Capering & Kickery

Foxtrot Styling, c1920

A nice little style detail for the foxtrot as danced in England in the years after World War I:

"A variation is also to be observed in the chassé done alternately to left and right, at an angle of 45 degrees to the line of the dance.  In the ordinary way of doing this, say, when the man is going forward, he slides the left foot forward to the left, and then brings the right foot up to the left, and again advances the left.  The new variation is to cross the right foot behind the left.  When the chassé is done to the right, it is of course the left foot which is crossed behind the right.  The lady (or the gentleman if he is going backwards), crosses her foot in front of the foot that is first moved."
        --- "The Sitter Out" (column) in The Dancing Times (London), January 1920, p.270.

By the "chassé", the writer means the two-step, as is clear from the description of the "ordinary way" of performing it.  The description is referenced again in March, 1920, issue (p. 439; the numbering is continuous across multiple issues).  In the "To-Day in the Ballroom" box shown at left (click to enlarge), under "Fox-Trot", there is a note that "The crossing of the feet (described in January) is popular and effective if the steps are kept small."

Early Foxtrot: The Minuet Turn

Keeping with the foxtrot theme, here's one more little sequence for foxtrot or one-step from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916).  Despite its overt simplicity, it actually manages to present a minor reconstruction issue!  As for the name...well, to be perfectly honest, I see absolutely no connection here to the minuet, any more than I do with Newman's Minuet Tango.  There seems to have been some concept of "minuet" in the 1910s which I have completely failed to grasp.

The gentleman's steps are given; the lady dances opposite.  The dancers begin in normal ballroom hold, the gentleman facing forward along line of dance and the lady backward.

Early Foxtrot: The Pavlowa Extension

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.

Lee described this as "an easy step, and very graceful, savoring a little of the stage."  She also connected it to the hesitation waltz which involved a similar slight lift while hesitating: "The hesitation, while it lasted, was full of such steps and they were much appreciated."  The half-and-half was another dance that used a similar technique to fill time.

The variation is done in a normal closed ballroom hold, facing line of dance.  The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances opposite except as noted.  

Early Foxtrot: Quick Dips

Ah, June, when one turns one's thoughts (and feet) to...weird little foxtrot variations! 

This time around, let's look at a pair of steps, or rather step-sequences, from Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916) that both involve quick dips.  These are actually ever-so-slightly harder to do than the usually run of walks, trots, glides, and two-steps that make up a great deal of the 1910s foxtrot repertoire.  Lee noted that the first of these, The Coney Island Dip, is "very exhilarating and excellent exercise for the lungs."

The gentleman's steps are given; the lady dances opposite.

Early Foxtrot: Catch Steps

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:

The Catch Step
1234    Four walking steps (LRLR)
5&6     Two-step (LRL)
7...       Continue walking (R...)

The Scissors Catch is a more elaborate way of accomplishing the same thing, with a tango-inspired tight cross of the feet:

The Scissors Catch
1234    Four walking steps (LRLR)
5          One more walking step (L)
6&7     Cross right over left and chassé left behind right, bringing right forward again, still crossed
8...       Continue walking (L...)

6&7 are a two-step done in a crossed position.

According to Lee, this step "is attractive and has the appearance of being difficult."  She's right; it's flashy but really not that hard.  On a normal catch step (two-step), you step outward at a slight diagonal.  On the scissors catch, you step inward, crossing the feet and maintaining that cross throughout the chassé.  So instead of stepping out to the right with the right foot on 6, the gentleman steps to the left.  The lady, dancing backward, steps with her left foot to her right, crossing behind.  After the step-chassé (crossed two-step), the dancers will need to twist a bit to free the trailing foot to make the next step.

The relation between the two catch steps is the same as that of the Snake Dip to the Zig Zag in the one-step -- the Snake Dip initiates by stepping out to the left on the first step while the Zig Zag initiates with a cross by the right foot over the left on the second step.

Lee notes that you can vary the Scissors Catch (and, of course, the regular Catch Step) by doing it on the other foot, and that you can vary the Scissors Catch by doing two in a row, which will mean no change of lead foot.  This will require a noticeable twist clockwise by both dancers on the second Scissors Catch, since they have to free the crossed foot (behind for the gentleman, in front for the lady) and bring it all the way around to cross the other way (gentleman: in front, lady: behind).  This isn't all that hard, but it needs a bit more vigor, well-controlled, than a series of normal two-steps.

One can dance the Scissors Catch keeping the body facing more-or-less straight along or against line of dance, or one can do it with more turn, making small diagonals to the side and coming close to Yale position.  Either way is interesting and attractive.

For both steps, note that the four walking steps at the beginning are Lee's introduction to just about every variation in her book.  While it is nice to space out the fancier foxtrot variations with a few walking steps in between, it's not necessary to have it be precisely four or to always do a catch step on a particular beat.

Early foxtrot: the drag step

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.

The rhythm is the slow-slow, quick-quick-quick-quick common to many early foxtrot patterns.  From the illustration it seems to be not just a side step; the dancers are actually be turning their bodies and feet so that they are moving forward to the side.  This accords with a second description of the move published in the Seattle Star on Friday, November 27, 1914:

Gentleman steps left diagonally forward to two counts of the music, slides right across behind left to two counts of the music and runs forward four steps, left foot beginning the running step. 

The article from which this description was taken is attributed to Edna Neil, a former dancer with Anna Pavlowa in the Imperial Russian ballet.  Pavlowa and her troupe famously toured America in 1914, and the article on foxtrot is headlined "Member of Pavlowa's Imperial Ballet Shows How to Dance the Fox Trot."  The article gives the drag step no name beyond "Figure 1", but it is the first variation that appears after the basic walk/trot sequence.  Sawyer's description, which appeared in her book How to Dance the Foxtrot (New York, 1914), is also the first given after the basic sequence.  This priority placement suggests that this was a small but important element of early foxtrot repertoire.

The actual move is just as simple to do as to describe.  Unlike the cross steps in foxtrot that I described a few years ago, in the drag step, the gentleman tucks his closing foot behind the other while the lady crosses hers in front, both of them rising up on the toes slightly.   I favor the Seattle Star description's diagonal angle rather than a step directly perpendicular to line of dance, as implied by Sawyer.  Her mnemonic for the move is "slide, drag, trot-trot-trot-trot."  Rather than the smooth continuous travel of the walk/trot combinations, the drag step has a sharper flavor, with a noticeable pause in travel on the second beat. 

Since the dancers are quite cozily close after they have just switched into a promenade position, I believe the gentleman, rather than isolating the leg movement, should allow his body to swivel slightly so that as he closes his trailing foot behind and the lady points hers in front, the dancers switch  briefly into a "Yale" position, hip to hip.  The will give the lady more space to make her cross in front.  The move is easily leadable; all that is necessary is to cue the lady to cross in front rather than step backward.  That should be taken care of in the process of guiding her into moving sideways.  Then straighten her out for the trotting steps.  Sawyer recommends doing full sequence (slide, drag, and trots) four times in a row, though that may be more as a means of learning it than a requirement when dancing socially.

Enjoy!

Early Foxtrot: The Castle Favorite

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.

I used the Castle Favorite (along with the Cavalry Charge) recently in a dance reconstruction class in Novosibirsk, Russia, as an exercise for my students in reconstructing basic ragtime dance variations.  They mostly came up with pretty much the same result I did, after some clarification of  "over" vs. "over to" (as in "Draw the right over to the left.")  All props to them, since they were forced to work in a language they don't speak natively!

The Castle Favorite is done in a standard close ballroom hold, traveling along the line of dance, with the gentleman going forward and the lady backward.  The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances opposite.

The Castle Favorite
12        Two walking steps: left, right   [two other steps removed for musicality]
3&4&  Four trots: left, right, left, right
1&2     Hop on the right foot, step left, and close the right foot without weight
3&4     Hop on the left foot, step right, and close the left foot without weight

Counted as slow and quick steps, this would be SS QQQQ QQS QQS. 

For social use: the hop is easily led; the lady will feel it immediately.  The only remotely tricky bit is making sure that the closes of the feet in the third and fourth bars are without weight.  The gentleman needs to make it clear that his weight is staying on the original foot.  But it's more likely that a lady unfamiliar with the variation will not close her foot at all, or simply let it drift in, since closing without weight is not a very leadable movement.

Note that as in the Cavalry Charge, I have modified Lee's opening to eliminate an additional two slow steps at the beginning because I find Lee's tendency to do a three-bar introductory sequence (four walks and four trots) irritating and the resulting five-bar sequence musically annoying to dance.  (I discussed this in more detail in my post on that variation, here.)

One for the ponies!

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

Lee gives the following performance note:

This was formerly danced in a rather pronounced fashion with long, bouncing running steps, and this form is still splendid exercise for the gymnasium or playground, but for the ballroom the running steps should be very short and the feet barely leave the floor, otherwise the effect is choppy, as in the old hopping waltz.

Notice that at the typical two counts to the musical bar, this makes a three-bar sequence.  I have my doubts about this being the original foxtrot step because the other early walk/trot patterns I've encountered all seem to have walks and trots at a 1:2 ratio rather for neat two- or four-bar sequences.  (Also, why the original foxtrot would be called a pony trot is beyond me...)

But Lee is very, very fond of having four walking steps at the start of all her foxtrot variations despite the occasional musically-uneven results.  She's not the only writer to do that; the Coll turn described at the end of this post was originally a five-bar sequence for the same reason.  So it's not a terrible shock to find that the Cavalry Charge, which incorporates the Pony Trot, ends up as a messy seven bars.  Personally, I find this so irritating that I choose to chop off the first two walking steps to make it line up better with the music.  My reconstruction below reflects this.

As is the case for other ragtime variations with cute names (including the foxtrot itself), this variation bears no resemblance to anything that actual cavalry does on the battlefield.  But it's fun to dance.

The Cavalry Charge is done in a standard close ballroom hold, the gentleman going forward (facing line of dance) and the lady backward.  His steps are given below; she dances opposite.

The Cavalry Charge
12        Two walking steps [two previous steps removed for musicality] (gentleman left, right)
3&4&  Four trots (gentleman left, right, left, right)
12&     Two walking steps and a hop (gentleman left, right, then hop on the right foot)
34&     Two walking steps and a hop (gentleman left, right, then hop on the right foot)
12&     Two walking steps and a hop (gentleman left, right, then hop on the right foot)
34        Two walking steps (gentleman left, right)

Counted in slows and quicks, this is SS QQQQ SQQ SQQ SQQ SS. 

On each hop, the free foot (gentleman's left, lady's right) is kicked up behind, as in the Hop Turn.

My removing of the first two steps makes the Cavalry Charge a six-bar sequence.  If that is bothersome, simply add two more bars of dancing to even it out.  The distinctive move here is the walk-walk-hop (SQQ) combination, so either inserting another two bars of of that before the hop-free final bar or ending with some two-bar sequence (such as two walks and four trots) will make it add up to a more musical eight bars.

Lee notes that this sequence is "splendid for exercise."

The post is dedicated to the magnificent American Pharoah, his jockey Victor Espinoza, and his trainer Bob Baffert.
Watch the video of the Triple Crown win at the Belmont Stakes here!

Fox Trot Hats

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:

The frock Dansant really must find its compliment in the proper Hat.  Yet, how often is it not so?  Echo answers, "Often."

Noted dancer and fashion icon Irene Castle also advised close-fitting hats in Modern Dancing (New York, 1914):

it is dancing that has made the small hat of tulle or lace fashionable for afternoons in place of wide picture-hats.  "Big hats are unpleasant to dance in."

Many photographs of Irene in the 1910s show her dancing in a hat -- including her famous "Dutch cap", one very similar to that shown in the ad (though with a more dramatic feather decoration in front), or even one with a small brim.

Hop, hop, foxtrotters!

Concluding my extended celebration of the foxtrot's centennial year: more about the hop-turn!

A few years ago, I considered hopping in the 1910s foxtrot to be a relatively obscure practice -- I'd only ever found one sequence with a hop in it and had only a brief mention in a newspaper article to reassure me that it was not just a one-couple oddity.  But looking through Edna Stuart Lee's Thirty Fox Trot Steps (New York, 1916), there are actually several sequences that include hops, including two that are strikingly similar to the previously described Bassett/Elliott hop-turn.

Here are two more ways to, in the words of the newspaper article, "make our turn with a quick, fast hop" while foxtrotting.

The Castles' Paul Jones

In 1914, Victor Records made a celebrity-endorsement deal with Vernon and Irene Castle, "the greatest exponents of Modern Dancing who supervise the making of Victor Dance Records".  The company put out a little booklet, Victor Records for Dancing, which included short instructions for various couple dances (including the brand-new foxtrot) plus an enthusiastic note from Vernon Castle about the superiority of Victor records and the indispensibility of the Victrola in teaching classes. 

The instructions for each dance were accompanied by a convenient list of suitable Victor recordings.  Tucked at the end of the book were instructions for a country dance and a Paul Jones circle mixer "as taught at the Castle School of Dancing, New York City".

In the past, I've discussed a very simple 1903 two-step circle mixer and a more complex English Paul Jones from the 1920s.  The Castles' version is quite similar to the 1903 one, but it's physically rather livelier while mentally less taxing; the dancers don't have to count. 

Here's the pattern:

8b    Slipping circle to the right
8b    Slipping circle to the left
??    Grand right and left (starting right hands to partner) until signal given
??    Dance with the person you are facing until signal given
Re-form the circle and repeat all of the above until the music ends.

The Castles helpfully confirm that "As the time for changing is optional, the signal, which is usually the blowing of a whistle, is left to the discretion of the director of the dance."

The reconstruction is fairly straightforward, but there are a few minor issues:

The printed instructions mistakenly list "grand right and left changing to counts of 8 measures", which I believe was more likely intended to be "counts of 8", or four counts per change of hands, which is a typical pace for a grand right and left.  It has to be some sort of error, since there is no exact duration for this figure; it goes until the signal is given.

The circles are described as "all slide to right chassé" and "Repeat to left chassé"; in practice, this is a "sixteen-slide galop" in each direction. That's a lot of slipping, so it wouldn't bother me particularly if it were cut to four measures each direction in practice. 

The slipping is a little tricky to manage when coming back together after dancing with a partner; any laggard dancers cannot easily join in without getting mowed down.  A signal by the director of the dance to tell the dancers when to start slipping is probably going to be required.  Making sure to signal to reform the circle with at least two measures' lead-time before the end of a phrase will help let the dancers get into position ready to start with the musical phrase.  Four might be safer.

The slipping circle starting to the right is weirdly reminiscent of the opening "grand round" change of an 18th-century French cotillion, though in no other respect does this dance resemble "Le Paul Jones", an unexceptional cotillion from the 1770s with no mixer element.

For music, dancer were referred to the lengthy list of "Victor Records for the One Step", but the Castles also noted that "The One-Step is generally used for the Paul Jones...but the Fox-trot, Canter or old-fashioned Waltz may be used."  In practice, an "old-fashioned waltz" would presumably require canter (1...3) rhyhm in the slipping circles, which would make for a much gentler dance.

It being the year for 1914 centennial balls, a Paul Jones is something to consider for a ball program, especially early in the evening, in order to break down social barriers and allow strangers to meet.

Early Foxtrot: The Newburgh

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

The only reconstruction issue on this step is how the lady crosses: truly opposite (crossing behind) or mirroring the gentleman (crossing in front).  Lee never specifies this.  While for Lee's Side Swing and Chaplin Trot I came to the conclusion that the lady should mirror the gentleman (both cross in front), for the Newburgh, after experimenting with both options, I feel that the lady should cross behind.

On the Side Swing, the cross is followed by a back step, and a back cross tends to blur that into a close.  The Newburgh has the opposite problem: both partners are two-stepping along the line of dance, and must turn their sides almost completely toward the line of dance if the full Newburgh sequence is not to have them end up in the center of the room, especially if repeating it twice in a row.  A front cross is entirely possible and easy to lead, so it certainly cannot be ruled out, but it makes the the three iterations of cross/two-step rather dull.  Unles the dancers are very careful not to turn their bodies, it blurs into a promenade step forward with the inside foot, losing the "cross" aspect.  But if they don't turn their bodies, they are effectively traveling face-to-face along the line of dance for nine counts.  The swiveling necessitated by the lady's back cross is more work to lead (a strong turn forward of the gentleman's right side and a slight lift help signal the back cross), but it makes the Newburgh a much more interesting sequence to dance. 

The Newburgh's tendency to send the dancers toward the center of the room makes it, like the Left Glide, a dandy sequence for taking corners -- just start the cross/two-step sequence right at the corner.  Turning sides toward line of dance won't be needed on the first two-step; the dancers will already be at the proper angle by virtue of the corner.

Lee also gives an alternate ending for the Newburgh, replacing the side step to the right at the end with a three-slide:

7&8&1  slide-close-slide-close-step (right-left-right-left-right)

This will compensate somewhat for the tendency to drift toward the center on the cross/two-step sequence, but it doesn't mean the dancers should avoid compensating for this by turning the dancers' sides toward line of dance -- having the dancers oscillating into and out of the center of the room will cause traffic problems for any dancers following behind them!

