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# Capering & Kickery

Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian

## Sitemaps

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## Posts

- [Blog](https://www.kickery.com/blog.html)
- [The Tempest](https://www.kickery.com/2016/06/tempest.html) - The first thing to know about "The Tempest" is that, despite the name, it is not a version of "La Tempête". The latter is a different dance with different music and a much longer and more exotic pedigree. "Tempest" is a mid-nineteenth-century American contra dance with a delightfully unusual formation, as shown at left in a (relatively) modern illustration from Ricky Holden's The Contra Dance Book (1956). The squares represent gentlemen and the circles, ladies. There are earlier illustrations, but this is the only one I've found that shows the dance in action. Descriptions of the formation are very clear that the dancers line up couple facing couple, widely spaced, with the frequent suggestion of six to eight couples on each side, though there's no reason beyond the length of dancing time that there can't be more. The dance is started off by the two couples at the head of each line peeling inward and going down the middle four abreast, as can be seen in the diagram. As those two couples progress down the set, each pair of couples reaches the top, waits out once, and then turns into the line of four to begin the dance in turn. This is the standard early progression style for country dances, as described in detail here. By the mid-nineteenth century, however, it was not unheard of for multiple couples to start simultaneously in a country dance. Boston musician-caller-author Elias Howe, whose books are, collectively one of the major sources for "Tempest", was quite explicit about this. So it would not be unreasonable to start multiple lines of four simultaneously. The dance would continue until all couples have had a chance to rise to the top of a set, dance down it, and return to their original places...[details, music, and variations behind the cut]
- [Howe's "Rats" Quadrille (1 of 3)](https://www.kickery.com/2012/07/howes-rats-quadrille.html) - Les Rats Quadrilles is a set of five tunes composed by G. Redler as alternate music for the first set of French quadrilles. The tunes are unusually good, and the set became enormously popular and was reprinted for many years, not only in England but in America and Australia as well. In 1854 a piano-duet (four hands) version arranged by J. C. Vierec was published in Philadelphia. Some editions featured the "tree roots" version of the title shown at left, and others a small orchestra of rats with various instruments. American editions seem to have credited the composer as "J. Redler", but English sources consistently give his first initial as "G". I do not have a definitive initial date for the first publication of Les Rats, but in 1846, A. M. Hartley, in his The academic speaker, a system of elocution (Glasgow) mentions on page 319 the inclusion of "Redler's popular Rat Quadrilles" in Volume I of the collected Hamilton's Cabinet of Music, a sheet music series, which puts Les Rats into the first half of the 1840s. ...[more Rats background behind the cut]
- [Howe's "Rats" Quadrille, continued (2 of 3)](https://www.kickery.com/2012/07/howes-rats-quadrille-2.html) - On to the actual figures of Howe's "Rats" Quadrille! Please see the first post in the "Rats" series for an introduction to the quadrille and links to sheet music...[figures 1-3 behind the cut]
- [Howe's "Rats" Quadrille, concluded (3 of 3)](https://www.kickery.com/2012/07/howes-rats-quadrille-3.html) - This is the third in a series of three posts discussing the "Rats" Quadrille, with this one covering the fourth and fifth figures. See the two previous posts for introduction and background and the first three figures...[figures four and five behind the cut]
- [Progressing Wilson's New Reel of Four](https://www.kickery.com/2013/07/progressing-wilsons-new-reel-of-four.html) - A postscript to my mini-series of posts on Regency-era Scotch reels: There is not an iota of evidence that Regency dancing master Thomas Wilson intended his new reel of four to have any sort of progression (dancers moving from one starting location to another for each iteration of the reel), and, indeed, his lack of inclusion of a progression argues against one. But it turns out to be remarkably easy to progress this reel, and my dance students, who have spent much of the last month patiently working through my experiments with reels, have been enthusiastic about this new variation. The concept of a progressive reel was not unfamiliar to Wilson; he mentions progression in his description of the classic reel for three and uses it in his new reels for five. Here's how to do it in his new reel of four...[details behind the cut]
- [Wilson's New Reel of Four](https://www.kickery.com/2013/07/wilsons-new-reel-of-four.html) - Like his new reel of six and new reel of three, this reel of four is another of London dancing master Thomas Wilson's attempts to create variety in the dancing of reels in the early nineteenth century. While this reel keeps the classic interweaving pattern of the standard reels for three and four, it contains no setting at all, which makes it a particularly accessible dance for those whose strength is more in floor patterns than complicated steps. The earliest source I have for this reel is the third edition of Thomas Wilson's An Analysis of Country Dancing (London, 1811), from which the diagram at left is taken. The same diagram and description appear in Wilson's The Complete System of English Country Dancing (London, c1815). The 1808 edition of An Analysis... included a different reel for four, which also appears in the fourth edition in 1822...[details behind the cut]
- [A Fancy Dress Ball, Roxbury, 1827](https://www.kickery.com/2017/10/fancy-dress-roxbury-1827.html) - It's October, and time once again to devote some attention to masquerade and fancy dress balls and other excuses to wear unusual costumes in historical ballrooms! On January 3, 1828, The New York Mirror: A Weekly Gazette of Literature and the Fine Arts, published a description of what was supposedly the first fancy-dress ball ever held in New England, held at Norfolk House in Roxbury, Massachusetts, on "Wednesday last". Roxbury is now part of the city of Boston, but at the time it was a separate town. According to the Roxbury Wikia entry on Norfolk House, it was originally built in 1781 as a private residence. It was then sold to the Norfolk House Company in 1825 and opened as a public house in 1827 with the addition of a hall for public assemblies, which may be seen at back left in this image of Norfolk House (click to enlarge) from Roxbury, by Anthony Mitchell Sammarco (Arcadia Press, 1997), p. 17. The original building was demolished in 1853 and replaced by a new Norfolk House, which still stands today. The Mirror article describing the ball was reprinted from the Boston Evening Gazette, to which I don't have immediate access, so it's not clear on what date the ball was actually held. Given the timing of Norfolk House's opening to the public, it cannot have been before 1827. Since there is no reason to suppose the Mirror article was delayed for long, my best guess would be Wednesday, December 26th. A fancy dress ball makes sense as part of seasonal celebrations...[costume lists behind the cut!]
