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Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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Category: 1910s

  • Cross Steps in the Early Foxtrot

    Rounding out my little miniseries celebrating the centennial of the first burst of popularity for the foxtrot, here’s another pair of variations from Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) that each feature a moment when one foot crosses over the other.

    The “Side Swing” starts with the usual four walking steps, followed by a pair of quick-quick-slow moves.  The first quick-quick-slow moves diagonally forward to the left (back to the right for the lady), but instead of being a two-step, the sequence is step forward – cross in front – step forward.  The second quick-quick-slow is an actual two-step, done to the right, with my preference being for a slight diagonal angle rather than directly out toward the wall of the room.  Here’s the gentleman’s step sequence:

    1234    Four walking steps (starting left)
    1&2     Step diagonally forward left, cross right over left, step forward left
    3&4     Two-step (step-close-step, not turning, starting right)

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  • Two Easy Foxtrot Hesitations

    Continuing my little foxtrot miniseries, here are two more very easy hesitation variations from Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916).

    The “Rock-a-Bye” is a single hesitation, as described for the one-step by Albert Newman in Dances of To-day (Philadelphia, 1914), but done twice at double speed with four walking steps as a preface.  What that actually means in practice:

    1234    Four walking steps (starting left)
    1&       Step forward left, rock back onto right foot
    2&       Rock forward onto left, rock back onto right

    These are the gentleman’s steps; the lady starts on the right foot and moves backward along line of dance.

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  • Twinkle, Twinkle: Fast and Slow

    • Era: 1910s
    • Dances: Foxtrot, One-Step, Hesitation Waltz

    2014 marks one hundred years since the foxtrot made its first big splash, so it’s very timely for me to have come across a copy of Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916).  This is by far the largest single collection of 1910 foxtrot step sequences I’ve ever found in one place, and many of them are completely new to me.

    Lee’s sequences were billed as “suitable for the ballroom, gymnasium, or playground, as well as for private exercise at home, either with or without a partner.”  While several of them match foxtrot variations that I’ve previously discussed, they’re given a poetic new set of names.  Can anyone guess which common sequences Lee endows with names like the Meditation Glide, Barcarolle, and Viola Dana?

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  • Half & Half Variations: A Complex Hesitation

    Wrapping up my little half & half miniseries, here's a wacky little sequence that throws in everything but the kitchen sink: a hesitation, travel, turning, and a change of lead foot.  This is from the Quinlan Twins description of the half & half in the 1914 compilation Dance Mad, second edition.  The only name given it is the deceptively bland "Seventh Figure".

    The sequence is unusual in two other ways as well: odd and even measures have different rhythm patterns, and it appears that both measure have no step on the fifth count, an unusual departure from the standard 1…4,5 half & half rhythm pattern.  All of this makes it not particularly beginner-friendly.

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  • Half & Half Variations: The Scissors

    Here’s a nifty little variation for the half & half, as offered by the Castle Assistants in 1914: the scissors.

    To quickly recap: the half & half is danced in 5/4 time, with the dancers taking three steps (on beats 1, 4, and 5) to each measure of music.  There is a lengthy hesitation on the second and third beats.  A more detailed description may be found in my earlier post on basic traveling steps for the half & half.

    Dancing the scissors
    The scissors begin with the gentleman’s back to line of dance, his right foot free.  He crosses right behind (1), hesitates in the usual half & half style (23), then makes two more steps along the same diagonal toward the wall, left-right (45), turning 90 degrees at the end to prepare for the repeat.  On the next measure, he crosses left behind and travels toward the center.  The lady dances on the opposite feet and always crosses in front on the first beat of a measure.  The dancers should meander gently along the line of dance as they cross back and forth.

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  • Half & Half: Switching the Lead Foot

    I touched briefly in a previous post on half & half variations on how to easily change the lead foot in this dance, but since the technique applies to other variations as well (and to other dances, for that matter), I thought I would break it out into its own little post.

    The two classic ways to switch the lead foot are to either add a step or subtract one.  Subtraction works especially beautifully with the gentle sway of the half & half, and in the 1914 Quinlan Twins description of the dance, it is explicitly recommended:

    On counts 4 and 5 of 8th measure, take one step with left foot and pose, leaving right pointed in 2nd position.

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  • Half & Half: Varying the Promenade

    An easy way to liven up the half & half, the 5/4 waltz of the mid-1910s, is to vary the promenade. 

    In the basic half & half promenade (previously described here), the dancers take ballroom hold and both face line of dance, gliding forward side by side with half & half step patterns (1…4-5, 1…4-5). 

