I don’t usually write about foxtrot in November, but I don’t usually teach foxtrot in Ukraine in the middle of a war, either, and last month, the dancers of Kyiv’s Vintage Dance Community wanted something for foxtrot that I hadn’t previously described here on Kickery.  Here is the description for their future reference and that of others interested in the variations for the foxtrot of the 1910s.

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At least two versions of a zig-zag sequence appeared in short booklets published in 1914 and 1915:

• The Zig-Zag Step and “Trot”: Joan Sawyer’s How to Dance the Fox Trot (Columbia Graphaphone Company, New York,1914)
• The Zig-Zag Run: 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)

Sawyer characterized the figure as a “hard one” but also “loads of fun”.  Her description:

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While thinking about mixing foxtrot and maxixe…

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:

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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

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For no reason other than habit, June is always foxtrot month for me, and despite the general shutdown of dance classes, I’m lucky enough to have a convenient partner at hand for experimentation with new variations.  So let’s look at yet another of the many step-sequences described in Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916)!

The Pavlowa Extension was, of course, named for the famous ballerina Anna Pavlowa (Pavlova), who toured America in the mid-1910s and dipped into social dance choreography with a music-composition contest resulting in a trio of dances published in The Ladies’ Home Journal in early 1915.  She (or her ghostwriter) and (supposedly) members of her troupe also offered opinions and suggestions about dancing the one-step, Boston, and foxtrot.  This variation, however, is not among those even indirectly associated with Pavlova.  It probably was merely named in her honor, or perhaps was inspired by a characteristic movement in her dancing.

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I spent a lot of time teaching foxtrot this spring, and after going through my usual repertoire of easy foxtrot variations with several different groups, I feel I need to add a few new steps.  Nothing complicated, just something to spice up my standard set.  Both of these steps are taken from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916).

The basic catch step is just a simple way to change the lead foot, either because it's needed for a variation or just for fun.  It's so easy I can explain it without a little numbered chart: 

Gentleman starts left forward.  Walk for awhile.  When you want to change lead foot, make a single two-step.  Keep walking with the lead (odd count; the strong beat of the music) on the other foot.  The lady does the same thing, but backward and starting on the right foot.

More formally:

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It’s been quite some time since I’ve written up any early foxtrot variations, so here’s a simple but stylish one from 1914 to add to your repertoire!

Dancer Joan Sawyer, owner of the Persian Gardens nightclub in New York City, called this the “drag step”, but unlike the drag or draw steps found in other dances of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the feet are not just closed heel to heel.  Instead, the closing foot is tucked behind (his) or in front of (hers) the other.  Here’s Sawyer’s description of the drag step and the following “trot”, with the accompanying illustration at left:

The gentleman slides the left foot out to his left as though he were going to walk sideways.  He then drags his right foot over back of the heel of the left foot, coming up slightly on the toes at the end of the movement, and breaks into a forward “trot” of four steps, gentleman starting the first trot step with is left foot…The lady you see slides her right foot out to her right, she then points the toe of her left foot over in front of her right foot, throwing her weight on to the left foot, then trots backward four steps, sliding the right foot back first.

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Along with the standard early variations that come up repeatedly in the 1910s, there are also numerous little foxtrot variants that turn up only once and were probably not generally popular.  Despite the name, the "Castle Favorite", presumably a reference to the famous ballroom dancers and teachers Vernon and Irene Castle, does not turn up in any source I have that is actually by the Castles.  Instead, it appears in Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916), a wonderful little source for unusual early foxtrot variations.  I don't necessarily rule out a connection with the Castles, but given how creative Lee was with variation-names, I am not taking it as a given without some actual proof.

Lee calls this a "rather difficult step, requiring considerable practice and possibly not adapted to ordinary social dancing".  That seems an exaggerated level of concern to me; it's not difficult to dance or to lead, and I see no reason not to include it in social dancing other than it being too uncommon to bother learning.

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I've been waiting for most of my life for another horse to win the Triple Crown, and, much to my chagrin, when it finally happened I was working and therefore missed seeing it live even on television, let alone indulging my secret hope to one day see such a thing in person.  Arrgh!

I will console myself by free-associating to a foxtrot variation: the Cavalry Charge!

The first thing to be aware of is that Edna Stuart Lee, in her Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916), calls the following sequence "The Pony Trot" and claims that it was the original foxtrot step:

1234    Four walking steps
1&2&  Four trots

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I’ve been looking for something amusing to wind up the centennial year of the foxtrot, and I found it in the November 17, 1914, issue of The Richmond Times-Dispatch: some fashion advice for the foxtrotting ladies in the store advertisement shown at left:

Fox-Trotting Without a Fox Trot Hat
is like joy riding on a steam roller.

How do I follow up a line like that?  I can only suggest reading the rest of the ad (click to enlarge) for more delightfully fulsome language.

For historical dancers, this is a reminder that during the 1910s, dancing in a hat at an afternoon thé dansant was perfectly proper, though judging by the advertisement, either not everyone agreed or not everyone succeeded in finding a suitable hat:

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Earlier this year I talked about nine different variations from the handy little booklet Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) in two mini-series, starting here (three posts) and here (two posts).  My choice of sequences may have given the impression that Lee's collection was mostly odd little variations with (often) even odder names (Chaplin Trot, anyone?)  That's because I was skipping over the simplest sequences given by Lee, since I have encountered them elsewhere and written about them, or similar sequences, in earlier posts. 

Here, I'm going to give a quick rundown of eight very basic sequences that Lee included among her more unusual and/or unique ones so that it is clear that there was a certain basic repertoire overlapping what is found in many other sources.

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The Newburgh is a longer and more complicated foxtrot sequence taken from Edna Stuart Lee’s Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916).  Like her Left Glide, it changes the lead foot against the music, with same opportunities and issues previously discussed for that move.

As is typical, the gentleman starts on the left foot, moving forward, and the lady on the right foot, moving backward.  The steps below are the gentleman’s steps; reverse everything for the lady.  The numbers are beats, not measures.

The Newburgh
12345    five walking steps (left, right, left, right)
6            cross right over left (lady crosses left behind right)
7&8       two-step (left-right-left)

1            cross right over left
 (lady crosses left behind right)
2&3       two-step (left-right-left)
4            cross right over left (lady crosses left behind right)
5&6       two-step (left-right-left)
7            step side right

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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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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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Most Paul Jones-style mixers are similar to the one found in the manual Dancing Made Easy (New York, c1919-1922): the dancers form a circle of couples, or possibly two concentric circles, each operating separately, if the numbers are too great.  They perform a grand right and left, then at the leader’s signal dance a one-step with the next person in the chain.  The 1903 Round Two-Step (described here) is quite similar, except that the dance of choice is a two-step.

But in the mid-1920s English manual Foulsham’s Modern Dancing, by Maxwell Stewart, a more elaborate version is described. 

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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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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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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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This is a nifty little move from the short Bassett/Elliott film, “The Much Talked About ‘Fox Trot’ ” (dated 1916) and is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in a 1910s foxtrot: it actually has a hop.  A hop in the foxtrot!  That should startle anyone watching you.  The sequence isn’t terribly difficult and should be accessible once a dancer is past the complete-novice stage.

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