- [Late Victorian Waltz Variations: The <em>Eugénie</em>](https://www.kickery.com/2019/04/eugenie.html) - The Eugénie, or Eugenie-Trot, is yet another of the many variations published in M. B. Gilbert's book of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and later, in translation to French, in G. W. Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903). It was attributed by both authors to St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler, as is confirmed by the cover of the sheet music shown at left (click to enlarge). I would not regard it as a particularly important or significant variation; it warrants a reconstruction only as part of my overall progress through every dance in those two books. The Eugénie begins in the "military" position (described at length, with a photo, here) with the dancers opened up side by side, the gentleman's right arm around the lady's waist and her left hand resting on his shoulder or upper arm, depending on their relative heights. The gentleman starts with the left foot and the lady with the right. The gentleman's steps are given; the lady dances opposite. Reconstruction (eight measures of waltz)4b Leap forward onto left foot (1), pause (2), and close right to fifth position behind (3) Repeat three more times with the same foot; the fourth time, the gentleman swings in front of the lady to put his back to line of dance and take closed position 4b Waltz two complete turns, opening up at the end to restart Not very exciting, eh? I personally prefer the extremely similar Military Waltz (described here), which uses a leap-pause-hop/point instead of a leap-pause-close and alternates feet rather than this lame-duck-like repetition four times with the same foot. The Eugénie is really nothing but a less-pleasing variation...[a French variation and music notes behind the cut]
- [Rock 'n' Cha](https://www.kickery.com/2009/10/rock-n-cha.html) - Ever so often I come across the oddest little novelties. The Rock'n'Cha is a conga-line type dance which was discussed in the January, 1958 issue of Dance Magazine. The cha-cha was first introduced in the 1950s, and it seems to have spawned some weird group variants (Cha-Cha Choo-Choo Caboose, anyone?) The notes were sent to the magazine by Chicago resident Louise Ege, who attributed them to Grace Hansen, Dance Coordinator and Professional Consultant for the Chicago YMCA and head of the ballroom committee of the Chicago National Associate of Dance Masters. Mrs. Ege claimed that Chicago teens loved the dance, with it even having "replaced the Bunny Hop in their affections." I'm not sure what this says about either the taste of Chicago teens in early 1958 or the accuracy of Mrs. Ege's observations of contemporary teen culture. The formation is a single line, hand on shoulder of the person in front. Everyone starts on the same foot and does the same moves. There are three sections to the dance: the Rock, the Penguin (!), and the Break-Away Turn, danced in a sequence of Rock-Rock-Penguin-Turn. The names of the Rock and Turn sequences are self-explanatory. The Penguin refers to the movement of that section being "like a penguin, jiggling and teetering from side to side." I usually find it best not to think too hard about this sort of simile in a dance choreography...[silly conga line dance behind the cut]
- [CD Review: The Grand Victorian Ballroom](https://www.kickery.com/2018/12/cd-review-grand-victorian-ballroom.html) - The Grand Victorian Ballroom: Waltzes, Quadrilles, Contras, Polkas, and Other 19th Century Dance Music (Gaslantern Records, 2012), with its accompanying sheet music, is the second of two CDs I received for my birthday earlier this year, along with North & South. But unlike North & South, this album was designed for dancing, so it is both beautifully played for listening pleasure and entirely functional as dance music. The musicians, once again, are the members of the Orchestra of the Gilded Age (I still don't know exactly who those members are) conducted by Jeffrey Hunter. As with North & South, there are no liner notes included with the disc, but the Gaslantern website has all the details of sources, composers, dates, etc. All of the tunes except the two contra dances are dated between 1850 and 1870, perfect for a mid-century or American Civil War-themed ball. The contras are also quite appropriate; though their tunes are older, they were still popular and attached to common dances in this era. While the focus is on American composers, the album includes the two quadrilles with European connections: the Prince Imperial Quadrille (French, but popular in America) and a Lancers set adapted from Jacques Offenbach's opera, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein. My immediate advice: if you enjoy mid-nineteenth-century dancing, proceed directly to Gaslantern's website to order this CD. It's not available digitally; you have to buy the actual disc. The sheet music can be ordered in either physical or PDF format and includes dance notes for the quadrilles and contras. If you want more information first, a track-by-track breakdown is below...[behind the cut, with other commentary]
