The Puritan Waltz is not, actually, a waltz. It’s a galop variation found in both Round Dancing (M. B. Gilbert, Portland, Maine, 1890) and La Danse (G. W. Lopp, Paris, 1903). Gilbert described it under the name The Puritan Waltz and also referenced it under The Jubilee. Lopp chose truth in advertising over adherence to the original and went with La Puritan Galop. The two descriptions match perfectly in the practical aspects, though Gilbert gets a little more poetic in naming the parts of the dance after…a whaling expedition? I feel like there must be some story behind a dance with parts called “The Calm”, “The Fluke”, and “The Gale”, but I’ve no idea what it might be. Nantucket Puritans?
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!
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The Puritan Waltz (La Puritan Galop)
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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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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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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.
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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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“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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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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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: