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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• Era: 1910s

The half and half, a hesitation waltz danced in 5/4 time, was one of those novelties that appeared and vanished quickly in 1914.  There may be as many people alive now who know how to dance it as ever danced it in its own era!  It is also handicapped by having very few surviving pieces of music in the right time signature.  Today’s experienced historical social dancers can probably hum the eponymous “Half and Half” from memory.  Sources describing the dance are equally difficult to come by; I have only three in my collection, though one of them, Dance Mad, generously provides four separate descriptions.

Click here to listen to a half and half tune in 5/4 time.

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