- [CD Review: North & South](https://www.kickery.com/2018/07/cd-review-north-south.html) - I received the CD North & South: Forgotten Music from the American Civil War (Gaslantern Records, 2013) and its accompanying sheet music as a birthday gift this year, and a very lovely gift it was! Sixteen new pieces of historical music, beautifully played by the Orchestra of the Gilded Age, conducted by Jeffrey Hunter, many of them suitable for dancing! The actual disc features a gorgeous historical battle scene, but there are no real liner notes included. Happily, almost all the information one could want appears on the album website: not merely dates and lengths, but composers, background notes, and even the musical key of each piece. This is a "listening" CD, not made specifically for dancers, but many of the pieces will work for dancing. As usual, I've gone through the album track by track and made notes about which pieces are danceable and for what. Of special note: the album is divided into two themes, "North" and "South", with the pieces for each named in honor of particular Union or Confederate leaders or otherwise connected to one side. If one's dancers or listeners are apt to find such celebratory naming problematic, be careful which half you select from...[details behind the cut]
- [Larchmont Engine Company Ball, 1901](https://www.kickery.com/2018/01/larchmont-engine-company-ball-1901.html) - The first ball of the Larchmont (NY) Engine Company was held on Wednesday, April 17, 1901, as reported in The Larchmont Times on Saturday, April 20th. Like the Wichita fireman's ball given in 1903, it heavily featured waltz, "deux temps" (which I believe to be two-step, rather than the older deux temps), and quadrilles, with a few other popular nineteenth century dances mixed in. It's a bit more old-fashioned a program compared to Wichita's, which fits since it's a couple of years earlier and not as far along toward the "all waltz and two-step" programs sometimes found a few years later. The image at left is courtesy of the Larchmont Historical Society, which has the whole front page of the newspaper up on its website. Here's the dance list transcribed for readability: Part First -- Grand March, Lanciers, Waltz, Deux Temps, Quadrille Waltz, Polka, Schottische, La Varsouvienne, Waltz, Lanciers, Deux Temps, Waltz. Part Second -- Grand March, Quadrille, Waltz, Lanciers, Polka, Caledonian, Deux Temps, Schottische, Reel and Jig, Waltz, Deux Temps, Virginia Reel, Home Sweet Home. That doesn't actually seem like a whole lot of dances for a ball that lasted from nine to midnight, then commenced again after supper and continued until "an early hour", but it's all we've got to go by. Perhaps they took generous breaks between dances; I've seen dance programs where the dances all had dedications which probably involved toasts and speeches....[a little very light analysis behind the cut]
- [Firemen's Ball, Wichita, 1903](https://www.kickery.com/2018/01/firemens-ball-wichita-1903.html) - It's been quite some time since I discussed a dance card or program. The image at left is not from an actual card, but rather an advance publication of a program of dances taken from a local newspaper. The event was a Firemen's Ball, to be held in Wichita, Kansas, on Thursday, December 17th, 1903. A short article and this program were published in the Wichita Daily Eagle on the previous Sunday, December 13th. Firemen's balls were rather common, presumably serving as fundraisers, but they seem not to have been that popular in Wichita; the accompanying article noted that this would be the second such ball held by the department in twelve years, which does not exactly demonstrate a mania for dancing. It seems to have been expected to be successful, however. Although the "fireboys" had not had much time to sell tickets, since they were on duty night and day except for meal breaks, they had still managed to sell between three and four hundred. The location of the ball was not specified, but the article did note that that the hall would be "handsomely decorated with palms and cut flowers by a committee appointed for that purpose", that Bamberger's orchestra (C. O. Alton, director) had been engaged, and that Professor Hartman would officiate as floor master. The grand march would be led by Chief Walden and Mrs. Walden, and "the fireboys will no doubt prove as efficient in the dancing area as they are in the department work." The program, shown in a scan from microfilm at left above (click to enlarge; sorry about the poor quality), is interesting to me mostly because it includes no fewer than four five-steps, meaning five-step schottisches. That's quite a lot of five-step for a program with only twenty-two dances...[more about the program behind the cut]