The three-slide ending still changes the lead foot against the music, but for a very smooth transition into a new sequence leading off on the right foot, Maurice-style, the final count (1) could be treated as the first step of the next sequence of steps.

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.

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)

The lady dances opposite, as usual, with one major exception.  Whether she crosss behind or in front on the cross step is not specified by Lee, but experimentation with both options leads me to believe that a front cross, mirroring the gentleman, is the most likely.  While leading her into a back cross is certainly possible, and not particularly difficult in the context of this variation, it makes a full back step after the cross less natural; the tendency is to just close the feet instead.  Having both partners cross in front works more smoothly and provides a nice contrast to the following two-step.

Lee commended this step to dancers as "producing a swaying motion that relieves the monotony of the forward movement".  She also suggested that it could be danced as a variation for the one-step by making the running steps of equal length to the walking steps.  This produces an odd nine-beat sequence that shifts the lead foot relative to the musical beat:

1234    Four walking steps (starting left)
123      Step forward left, cross right over left, step forward left
4&5     Two-step (starting right)

The Side Swing is entirely leadable for good dancers, even if the follower has never previously tried it.

The more romantically named "Chaplin Trot" features a long walk-trot sequence (four slow steps and eight quick steps) followed by a fast cross and side-to-side hesitation as follows:

1234            Four walking steps (starting left)
1&2&3&4  Seven trotting steps (starting left)
&                 Cross right foot over left
1&2             Step side left, side right, and draw left foot to right without weight

Once again the lady dances opposite except on the cross step, where she also crosses in front.  The final quick-quick-slow moves perpendicular to the line of dance, the couple stepping first toward the center of the room and then toward the wall, closing the free foot without weight.  To lead the "without weight" part, the gentleman should simply keep his weight firmly on the right foot, or even sway just slightly toward the right.  A good follower will pick this up without ever having danced the sequence before.

The final side-side-close (effectively a hesitation, since the dancers make no forward progress for two beats) feels vaguely similar to the box step, which is a legitimate move for 1910s foxtrot.  But I would not recommend teaching the Chaplin Trot in combination with the box step to newer dancers.  The close without weight in this sequence will sow confusion, since in the box step dancers close with weight during the final side-close.

Lee described the step as a good one for "young couples desiring plenty of action and a touch of the spectacular" -- evidently her threshhold for spectacle was somewhat lower than mine --  and notes, accurately, that it is "an excellent ground gainer".

Special thanks to Irene for dance-testing the foxtrot variations for this miniseries!

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.

The rocking steps do not travel; they should be done "as though the feet were held rigidly apart by a rocker and the body tipped gently forward and backward by mechanical means", though Lee also noted that they should be "very light, smooth, and graceful" and that the dancers should "be careful not to rock the shoulders, but sway gently with the entire body."  The free foot is raised slightly off the floor on each weight shift.

The slow, slow, slow, slow, quick-quick-quick-quick pattern of this sequence feels more natural if it follows a walk-trot sequence in that same rhythm pattern, such as the "Fox Trot No. 2" described in the second edition of the compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) and danced for the camera by Clay Bassett and Catherine Elliott in a short 1916 film, "The Much Talked About 'Fox Trot'."  These are the third option listed in my previous post on walk-trot patterns in the early foxtrot.

The poetically named "Trot des Artistes" hesitates in a different way.  After the usual four walking steps which Lee put at the front of almost all of her sequences, the dancers perform a two-step followed by an unusual (for the foxtrot) step forward and close without weight for what Lee termed "an attractive pause in the dancing".  Here's the step breakdown for the gentleman:

1234    Four walking steps (starting left)
1&2     Two-step (step-close-step, starting left, not turning)
3          Step forward right
4          Draw left foot to the heel of the right, closing without weight

As usual, the lady dances opposite.

On the draw, the toe should actually lightly skim (but not noisily scrape) the floor.

I prefer to do the two-step on a slight forward diagonal rather than straight out to the side.  On the final step-and-draw, shading the right side of the body diagonally forward with a little bit of sway will make the leading the lack of weight change easier.

Both of these hesitations are completely leadable and followable by good dancers even without learning the sequences in advance.

