kyiv Waltz Weekend and a grueling weekend trip back to the USA for the Remembrance Day Balls in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  See you on the dance floor!

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  • An Incident of Parisian Society, 1885

    …or, at least, a story about an incident.  I don’t have any way to prove that it actually occurred.  But true or not, the story illustrates something I’ve been noticing about fancy dress balls over the course of the last month.  The story was published in issue #40 (March, 1885) of The Nassau Literary Magazine, which was and is associated with Princeton University and is fully indexed online.  The author was John Cass (J. C.) Mathis, Princeton class of 1886, the author of twenty-eight pieces for the magazine from 1884 to 1886.  These appear to have included fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, so it’s hard to say from his publication record whether this story was memoir or fiction.  I lean toward thinking it was the latter, but even as fiction, it’s an interesting example of what was seen to be realistic at the time.

    The story was supposedly related to Mathis by a friend who had just returned from a tour of Europe.  While there, this nameless friend and become close to Victor, son of a prominent family.  It was ball season in Paris, between New Year’s and Lent, and Mathis’ friend was invited to a fancy dress ball at the home of Victor’s mother, Madam de Brissac.  Apparently masks were worn as well as costumes.  Details are given only of one: a lady in Spanish costume with whom Mathis’ friend was quite taken:

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  • A Fancy Dress Ball, Singapore, 1884

    Originally posted in substantially similar form on February 11, 2011, at Historical Fancy Dress.

    As can be seen from my other posts about fancy dress and masquerade balls, newspapers from the eighteenth century well into the twentieth often published lists of the costumes worn by the guests.  The lists were often provided in advance of the actual event, so it’s possible not all of the costumes worked out, as anyone who’s ever tried to finish a costume at the last minute before a ball will understand.

    The costumes were evidently more important than the dancing; while lists of outfits are routine in these writeups, full dance programs are rare and any information at all is not very common.  This apparently held true even halfway around the world.  The excerpts and costume lists below are from a fancy dress ball held by British expatriates in Singapore (!) in 1884.  The sole mention of dancing is the opening quadrille.

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  • A Calico Ball, British Columbia, 1885

    As described by Lucie Armstrong in The Ball-Room Guide (London and New York, c1880):

    The Calico Ball is a fancy ball at which the dresses are made of calico.  Sateen, chintz and velveteen are allowable, and any other material which is made of cotton.  The invitation, of course, states the nature of the ball.

    It really seems to have been primarily about the fabric rather than any costume theme, though obviously some costumes will work better when made out of cottons than others.  She goes on to make some suggestions.  For ladies: a dairymaid, a charity girl from St. Giles’, or a Dresden shepherdess.  For gentlemen: a Maltese peasant, Albanian costume, Saxon dress, or an Italian peasant.

    The anonymous author of Masquerades, tableaux and drills (New York, 1906) added more details:

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  • The Hewitts’ Plant Party, 1898

    Originally posted in substantially similar form on September 24, 2010, at Historical Fancy Dress.

    Jumping forward in time, from The New York Times on February 18, 1898 comes a full description of a very successful themed fancy dress event: a "Plant Party".  The ladies were asked to dress in some "representative" costume, while the gentlemen were expected to appear in ordinary evening clothes and were given something like a vegetable boutonniere at the door.  Supposedly, this was copied from something that Louis XVI did it at Versailles.  I'd certainly like to see a description of that!

    Sadly, very little information is given about the dancing: there was some, informal, after supper, and with no cotillion.

    No full list of costumes was published, but there are some excellent examples at the end of how the ladies trimmed their gowns to match the theme.

    I've transcribed the entire article below.

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  • Mrs. Walker’s Masqued Ball, 1804

    Jumping from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century:

    I first came across a description of Mrs. Walker's Masqued Ball as it was published in a Philadelphia journal, The Port-Folio, on January 19, 1805, with a credit to the The Morning Post, a noted London newspaper which famously covered the social activities of the upper classes in Regency England. 

    For several years, I had the article filed under the date 1805, but with a suspicious note attached because the outdoor party described (with a hostess concerned about the possibility of the heat being "oppressive") didn't sound likely to have occurred in January, even in England.  I still haven't found the original Morning Post article, but I did turn up a shorter version of the same description (minus all the costume information) that was published in The Lancaster Gazette (of Lancaster, England, not Lancaster, Pennsylvania) on Saturday, July 14, 1804, with one critical word present:

    on Wednesday se'nnight         [emphasis mine]

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  • October 2018 Gig Calendar

    Back in Moscow for the school year!  I'll be doing four courses this autumn on cross-step waltz and historical dance plus a small waltz party at the end of the month.  No travel before November as I settle in!

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  • September 2018 Gig Calendar

    September includes my last few weeks in the USA before my biannual transatlantic migration; the last week will be spent settling into my Moscow life once more.  I'll be taking some vacation early in the month (real vacation this time – no dance gigs sneaking in!) and then have some research time and a pair of DJ gigs in Boston before heading home to pack!

    Once in Moscow, I'll pick up my autumn schedule quickly with a waltz party to launch my cross-step classes and a pair of historical classes covering the 1880s-1890s and 1910s with a special emphasis on dance connections to Russia in both France and America.

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  • In Praise of the Simple

    Wandering around the net, as one does, I came across a lovely video of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark participating in a traditional dance of the Faroe Islands, the kædedans, a circle dance (for a loose definition of "circle") that just so happens to have the same pattern as Branle Simple, one of the "opening branles" published by Thoinot Arbeau (Jehan Tabourot) in 1589 and described briefly by me nearly a decade ago, when I was doing more with Renaissance dance.  Double left, single right.  Repeat ad infinitum.  Frederik and Mary both had a little trouble catching the pattern, in exactly the same way that I've seen people have trouble with Branle Simple nowadays (no, really, go left twice then right, but only once to the right, no, it's not symmetrical…).  That's kind of charming; don't they prep royalty before these events?

    Here's the video:

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  • Zebley’s Tango

    Moving right along with my tiny tango post series, here's another sequence from F. Leslie Clendenen's two editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914).  This one is simply called "Tango" and was provided by T. Victor Zebley, a Washington, D.C., dancing master.  It isn't really a "tiny" tango; it's a full thirty-two measures, which is enough for a full-fledged sequence dance.

    Zebley's tango is very straightforward to reconstruct and, provided one remembers the full sequence, easy to dance, with three points where the dancers can make some minor choices of their own.  I give my preferences, but also describe the other options in the performance notes below.

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Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

Email Susan

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