- [Aurora Waltz / Hungarian Waltz - Contra Dance](https://www.kickery.com/2018/05/aurora-hungarian.html) - It's been quite some time since I've added a nineteenth-century American contra dance to Kickery. Here's a waltz contra from the ever-useful Elias Howe that, with only a few bars of turning waltz, is an easy dance for beginners. The set of figures appears in near-identical form in at least four of Howe's numerous dance manuals: the Complete ball-room handbook (1858), The pocket ball-room prompter (1858), and the American dancing master, and ball-room prompter (1862 and 1866). The original text: First couple balance, cross over and go down outside below two couples — first couple balance again and waltz up to place — down the centre, back and cast off — swing six In the two 1858 manuals, the figures appear under the name "Aurora Waltz", and in the 1862 and 1866 books, they appear under "Hungarian Waltz". I think that as with earlier country dances, the names actually belong to tunes, rather than the dance figures, and I have no special preference as to which tune and name should be used. Very similar figures (minus the waltz up the center and with a right and left instead of the swing six) appear at least as far back as the 1850s as non-waltz contra dance figures (under several different names) in Howe's and other manuals. It looks to me like Howe just made minor tweaks to a common set of figures to take advantage of the waltz music...[easy contra dance and notes behind the cut]
- [Regency & Victorian Dance Workshops, NYC (Sunday, March 8, 2009)](https://www.kickery.com/2009/03/regency-victorian-dance-workshops-nyc-sunday-march-8-2009.html) - I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, March 8th. Logistical details are below. The first (1:00-3:45pm) will focus on the dances of the Regency era (1810-1820), including steps and figures for country dances and French quadrilles. Specifically, we will dance and look at a
- [Victorian Quadrilles; Long Island, NY (Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/09/victorian-quadr.html) - I will be teaching a workshop on 19th-century quadrilles in Setauket, New York (Long Island) this weekend for The Long Island Traditional Music Association. I plan to cover two full quadrilles (the mid-century version of The Caledonians and the 1880s Polo) as well as two or three promiscuous figures -- the Star and either the Gavotte or Minuet or both...[more]
- [Regency (TWO!) and Ragtime Dance Workshops, NYC (August 2 & 3, 2008)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/07/regency-two-and.html) - I will be teaching three dance workshops in New York City this weekend, August 2nd and 3rd. You can get a double dose of Regency-era dance on both Saturday and Sunday
- [Regency & Ragtime Dance Workshops, NYC (June 29, 2008)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/06/regency-and-rag.html) - Along with this Saturday's Regency Assembly at the 92nd Street Y, I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City on Sunday, June 29th. Logistical details are here. The first (1:00-3:45pm) will focus on the dances of the Regency era (1810-1820), including steps and figures for country dances
- [Royal Scotch Quadrilles, Boston area (April 25, 2008)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/04/royal-scotch-qu.html) - I will be teaching/calling a session of the Royal Scotch Quadrilles at the New England Folk Festival in Mansfield, Massachusetts (near Boston) this Friday, April 25th, from 9:00 to 9:50 p.m. The fifth figure of these quadrilles incorporates the "star" figure described in an earlier post here. This is a rare chance to learn and
- [Renoir's "Dance" paintings at the Frick](https://www.kickery.com/2012/02/renoirs-dance-paintings-at-the-frick.html) - A quick note to let people in the New York City area know about a new exhibition at the Frick Collection: Renoir, Impressionism, and Full-Length Painting February 7 through May 13, 2012 Among the Renoir paintings on view are all three of his full-length "Dance" paintings...[more behind the cut]
- [Connecticut Workshops (August, 2011)](https://www.kickery.com/2011/07/connecticut-workshops-august-2011.html) - I'm going to be teaching five workshops in August at Vinnie's Jump & Jive covering an interesting mix of early nineteenth century dance and twentieth century line dancing, as well as cross-step waltz. Details are below. No advance registration is necessary for any of these -- just show up at Vinnie's...[details behind the cut]
- [International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (May 7-8, 2009)](https://www.kickery.com/2009/05/international-congress-on-medieval-studies-kalamazoo-mi-may-78-2009.html) - I will be attending the International Congress on Medieval Studies this Thursday and Friday and presenting a paper on step variation in the 15th-century saltarello at 1:30 Friday afternoon, session 301, "Riverenze e Spezzati: Challenges in Early Dance Research and Reconstruction." I also expect to check in at the DISTAFF display/demo Thursday night at 5:45 to see the nifty textiles, but I haven't got a firm plan for anything else. I'm flying out Friday night. I would enjoy meeting any Kickery readers who might be attending the Congress, especially those who might be interested in furthering the study of dance history in academic settings.
