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Ah, sweet October, which I generally devote to discussion of fancy dress and masquerade balls, weird cotillion figures, and similar frivolity!
I have two words to start off the month in the proper spirit:
headless quadrille
Specifically:
The first couple is Anne Boleyn and Louis XVI. They are facing Lady Jane Grey and Marino Faliero (a 14th century Venetian Doge). Marie Antoinette and Charles I make up the first side couple, facing the Earl of Essex, dancing alone.
In case anyone missed the connection, all of these people were beheaded.
The Woodland Yorke was introduced by Maine conductor and dancing master Horace M. Pullen at the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the American Society of Professors of Dancing, held in New York City on September 4th-7th, 1894, and published in the proceedings of the convention. Specifically, it was introduced on Tuesday, September 4th, 1894, as one of a list of eleven “works” placed in the hands of the Directors. The convention then promptly adjoined to practice them. (more…)
In honor of Mother's Day in the USA, another specialized (and much smaller) dance event from the pages of the October, 1891, issue of Demorest's Family Magazine:
A young mothers' reception, with dancing, is the unique entertainment to which only young married couples are invited. Round dances are tabooed, and what time can be spared from the discussion of the charms and precocious sayings and doings of their little ones is devoted to sedate square dances. To give a little touch of piquancy to the affair, partners are selected by favors, children's toys being used for the purpose. The following day the guests call on the hostess, with their children. — Demorest's Family Magazine, Volume XXVII, No. 12, October, 1891, p. 756
This brief description appeared in a "Chat" column which primarily covered the decor of several autumn-themed events (the "Dahlia Tennis Court" was my favorite).
Dropping back to the late nineteenth century, here's another short blurb from the pages of Demorest's Family Magazine, following the Thanksgiving Pumpkin Party I described last year. This little tidbit appeared in the "Chat" column of the February, 1891, issue, along with a description of a Valentine's party and comments on the overuse of floral decorations. The anonymous author described the fashion that season of using a thé dansante (tea dance) held at the "usual hours" for a reception, four o'clock to seven o'clock in the late afternoon, for the purpose of introducing debutantes to the fashionable world. The thé dansante could stand on its own as an event or might be the lead-in to a dinner.
"Pleasing the Parish; or, The Minister's Wife", and its sequel, "Intervention", appeared in the January and July, 1852, issues of Godey's Lady's Book, probably the most prominent women's magazine of mid-19th century America. The author remained anonymous, offering only a list of their previously published stories.
The first story is the sad tale of the overwhelming demands made upon Mrs. Stone, the wife of a theologian who accepts a position as rector of a large parish in New York City. Her inability to fulfill all the demands on a rector's wife and her refusal to yield in all areas to the leading female parishioners makes her increasingly unpopular and, as a result, miserable. In the second story, she has the temerity to attend a gathering of friends rather than the organizational meeting. Both the gathering and its consequences offer brief insights into the practice and perception of dance in mid-nineteenth-century America.
Continuing on with figures two and three of Chivers' Troidrilles…
Figure Two (Tune: Eté) 8b + 24bx4 8b Introduction (not repeated) 2b First head trio forward (en avant) and stop 2b Opposite trio forward (en avant) and stop 4b All retire to places, turning round to the right twice 8b Four head ladies right hands across (moulinet) and left hands back 8b Set (pas de basque) in trios (4b) and hands three round (4b) Repeat three more times, other couples leading in turn
This is another straightforward reconstruction. The figure is done four times as in standard quadrille practice: twice by the head couples (first couple leading, then opposite couple leading) then twice by the side couples, led first by the couple to the right of the first head couple.
I adore dances that are for trios rather than couples. There are so many interesting things one can do when there are three dancers in the mix rather than just two! And, of course, it helps the address the problem that historical dance tends to be imbalanced in gender, with many more women than men interested, but many of them desiring to dance in historical gender roles…though those were not always as rigid as people believe. Figures for one gentleman and two ladies go some way toward addressing this at balls.
I've written previously about G. M. S. Chivers' "Swedish" dances, trio country dances that were not actually Swedish, and the Scottish Sixdrilles, a reworking of the French quadrille to be danced by four trios rather than four couples. The Troidrilles are more in the spirit of the latter (though the name is more harmonious): a miniature "quadrille" of only three figures for four trios published in Chivers' The Dancing Master in Miniature (London, 1825). The figures are original, though very Chivers in style.
Whatever the Original Gallopade published by dancing master W. G. Wells ("late of London") in The danciad, or companion to the modern ball room (Montreal, 1832) may be, it's certainly not the "original", in the sense of being the first version, since it's clearly a variation of the Original Gallopade published in Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (Second Edition) by J. S. Pollock (London, c1830).
The introductory material is also blatantly plagiarized from either Pollock or some common source, so it can hardly be called "original" in the creative sense either, and it is unlikely to be exactly what was originally introduced in 1829 and referenced in the introduction to the dance, which I will append in full at the bottom of this post. I think that introduction is more about gallopade-as-a-dance-in-general rather than this specific gallopade. But in any case, it's virtually identical to the introduction in Pollock, and they can't both be the original.
The St. Denis Spiral is a minor foxtrot variation from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) which, like the sequences in my previous post, incorporates maxixe styling in the two-step. Like Lee's Pavlowa Extension, it is named for a famous dancer, in this case Ruth St. Denis. I am not a scholar of modern dance (theatrical or otherwise), so I have only the most superficial knowledge of her career, but apparently she was indeed noted for incorporating spiral figures, as may be seen in "The Delirium of Senses" from Radha (1906), recorded at Jacob's Pillow in 1941. I seriously doubt she had anything to do with this foxtrot variation, however; the name is most likely just an homage.
The sequence is just as easy as the other foxtrot-maxixe combinations:
Maxixe in the foxtrot? They mixed bits and pieces of every other dance of the ragtime era together, so why not jazz up your foxtrot with a little body sway?
At least two different sources suggest using maxixe-styled two-step in the foxtrot: Joan Sawyer’s How to Dance the Fox Trot (Columbia Graphaphone Company, New York,1914) and Description of Modern Dances, as Standardized by the New York Society Teachers of Dancing and approved by the Congress of Dancing Societies of America at meeting held December 27th, 1914, in New York City, N. Y. (American National Association Masters of Dancing, Pittsburgh, 1915).
I’ll start with Sawyer, since her booklet (dated November 23, 1914), is chronologically earlier. Her foxtrot figures all consist of a pattern of a unique step or sequence followed by eight trotting steps. Her third figure, the Maxixe-Glide and “Trot”, starts with four measures of “Maxixe two-step” done moving along the line of dance (gentleman forward, lady backward) without turning. The two-steps begin with the gentleman’s left foot, lady’s right; feet then alternate as usual
