Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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Category: 1910s

  • Early Foxtrot: Slides & Glides, 1916

    Continuing on with my little celebration of the centennial year of the foxtrot:

    I’ve discussed before how the two-step and sliding sequences similar to the four-slide galop of the nineteenth century were incorporated into the foxtrot in its earliest years.  Other than one 1919 variation from Charles Coll, the two-step sequences described were generally symmetrical, with even numbers of two-steps either in sequence or broken up by walking steps.  Slides were generally done in sets of four.

    Here’s another pair of simple “glides” from Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) that break that pattern with single two-steps and a set of three slides.  The “Right Glide” and “Left Glide” are very accessible variations for foxtrot beginners.

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  • 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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Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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