- [Regency & Victorian Dance Workshops, NYC (Sunday, May 3, 2009)](https://www.kickery.com/2009/04/regency-victorian-dance-workshops-nyc-sunday-may-3-2009.html) - I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, May 3rd. Logistical details are below. The first (1:00-3:45pm) will focus on the dances of the Regency era (1810-1820), including steps and figures for country dances and French quadrilles. Specifically, we will dance and look at a step-sequences to use in Le Pantalon, L'Eté, La Poule, and La Trenise (first through fourth figures of the French quadrille) and will enjoy a Spanish Dance and an 1816 version of the classic Money Musk as well as the Scotch Reel for six and -- numbers permitting -- the amazing reel for nine people (and one hat) known as the Bumpkin. The second class (4:00-6:00pm) will cover the basic steps of the mazurka (primarily the promenade, but also including the tour sur place and possibly a bit of the valse mazurka) and several freestyle mazurka cotillion figures, including Le Grand Rond, Les Chaines Continues, La Genuflexion à Quatre, and the delightfully named L'X de Cavalier et de la Dame. This will be a bouncy class with plenty of hops and small leaps. Steps and figures are drawn from an 1847 Parisian dance manual by noted dancing master Henri Cellarius.Both of the above are beginner-level classes, though the mazurka requires the ability to leap and hop. No experience is needed, no partner is required, and clean leather-soled flat shoes (no high heels!) are recommended. Gender balance is not guaranteed.The classes are held at Dick Shea's (a capoeira studio), 104 W. 14th Street at 6th Avenue, New York City. Ring buzzer #3, up 2 flights, first door on the right. For more information, please email EAS.The Regency class costs $18, or $12 for people attending for the first time; the Victorian class costs $15.
- [Regency & Victorian Dance Workshops, NYC (Sunday, April 5, 2009)](https://www.kickery.com/2009/04/regency-victorian-dance-workshops-nyc-sunday-april-5-2009.html) - I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, April 5th. Logistical details are below. The first (1:00-3:45pm) will focus on the dances of the Regency era (1810-1820), including steps and figures for country dances and French quadrilles. Specifically, we will dance and look at a
- [November 2020 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2020/11/november-2020-gig-calendar.html) - November is going to feel strange this year, with no trip to Gettysburg for the Remembrance Day Balls. Hopefully they will be back next year! In the meantime, I'm going to spend November ping-ponging from the 17th century (unusual for me) to the early 20th, with a detour for footwork classes focusing mostly on late 18th to early 19th century dance. I'm especially excited about both the Playford Then and Now Festival, hosted by The Historical Dance Society (formerly the Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society) in the UK with a great lineup of speakers, and the chance to repeat for the Historical Tea and Dance Society in California a lecture I gave for a university group back in September on the intertwined lives of the dancers Vernon and Irene Castle and the musician James Reese Europe. Both the Castles and Europe are frequently discussed, lectured, and written about separately. I'm thrilled to bring their stories together! Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance...[details behind the cut]
- [February 2020 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2020/01/february-2020-gig-calendar.html) - I'm having a ball! Literally, a ball! In Moscow! In Russian and English! Mixing all sorts of crazy dancing together! I'll be doing other things this month too, but holding a ball in Moscow is something I've wanted to do for years, so I'm dipping my toe in with a small, beginner-friendly event. Details and links to the ball prep classes will appear later in the month - check back for updates...[ball and other things behind the cut]
- [January 2020 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2020/01/january-2020-gig-calendar.html) - Happy new year! January is going to be a tough month, as I'm having to move to a new flat, which is a challenging task in Moscow. But I'll still have a few events here and there! Hopefully normal life will return in February...[details behind the cut]
- [June 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2016/05/june-2016-gig-calendar.html) - June starts out crazy for me with a trip to Washington and New York and a weekend in the Catskills, then everything calms down as I wind up my spring waltz class serieses and head toward a summer hiatus that I'm taking to give myself time to work on some special projects...[schedule details behind the cut]
- [May 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2016/04/may-2016-gig-calendar.html) - Bashes and balls! I'll be doing three public social events this month: the Mystery and Benevolence Bash at the American Folk Arts Museum in New York City; the Burning of the Ships Commemoration Ball in Essex, Connecticut; and a Steampunk Victorian Ball in Baltimore, Maryland. In between, the usual classes and a quick trip to Boston for research and Renaissance dance...[details behind the cut]
- [January 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/12/january-2016-gig-calendar.html) - Happy new year! I'm still wrapping up holiday writing and other projects, so other than a couple of research trips, I'm not on the road much this month. Most of the calendar involves waltz, waltz, and more waltz, lightly interspersed with Regency classes and blues DJing, with my sole annual Revolutionary War ball as the grand finale..[details behind the cut]
- [February 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2016/01/february-2016-gig-calendar.html) - Back on the road again for real this month: after the usual round of weekly waltz and monthly Regency workshops and a historical/modern mashup dance in New York City, I will once again be heading off to Europe for the first two stops of a four-city tour that will take me to three cities in Russia and one in Ukraine! Catch me for dance workshops or private lessons on one continent or the other...[details behind the cut]
- [September 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2016/08/september-2016-gig-calendar.html) - Teaching mostly-hiatus continues, but expect more blog posts and a couple of special projects finishing up this month! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sunday, September 4th ~ Toronto, Ontario, CanadaRegency dance workshop for the York Regency DancersPrivate workshop. Wednesday, September 21st ~ Middletown, ConnecticutAutumn Regency Dance Party (Facebook event)7:00-9:00pm. Beginner-friendly social dancing. Historical costume encouraged! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am
- [Autumn 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2016/11/autumn-2016-gig-calendar.html) - I continue to be on teaching hiatus, so the three events below (two in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in November and one in Kiev, Ukraine, in December) are the ONLY events I will teach at for the remainder of 2016...[details behind the cut]
- [August 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2016/07/august-2016-gig-calendar.html) - I am mostly on hiatus from teaching this summer, but will have a couple of workshops at the end of August. Stay cool! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Wednesday, August 24th ~ Middletown, ConnecticutJane Austen Era Dancing (Facebook event)7:00-8:30pm. Beginner-friendly workshop, no costume required. Sunday, August 28th ~ New York CityCross-Step Waltz Variations (Facebook event)3:00-5:00pm. Some couple dance experience required.