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?

A 1920s Medley Paul Jones

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. 

To initiate the dance, the band plays a march and the dancers begin the grand right and left as usual.  The signal to change to dancing in pairs is given by a change of music: the band switches to a foxtrot tune.  Each dancer takes the next partner in the chain, and they foxtrot, with Stewart noting that the steps used are "as a rule" limited to the walk and the "two-step Chassé to right," though the latter is not actually given in his list of foxtrot steps earlier in the book and is more reminiscent of 1910s foxtrot style (see my previous post on this here) than the steps he does give, which look more towards later style.  Perhaps that is intentional, on the assumption that everyone knows the "old-fashioned" steps but is less likely to know the newer ones.

At some point, the music changes back to a march, and they resume the grand right and left.  Once again the music changes, this time to a one-step, and the dancers take next partners for that dance.  The music shifts back to a march a final time for a third grand right and left until finally the band begins to play a waltz and the dancers each take the next partner and end the Paul Jones by waltzing.

Stewart positively burbles with enthusiasm about the medley aspect:

It is a very jolly affair for those who can execute the steps of the three present-day dances.  It is a pot-pourri of all that is best at the moment, and our only wonder is that more medley dances are not evolved.

His initial description of the dance is dryer and more humorous, possibly unintentionally:

It is the nearest thing we have now to the old square dances, with just this difference: that it is round.

Indeed it is.

Valencia!

"Valencia (A Song of Spain)" was a popular tune by José Padilla, apparently imported from Paris to England and thence to America in 1926.  Accompanying the American sheet music was a brief set of dance instructions which could be done to "Valencia" or any other foxtrot.

Interspersed with walking steps are four specific moves:

(1) The Balance: step forward on one foot then back onto the other (count 1, 2)

(2) The Strike: step, usually to the side, with one foot, then strike the other foot lightly against it (count 1, 2)

(3) The Catch: a two-step; step-close-step (count 1&2).

(4) The Round: a rond de jambe; this is described as pointing the left toe and describing a small, fast circle.  The instructions suggest that it moves clockwise ("point toe of left foot to left side...start to rear") but the illustration of the move, shown at left, contradicts this, the arrows clearly showing counter-clockwise circles, which also work much more smoothly with the flow of the dance; the Round is invariably followed by a step forward on the left foot.  This move is very fast and takes some practice for two people to perform smoothly in unison, with their feet equidistant throughout.

These moves are combined into four short routines, which may be mixed and matched at will:

At the Prom: Yale 1921

Yale University's Junior Promenade, held on February 8, 1921, made the cover of the Yale Record, a humor magazine similar to (but predating) the Harvard Lampoon, which had a wide circulation outside Yale as a beacon of collegiate style. (Click the image at left for a larger version courtesy of Yale's Manuscripts & Archives.)  The event is of interest to me not only as a Yale alumna but because I recently purchased one of its ball cards.

The cover of the card (shown below) is made of white leather, with the Yale device and the year 1921 embossed in gold on the front.  A blue and white twisted cord holds the pages in place.  There is no sign of how a pencil might have been attached.  Between the cover and the pages of the card itself is a sheet of translucent vellum with a spiderweb pattern.

Of interest among the list of names given for the ball committee is the Floor Manager, James Smith Bush, the uncle of former United States President George H.W. Bush and great-uncle of former President George W. Bush.

The set of dances listed inside shows the growing dominance of the foxtrot in the upper-class ballroom of the early 1920s.  Forty-two dances are listed, with the twenty-first being the supper dance.  Of those, no fewer than thirty-two are foxtrots!  The other ten are divided between eight one-steps and a mere two waltzes.  The card belonged to a lady; twenty-one of the listed dances have gentlemen's names written by them.  Some names are written in formal style ("Mr. Newmarker") and some more casually ("Roddie").  Several men are listed twice, but none more than twice.

For those interested in details of etiquette, there is a notice on the back that gentlemen should "Please escort ladies to boxes immediately after each dance."
 

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.

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.

More interestingly, Maurice Mouvet in his Maurice's Art of Dancing (1915) suggests a series of four slides to the (man's) right and four to the left (the pattern beginning on the man's right foot and hence to the right).  Mouvet does not specify whether the dancers make a half-turn after each set of four sideways slides or merely change their angle, with the man moving forward first on the right diagonal and then the left, without a turn, similar to my preferred reconstruction of the racket.  He also neglects to mention that the final close of each sideways sequence must be either skipped or a mere touch without weight in order to change feet for either the slide in the other direction or to restart normal walk-trot sequences on the leading foot.