    The second edition of the 1914 compilation Dance Mad offer two easy ways to vary this promenade:

    In the Quinlan Twins' description of the half & half, the eighth figure is a more elaborate promenade that alternates dips and foot lifts:

    123    Step forward (gent's left/lady's right) and dip to the floor
    45      Walk forward two steps
    123    Step forward (gent's right/lady's left) and raise free foot to 4th position forward
    45      Walk forward two steps

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  • The Twinkle Hesitation Waltz

    Like the similarly-named Twinkle Hesitation and the Mistletoe Hesitation, the Twinkle Hesitation Waltz is a sixteen-bar hesitation waltz sequence found in F. Leslie Clendenen’s compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) that uses the quick step-change-step known as a “twinkle”.  Clendenen attributes it to T. MacDougall.  It can be used as a sequence dance to any fast 1910s waltz music, or the two parts can be used together or separately as variations in a regular hesitation waltz.

    The dancers start in a normal ballroom hold, opened out to side by side facing line of dance.  Steps below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

    The waltz step used would be the box-shaped “new waltz” of the era rather than the fast-spinning rotary waltz of the nineteenth century.

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  • The Hesitation Undercut

    The hesitation undercut is so short that it seems more a variation for the hesitation waltz than a distinct dance.  F. Leslie Clendenen, in his 1914 collection Dance Mad, attributes it to S. Wallace Cortissoz, who was also credited in Dance Mad with a sixteen-bar sequence called the Twinkle Hesitation.

    The eight-bar sequence is begun with the dancers in normal waltz position, the gentleman facing the wall and the lady the center of the room.  Steps are given below for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite. 

    The waltz step used would have been the "new" waltz step, with a pattern of step-side-close, much like today's box step, rather than the older rotary-style waltz of the nineteenth century.

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  • Sorority Glide

    Most of the steps in Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) were collected by “author” F. Leslie Clendenen from other dancing masters, but he gives himself credit for the Sorority Glide, a sixteen-bar one-step sequence that he recommends be danced to “Too Much Mustard” or “any One Step music of a similar swing.  It’s a fun little sequence with a very “Castles” feel to it and room for some personal style.  It works as an independent dance or can be plugged into a regular one-step as a variation.

    The dancers begin in a ballroom hold, turned out slightly so both face line of dance.  The dancers need to be far enough apart to make a cross step without crowding.  Weight should be shifted onto the forward (outside) foot, the gentleman’s left and the lady’s right, since the dance starts on the inside foot.

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  • Dixie Swirl

    The Dixie Swirl is a short tango-ish sequence found in F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914).  While it is not actually in the tango section and doesn't really have much of a tango feel, the brief description states that it is to be done to tango music.  It is attributed to Mrs. Nantoinette Ohnmeiss, about whom I've not been able to discover any information.

    The sequence appears at first glance to be eight bars, which is really too short to be interesting:

    2b    Gallop four times along line of dance (slide-close x4)
    2b    Two-step (presumably a full turn)
    4b    Swirl (the spin turn described here)
    Repeat from the beginning

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  • 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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  • 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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  • 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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  • Ballroom Marsupials

    The most popular “animal dances” of the early 1900s appear to have been the Turkey Trot and Grizzly Bear.  But the F. Leslie Clendenen’s compilation manual Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) offers a pair of one-step variations attributed to London dance teacher Walter Humphrey, who apparently found inspiration in the hopping of Australian marsupials.  I’ve never found these variations in any other source, so it’s not clear to me how widespread they ever were.  I would also have placed them a bit earlier, maybe 1908-1910, as by 1914 the animal dance fad was already well past and the smoother, more elegant style of Vernon and Irene Castle was making the one-step acceptable in respectable ballrooms.  It’s possible that Mr. Humphrey and/or English dancers in general had not quite caught up with the latest American dance fads, or that Clendenen was not as fussy in compiling his book as its subtitle, “The Dances of the Day,” suggests.

    For both variations, the dancers both face line of dance.  It’s not clear whether they should retain joined hands in front or open up fully.  I find the latter more graceful, but how much of a priority grace should be while hopping around a ballroom imitating a marsupial is debatable.  Those wishing to study wallaby technique in detail may consult this National Geographic video this video of a wallaby hopping across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  (Edited 11/19/2025 to replace vanished video with a new one.)

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  • Foxes in Boxes

    Among the moves described by Vernon and Irene Castle in their Victor Records for Dancing mini-manual (1914) are a trio of moves that are essentially box steps or fragments thereof: a so-called cortez (a.k.a. sentado or syncopated step), a double cortez, and a left-turning waltz.  The rhythm is specified as QQS: three steps and hold.  These make a nice set of variations to throw into basic walking-trotting sequences and two-step sequences when dancing a 1910s-style foxtrot.