- [July 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2016/06/july-2016-gig-calendar.html) - I am mostly on hiatus from teaching this summer, but I will still do my two regular monthly Regency workshops in Middletown, Connecticut, and New York City...[minimal schedule behind the cut]
- [April 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2016/03/april-2016-gig-calendar.html) - This is mostly a stay-home-and write month for me, with my only significant travel being to the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) mid-month! It's been a few years since I could last make it to NEFFA due to calendar conflicts, so I'm excited to be back and looking forward to a great weekend of dance and music...[calendar details behind the cut]
- [March 2016 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2016/03/march-2016-gig-calendar.html) - Greetings from Kyiv, Ukraine! I'm here preparing to teach a whole slew of classes in dance from the early nineteenth century through the early twentieth, with a side-helping of Steampunk! After Kyiv, I'll be back in Russia briefly for a quick trip to teach in Voronezh before heading home to a more relaxing second half of the month of my regular waltz and Regency classes, including a special one-shot class on easy 1910s waltz choreographies and the beginning of four-week a series on nineteenth-century waltz...[schedule details behind the cut]
- [November  2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/10/november-2015-gig-calendar.html) - The big event for me in November is the Remembrance Day Ball in Gettysburg, which will be followed in quick succession by a Thanksgiving-weekend trip to Baltimore. Other than that, I have my usual run of waltz and Regency workshops in Middletown and New York and, at last...conga!!! [details behind the cut]
- [October 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/09/october-2015-gig-calendar.html) - I'm home in early October and then back on the road with a vengeance -- three cities in seven days to lecture, teach, research, and DJ! After that, I'm staying home in Connecticut preparing for our thirteenth annual Regency Assembly, this year with a Parisian theme, and setting up a new set of beginner-level waltz classes in Middletown, Connecticut. Towards the end of the month there will also be...conga! [schedule details behind the cut]
- [September 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/08/september-2015-gig-calendar.html) - Well, my attempt to stay at home in August and work on projects turned into spending more than half the month on the road to various libraries, events, and family members. That was fun, and I made some intriguing discoveries and moved various research projects along, but it was not what I really needed to be doing. So let's try this one more time: I am spending September at home getting things done. Not even a library trip. I may add one or two little local(ish) classes to this very short list, but the plan is to stay home this month and then go back on the road in October...[shortest gig list ever behind the cut]
- [September 2020 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2020/08/september-2020-gig-calendar.html) - Well, I had hoped to be moving back to Russia this month as usual, but it's clearly not to be. So, online lessons continue. September is going to be a (relatively) lively month for me, bookended by a lecture and class at a Russia-based festival at the beginning of the month and wrapping up with a pair of USA-based lectures at the end. In between, my double series of California-based basic country dance footwork classes continues...[details behind the cut]
- [October 2020 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2020/10/october-2020-gig-calendar.html) - Life continues on in pandemic time, which feels like a cross between time flying by and a sort of vague timelessness. October will be a quiet teaching month for me while I work on a new research project for a festival next month, but I have a new double series of California-based basic country dance footwork classes this month before we probably take a break over the holiday period....[details behind the cut]
- [December 2020 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2020/11/december-2020-gig-calendar.html) - Well, here we are at the last month of this very strange 2020. As usual, I'm wrapping up my classes for the year. As not-usual, they are online classes. Hoping for better in 2021...[last few bits behind the cut]
- [July 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/07/july-2012-gig-calendar.html) - July is my last quiet month before everything goes crazy again in August! Here's the current schedule...[gig list behind the cut]