If done turning, this series of slides would be very like the basic galop of the Victorian era.  But I don't think it turns.  Mouvet's right-foot start followed by a half-turn would have the couple turning in reverse, which seems mildly unlikely to me.  But more importantly, when writing that earlier piece, I unaccountably blanked on the fact that we actually have actual filmstrip evidence for the sideways glides in a brief silent film clip dated 1916, which shows dance instructors Clay Bassett and Catherine Elliott demonstrating "The Much Talked About 'Fox Trot.'"

In the film, Bassett and Elliott dance just what Mouvet described, though they initiate moves, the slides included, on the gentleman's left foot.  And they do not turn.  With Bassett moving diagonally forward to the left along the line of dance (and Elliott perforce dancing backwards), they slide-close-slide-close-slide-close-slide, joined hands leading the way.  Bassett then swings Elliott across his body (counter-clockwise) and leads "over elbows" another series of four slides starting on his right foot, angling his right shoulder diagonally forward.  The rhythm overall is QQQQ-QQS QQQQ-QQS.  The two dancers never make a turn; she merely switches from his right side to his left side.  In the filmstrip, the pair of sliding sequences (left and right) is preceded by four slow walking steps and followed by a series of simple QQS hesitations as described here.

These slides are a good thirty years later than the racket, so their lack of turn doesn't really prove anything about the earlier dance, but it's an interesting late example of non-turning galop/slide sequences.

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.

Fancy Little Foxtrot

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.

The overall rhythm is SS QQQQ QQS QQQQ, starting gentleman's left foot/lady's right and stepped as follows:

SS QQQQ
Normal walk/trot sequence, backing the lady.

QQ
Step out into "Yale" position, right hip to right hip, starting to move into a clockwise turn.

S
Hop!  This is on the gentleman's right foot, lady's left and moves slightly forward with the turning momentum of the dancers.

QQQQ
Complete the clockwise turn, straightening out to return to backing the lady along the line of dance in normal ballroom hold.

Verbal mnemonic:
Walk, walk, trot-trot, trot-trot, step-out, HOP, turn-turn, turn-turn.

The move doesn't have a name as far as I know.  I call it the Bassett/Elliott turn or simply the hop-turn.  Give it a try!

Quick-Quick-Slow: The Two-Step Infiltrates the Foxtrot

In my previous foxtrot post I covered the basic walking and trotting patterns of the early foxtrot of the 1910s.  These patterns are characterized by alternating series of slow (S) or quick (Q) steps, simple traveling interspersed with occasional sideways glides or half-turns, and consistently starting on the same foot (gentleman's left, lady's right).  This simple foxtrot was complicated almost immediately by variations of rhythm, most notably the "quick-quick-slow" (QQS, or "one-and-two (pause)") rhythm of the 19th-century two-step and polka.  This post will discuss some of the variations introduced in the pre-1920 foxtrot as described by dancing masters Maurice Mouvet (1915) and Charles Coll (1919) and demonstrated by Clay Bassett and Catherine Elliott on film (1916).

Basic Walking & Trotting Patterns in the 1910s Foxtrot

"What particular resemblance does the gait of a fox have to this dance?"
      -- spectator watching trotters, as quoted in Maurice's Art of Dancing, 1915

It's a reasonable question.  The foxtrot evolved so rapidly after its debut in 1913-1914 that it can be difficult to sort out the earliest versions of the dance and derive an accurate picture of the foxtrot as danced in the 1910s.

Directions for dancing the foxtrot first began appearing in print in 1914.  While it did not appear in Vernon and Irene Castle's 1914 work, Modern Dancing, the Castles did include it that year in the booklet Victor Records for Dancing.  Two brief descriptions were also published in F. L. Clenenden's compendium, Dance Mad, also published in 1914, in St. Louis.  In 1915, Maurice Mouvet published his description of the foxtrot in Maurice's Art of Dancing, followed in 1919 by Charles Coll in Dancing Made Easy (link is to the 1922 reprint).

In addition to these written sources, a brief silent film clip dated 1916 shows dance instructors Clay Bassett and Catherine Elliott demonstrating "The Much Talked About 'Fox Trot'."