Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

Welcome to the original-format Capering & Kickery blog! Due to the Typepad shutdown in September and the resultant move to WordPress, the entire post archive is not yet available, as each post must be individually edited (formatting, images, music, videos, links, etc.) and indexed before it is restored. Please check back regularly over the next few months to see the progress in rejuvenating the blog!

Note: in the restored posts below, most of the internal links (to other Kickery posts) will remain down until the linked post is also restored. If you have a request to prioritize a particular post or set of posts, please contact me at the email above!

Post Archive

October 6, 2010

The Newport

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.

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September 20, 2010

Le Triangle

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.

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August 23, 2010

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: The Bowdoin

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.

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August 19, 2010

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Le Metropole

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.

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August 10, 2010

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Gavotte Glide

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.

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August 6, 2010

Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Diagonal Waltz

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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July 17, 2010

Half & Half Variations: The Scroll

Winding up this month's little half and half miniseries, here's another variation from the Castle Assistants, as published in Dance Mad in 1914. This one even has a name, the scroll, as well as a number ("Step 2"). It's essentially a slow-motion grapevine step changing once per bar rather than on every beat, very similar in conception to the 1930s "about face waltz" described here, which has the pattern of one bar of traveling followed by one bar to change the direction each dancer is facing, with the lady and gentleman always facing opposite directions.

The scroll uses the basic half and half step sequence (stepping on the first, fourth, and fifth beats of each bar) done in promenade position, as described in my half and half overview here, with the dancers facing opposite directions and traveling for two bars before pivoting. The change of direction occupies only a partial bar rather than the full bar of the about face waltz.

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July 13, 2010

An Underarm Turn for the Half and Half

I’m on a bit of a roll lately with variations for the 5/4 time waltz of the mid-1910s known as the half and half. Here’s another easy one: an underarm turn for the lady, pulled once more from Dance Mad (1914), where it is included in a list taught by the “Castle Assistants” and prosaically labeled “Step 4.” The Castle Assistants are presumably associated with one of Vernon and Irene Castle’s dance studios.

This is not the only variety of underarm turn in the half and half, but it’s the simplest of the variations I have come across other than the one found in a small 1914 book of sheet music by Malvin Franklin, illustrated at left (click to enlarge), where the gentleman just stands completely still while the lady makes her turn. That doesn’t flow nearly as well as the Castle Assistants’ version.

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July 9, 2010

Five Steps in the Half and Half
- Era: 1910s
Among the variations listed for the half and half in the 1914 collection Dance Mad is an interesting waltz which, unusually for the half and half, involves stepping on all five beats of the bar rather than on the usual first, fourth, and fifth beats. It doesn't have a name; the description is simply labeled "Sixth Figure" and is one of eight figures credited to "Quinlan Twins." For lack of any better name, I refer to it as the five-step variation.

Background information and basic traveling steps for the half and half may be found in my previous post here.

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July 5, 2010

The Invention of the York?

A couple of months ago I described the late 19th-century waltz-time move known as the York, which incorporated mazurka-style heel-clicks and was considered a variation of the polka mazurka. At the time, the earliest source I had located was M.B. Gilbert’s Round Dancing, published in 1890, where the dance was included “by permission of E.W. Masters,” possibly its creator. An interesting article from The New York Times, dated September 9, 1885, both brings the date of the dance back a few years and provides an amusing anecdote about the dance’s possible origin.

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