- [Right & left: hands or not?](https://www.kickery.com/2011/11/right-and-left-contras.html) - By the mid-nineteenth century, the only American dance manuals that contain large quantities of contradances are those from the New England area. Others may have a few here and there, but not the pages and pages of them, or entire manuals of nothing but contras. And, alas for reconstructors looking back 150 years later, the authors simply don't bother to explain how to do specific figures. Presumably, everyone knew. For most figures this isn't a particular problem; they're self-evident from the name or unchanged from earlier eras. But there is one figure that is especially ambiguous to dance historians, and that is "right and left" or "rights and lefts". The major reason for the ambiguity is good old Thomas Wilson, a dancing master in early nineteenth-century London and a prolific author. Wilson wrote some of the most useful books on English country dance in all of dance history, with explanations, diagrams, and occasionally even steps for each figure. But he had a somewhat unusual take on right and left...[which I go on and on about behind the cut]
- [August 2012 Gig Calendar (plus a bit of September!)](https://www.kickery.com/2012/08/august-2012-gig-calendar.html) - I'm going to be on the road for the last half of August and part of September, so no blues DJing this month and no extra time in Boston or New York City, but lots of chances for private lessons in places I'm not usually in...[details behind the cut]
- [December 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/11/december-2012-gig-calendar.html) - Things are calming down for the end of the year here! Just a few gigs this month, though I'm still happy to give private lessons betwixt and between: Saturday, December 1st ~ New York CityCross-Step/Box-Step Fusion Waltz Workshop (Facebook event page)4:00-6:00pm Beginner-friendly lesson Sunday, December 2nd ~ New York CityRegency Dance Workshop (Facebook event page)Beginner-friendly
- [November 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/10/november-2012-gig-calendar.html) - This is going to be a wild month of travel for me, starting off in beautiful Saint Petersburg, Russia, then ricocheting up and down the northeastern United States for a few weeks...[details behind the cut]
- [April 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/03/april-2012-gig-calendar.html) - April is a relatively quiet month as I prepare for my trip to Russia at the end of it, but I have a few things going on, with four consecutive trips to Massachusetts! Here's a quick list with links for more information...[details behind the cut]
- [March 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/03/march-2012-gig-calendar.html) - I hav a wide variety of gigs this month; everything from Regency dancing to hoopdance, plus another fabulous Victorian Ball, this time an 1880s-style Fancy Dress event! I am also available for private lessons in Connecticut (New Haven or Middletown) generally, and occasionally in New York City and elsewhere. Here's a quick list with links for more information...
- [December 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/11/december-2015-gig-calendar.html) - I'm going to spend a big chunk of early December on the road in Ohio and Illinois doing some teaching and research and conducting a Caledonian Regency ball with a mix of French, Scottish, and English dances of the era for the English country dance community in Chicago. Somehow I have managed to schedule four major Regency workshops or events in four different cities within an eleven-day period. Exciting! After that, I'll be quietly at home for my holiday recess/research/writing time through the New Year. That'll be good, too...[details behind the cut]
- [June 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/06/june-2015-gig-calendar.html) - June is hopefully going to be a quiet month. I'm doing my regular monthly workshops and a bit of blues DJing, plus a lovely Steampunk weekend at a Catskills resort, but mostly I am staying home to take care of various non-dance matters, try to catch up on my writing, and prepare for yet another lengthy trip to Russia. Sometime this month there is likely to be a crowdfunding campaign, too! Want to help? [detailed gig calendar behind the cut]
- [August 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/07/august-2015-gig-calendar.html) - After an exhausting July, August will be a quiet month for me with a bunch of little trips (research and otherwise) scattered through it and catch-up work on several much-delayed projects...[minimalist schedule behind the cut!]