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  • Sliding Along in the Foxtrot

    Over a year ago I discussed some of the earliest walking and trotting patterns found in the earliest sources describing the foxtrot.  Among other moves,  I touched on the gliding series of chassé steps given in the two sequences in F. L. Clendenen’s Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914).  The sideways glides were done in quick-quick rhythm for each slide-close.  The two sequences were:

    1. SS-SS-QQQQ-QQQQ twice, followed by four glides (step-closes) QQQQ-QQQQ

    2. SS-QQQQ, followed by four glides QQQQ-QQQQ.

    The man turns his left side toward the line of dance and the dancers execute a series of four sideways “step-closes” (QQ) along the line of dance.  No turn is involved; the first part of the sequence (walking and trotting) restarts on the first foot moving along the line of dance as usual.

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  • An Easy One-Step Sequence

    F. Leslie Clendenen’s 1914 compilation, Dance Mad, is full of sequences of varying levels of difficulty for many of the popular dances of the 1910s.  This one caught my eye as being a short (sixteen beats) and simple introductory one-step suitable for getting beginners dancing quickly and for teaching the lead for rhythm changes between one-step and two-step.  Clendenen gives it no special name or attribution, just “One Step.”

    Directions are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.  Starting foot is left for the gentleman and right for the lady.  Begin in normal ballroom position, with the gentleman facing along the line of dance.

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  • The Three-Step Boston or English Boston

    Concluding a trio of posts on easy hesitation waltzes, here is the simplest hesitation at all: a normal waltz sequence stretched over two bars of music.  Albert Newman succinctly described the dance in his 1914 manual, Dances of To-Day:

    In reality it is our Standard Waltz, but instead of taking two measures this Boston takes four measures.

    What this works out to in practice is that the first step (forward or backward) of each half-turn is held for an entire bar (three counts) and the step to the side and close are done on the first and third counts of the second bar of music, with the overall rhythm being ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-SIX.  The three steps taken over two measures give the variation one of its names; I see nothing especially English about this that would account for the other.

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  • The Pompadour Waltz

    The Pompadour Waltz is a minor but interesting variation on the five-step Boston or five-step waltz described by Albert Newman in 1914 (and by me here).  I have found it only in the collection Dance Mad, or the dances of the day, compiled by F. Leslie Clendenen and published in St. Louis in 1914.

    To perform the Pompadour, the dancers alternate brief hesitating grapevine sequences with the five-step Boston in an eight-bar sequence as described below.  The steps given are for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.

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  • The Five-Step Boston or Five-Step Waltz, 1914

    In his 1914 manual, Dances of To-day, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman describes a four-bar waltz variation he calls the Five-Step Boston or Five-Step Waltz.  Unlike the five-step waltz of the mid-19th century or the half-and-half of the 1910s, this waltz is done in the usual 3/4 waltz time, spreading five movements out over the six counts of music.  This is a hesitation waltz movement, well-suited the fast waltzes of the early 20th century.   It is easy to learn and provides a pleasant break from constant fast spinning.

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  • Side by Side in the Half and Half

    The illustration at left is the last of a series of illustrations for the Half and Half taken from a small book of dance music published by Malvin M. Franklin in 1914.  For general information on dancing the Half and Half, an unusual 5/4 time waltz stepped on the first, fourth, and fifth beats, please see my previous post on basic traveling steps for the dance.

    In the illustration, the dancers have moved from a normal ballroom hold into a variant side-by-side position in which the lady’s left arm is stretched across the gentleman’s shoulders to take his left hand at shoulder height, while their right hands are joined behind her back.  In this position they move forward together with a series of “alternating steps then sliding steps” before, presumably, resuming ballroom position to continue the dance.

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  • The Pan-American Glide (a 1910s Schottische)

    An early anniversary gift for Michelle & Peter, who asked about 1910s schottisches:

    By the 1910s, the schottische had almost complete vanished from the ballroom floor.  But a few dancing masters were still creating variations, among them the “Pan-American Glide,” published in the F. Leslie Clendenen’s collection Dance Mad, or the Dances of the Day in St. Louis in 1914.  It is attributed to F.W. Bouley.

    The name of the dance does not signify anything special about it choreographically.  It appears to merely be one of many uses of the term “Pan-American” in the early 20th century, playing off of the Pan American Union (so named in 1910) and the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.

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  • Another Note on the Early Foxtrot

    While searching through a periodicals index I came across an interesting little article that neatly summarizes my previous three foxtrot posts.  “How to Dance the Fox Trot” was published in the Los Angeles Times on October 18, 1914.  It commends the dance as

    the most simple of all the new dances.  If you were discouraged when you tackled the tango or maxixe, here is a dance that every one can dance and enjoy with practically no mental exertion.

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  • The Mistletoe Hesitation

    The Mistletoe Hesitation is a lovely little sixteen-bar hesitation waltz sequence originally published in F. Leslie Clendenen’s Dance Mad, or the dances of the day (St. Louis, 1914), a collection of dances and dance moves borrowed liberally from other dance teachers and manuals.  The Mistletoe is attributed to M.W. Cain and is one of the earliest uses I have found of a twinkle step.

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Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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