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Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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Category: 1910s

  • 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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  • “Mixed Pickles” Tango

    Continuing with my lengthening series of tiny tango sequences from the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen’s compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914), here’s another short (sixteen-bar) tango sequence.  If not performed by all the dancers on the floor in unison, it must be done with care, since the dancers move directly against line of dance at two separate points.

    For such a short sequence, there are quite a few niggling little problems with the instructions and reconstruction, which I’ll talk about a bit below.

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  • “Tango No. 1”

    Continuing on with the tiny traveling tango sequences from 1914, here’s one that’s a bit less tiny than the Two-Step Tango.  “Tango No. 1” is listed in both editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) with the note “As taught in our classes.”, which presumably meant the classes of F. Leslie Clendenen’s own academy.  That means that this is as much a class practice sequence as a social dance.  As I reconstruct it — and see the reconstruction notes below — it is a reasonable sixteen bars (thirty-two beats) in length, and suitably easy for a class, as it only involves four basic moves – walking, a spin turn, draw steps, and grapevine.

    The starting position is a closed ballroom hold with the gentleman’s back to line of dance and the lady facing line of dance.  The gentleman starts on the left foot, the lady on the right.  Steps are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

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  • Two-Step Tango

    The Two-Step Tango is an anonymous eight-bar sequence published in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914).  There are several of these tiny "tango" sequences that travel decorously around the room without much tango feel to them — see the similar Butterfly Tango and Dixie Swirl.  These short progressive sequences all appeared in the first edition, along with the somewhat better-composed and more tango-like ones (including a "Tango Two-Step") from Albert Newman.  The impression I get from this is that the more authentic tango was still making its way across the country in early 1914, so the authors of these sequences were still interpreting it as "slow one-step to tango music".  The second edition of Dance Mad expanded the tango section enormously, retaining the short sequences but adding twenty-two pages of more authentic Argentinian and Parisian tango steps.

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  • Humming Bird Dance

    “Humming Bird Dance” is a hesitation waltz sequence which appeared in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen’s compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914).  It is attributed to “Mr. Menancon”, who appears in the list of credits at the end of the second edition as “Elmond Menancon, 909 Elm Street, Manchester, N[ew] H[ampshire]”.  I believe the first name ought to be “Edmond”, since a dancing master of that name is listed in Manchester city directories from 1906 and 1918.  In the 1906 Manchester Directory, Edmond Menancon is listed separately as an artist, dancing master, and, interestingly, the sexton of a church.  Here’s Menancon’s advertisement from page 819 of the 1906 directory:

    1906-Menancon-Ad

    The sexton position seems a somewhat odd fit for an artist-photographer-dance teacher; the triple career doesn’t seem to leave much time for a day job.  Perhaps it was his father?

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  • Scotch, Hungarian, whatever (cotillion figure)

    H. Layton Walker’s Grand Scotch Chain, published in Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912), is only moderately interesting as a figure, but tracing its progress from a figure that was neither “grand” nor “Scotch” when it started out is an interesting illustration of how cotillion figures were transmitted across time and international borders in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

    The figure itself is quite simple:

    • Two couples separate and select new partners
    • They form a four-couple quadrille set
    • Head gentlemen turn by right elbows once and a half round, then give left elbows to opposite ladies and turn to place with her
    • Side gentlemen repeat
    • Head ladies repeat
    • Side ladies repeat
    • All take partners and waltz

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  • Double Quadrille (cotillion figure)

    Double Quadrille is a cotillion (dance party game) figure from H. Layton Walker’s Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912), though the “game” element is extremely limited.  The original setup is not even a standard cotillion opening with couples dancing and then separating to find new partners; instead, each couple seeks another couple.

    The language and timing of the figure are ambiguous, and I’ve found no other source to clarify things.  So I’ve had to make some guesses and minor tweaks in order to create something that actually works.

    Here’s the original language from Walker:

    DOUBLE QUADRILLE.
    Four couples perform a tour de valse. Each couple selects another couple and they form a double quadrille; the head couples right and left; half sides the same. Ladies chain; all the ladies forward four steps, turn and face partners; gentlemen take the right hand of partners and left hand of lady on their left; all balance; the ladies facing outward, gentlemen inward; turn partners to places. The figure is danced over to regain places. Signal for all to waltz to places.

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  • Half & Half: Seven Steps

    “Seven steps” is actually something of a misnomer for this variation, which actually involves eight steps taken over two measures of half and half (5/4) time.  Its original source, Frank H. Norman’s Complete Dance Instructor (Ottawa, 1914) lists it only as step “No. 2” (out of two) for the half and half.  The Half and Half section of Norman’s book is credited to George E Rutherford.

    The basic principle of the step is to take a single slow hesitating step, lasting three counts as usual (1-2-3), and then take seven quick steps on the last two beats of the first measure and all five beats of the second (4-5-1-2-3-4-5).  Like the five-step variation, this is a very “busy” step that is best done to a very gentle tempo of half and half music.

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  • Half & Half: Pivot Turns

    “If you wish to spin you must do so on the slow step, continuing forward on the last two counts.”        — from Modern Dancing by Vernon & Irene Castle, 1914

    One of the basic half and half steps which I did not cover in my long-ago post on basic traveling steps for the dance was the pivot turn, as distinct from turning waltz in half and half time.  There aren’t all that many sources for half and half, so it’s mildly (very mildly) significant that this step is mentioned three different times.  There’s the Castles’ succinct description quoted above.  There’s a mention of it in a list of steps, or possibly a choreography, where it is given without any detail as “No. 3. pivot turn, right and left, 8 measures.”  (from “Half and Half” by J. E. Miles, in Dance Mad or the Dances of the Day, 2nd edition, F. Leslie Clendenen (editor), 1914.)  And there’s a full description as part of a mini-sequence which doesn’t actually work.  Here’s the relevant part:

    THE PIVOT TURN is made by stepping L. to side.  C. 1.
    Pivot 1/2 on ball of L.  C. 2. 3.  Walk forward. 4. 5.

    (from “Half and Half” as taught by Castle Assistants, in Dance Mad or the Dances of the Day, 2nd edition, F. Leslie Clendenen (editor), 1914.)

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  • Green Mountain Volunteers

    Green Mountain Volunteers is currently fourth on my list of go-to contra dances for the 1910s, after the Circle; Hull’s Victory; and Lady of the Lake.  It really ought to be sixth, after Boston Fancy and Portland Fancy as well, but the former is too much like Lady of the Lake, and the latter I’m still thinking about.

    Unlike the five dances listed above, which appear on a pair of Maine dance cards from 1918-1919, I do not have dance card evidence for this one.  The only pre-1937 source for it, in fact, is Elizabeth Burchenal’s American Country-Dances, Volume I (New York & Boston, 1918), in which she lists it among the dances “half-forgotten or less used” by the late 1910s:

    Some of the most widely used of the contra-dances to-day in New England are The Circle, Lady of the Lake, Boston Fancy, Portland Fancy, Hull’s Victory, Soldier’s Joy, and Old Zip Coon (or, the Morning Star); while among the half-forgotten or less used ones are Chorus Jig, Green Mountain Volunteers, and Fisher’s Hornpipe.

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Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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