Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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Category: 1910s

  • 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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Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

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