- [July 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/06/july-2015-gig-calendar.html) - July is mostly taken up by a lengthy trip to Russia (yes, again!) to teach in Perm and Novosibirsk, traveling internally via trans-Siberian railroad! After some jet lag recovery time, I'll wind down the month with a trip to the Beau Monde writers' conference in New York City and my usual open Regency workshops...[details behind the cut]
- [November 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/10/november-2014-gig-calendar.html) - November starts out crazy with New York, Boston, and Gettyburg trips the first three weekends and then calms down at the end of the month as I get a head start on my holiday research/writing period by hibernating over Thanksgiving weekend. Here are the details so far, with potential blues DJing still TBD...[calendar behind the cut]
- [October 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/10/october-2014-gig-calendar.html) - Most of this month will be relatively quiet time at home getting ready for my annual Regency Assembly and doing workshops in preparation for that. At the end of the month I'll be traveling south to Baltimore/Washington and North Carolina, then will be home to start a series of regular weekly waltz workshops. No blues DJing this month, alas! A few details are still to be worked out, but here's the overall schedule...[details behind the cut]
- [December 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/12/december-2014-gig-calendar.html) - This month is going to be a bit more donut-shaped schedulewise than I'd originally planned: Regency at the beginning, a couple of weeks to try to finish some major writing work, then a week or so of research travel and DJing before I get to actually collapse for a week! Here's the schedule so far, with one or two potential things still pending...[behind the cut]
- [Mr. Fezziwig's Ball](https://www.kickery.com/2012/12/fezziwig.html) - "In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty stomach-aches." So begins the famous description of Mr. Fezziwig's Christmas Eve ball in Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol, the full text of which with the original illustrations, including the
- [Another Regency "Sir Roger de Coverley"](https://www.kickery.com/2024/12/another-regency-sir-roger-de-coverley.html) - It's always interesting to find a roughly contemporary version of a classic dance that is recognizably the same dance...but not quite the same. I generally use Thomas Wilson's version of "Sir Roger de Coverley" as my default version for the Regency era, mostly because it was the first one I encountered. But it was not
- [A Regency "Sir Roger de Coverley"](https://www.kickery.com/2008/12/a-regency-sir-roger-de-coverley.html) - In honor of the season...In his Complete System of English Country Dancing, published circa 1815, Regency-era dancing master Thomas Wilson proclaimed of the dance "Sir Roger De Coverley" that it was composed expressly for a finishing Country Dance, about 100 years ago, and derived its name from Addison's Sir Roger De Coverley; so frequently mentioned by him in his popular Essays in the Spectator, and is the only whole Dance given in this System. The Figures of which it is composed being permanent and unalterable, and thereby differing in its construction from all other Country Dances. and explained its use as the final dance of the evening (or early morning, given the length of balls of the era):At all Balls properly regulated, this Dance should be the finishing one, as it is calculated from the sociality of its construction, to promote the good humour of the company, and causing them to separate in evincing a pleasing satisfaction with each other....[more]
- ["Sir Roger de Coverley" in the Late Nineteenth Century](https://www.kickery.com/2023/12/roger-de-coverley-late-nineteenth.html) - For my fourth visit to the popular English finishing dance "Sir Roger de Coverley", I'm going to look at the version of the dance that was published in a number of English sources in the last decade of the nineteenth century. This version appears to be a descendant of the mid-nineteenth century version published by
- [A Holiday Cotillon, 1909](https://www.kickery.com/2024/12/holiday-cotillion-1909.html) - On Monday, December 27, 1909, an elaborate cotillon, meaning an evening of dance party games, was given by the McGowan family in the yellow and gold third floor ballroom of their turreted Romanesque "chateau" on Delaware Street in Indianapolis, pictured above in an image courtesy of the Indiana Historical Society. The house and the McGowan
- [Irving's Christmas Sketches, 1820](https://www.kickery.com/2014/12/irving-christmas.html) - For Christmas Day, let's return to Washington Irving's The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., looking this time at the fifth number, published in America on January 1, 1820, and covering the English celebration of the Christmas holidays. The description of the old-fashioned English Christmas at the fictional Bracebridge Hall was based on Irving's personal
- [CD Review: Ragtime Dance Party](https://www.kickery.com/2017/09/cd-review-ragtime-dance-party.html) - Ragtime Dance Party is the one and only album released by the Crown Syncopators, a San Francisco-based trio that performs at ragtime music festivals on the West Coast. I've never had the pleasure of dancing to their music in person, which this album makes me very much regret. Per the title, every single tune is danceable as well as a joy to listen to. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys American music and dance of the 1890-1920 era. The Crown Syncopators consist of Frederick Hodges (piano), Victoria Tichenor (drums), and Marty Eggers (tuba). They don't seem to have a website, but their appearances are listed on Hodges' event schedule here. The CD comes with ten pages of liner notes that contain the background on each piece and reproductions of the original sheet music covers. Along with familiar favorites like Scott Joplin, James Reese Europe, and James Scott, I was especially pleased to see in the mix a couple of less-familiar female composers, Grace Marie Bolen and Adeline (or Adaline) Shepherd, both of whose careers were cut short by marriage. As usual with ragtime, the boundaries between dances are quite fuzzy. The same piece played at a different speed can be a one-step or two-step, or even a foxtrot. Style counts as well; some pieces that are in the right tempo range just don't "feel" foxtrot to me, and some pieces "feel" like cakewalks and others don't. With an experienced group of dancers, I'd just play the tunes and let the dancers find their own way, but for those who are looking for music for specific dances or need a little more guidance, here's how I've categorized each piece. Note that some are listed in multiple categories...[breakdown with tempo and year behind the cut]
- [CD Review: The Robert E. Lee](https://www.kickery.com/2017/08/cd-review-robert-e-lee.html) - The Robert E. Lee (1997) is a neat little album of solo piano played by the famous musician Bob Milne, who is not only a top-notch ragtime pianist, music historian, and "national treasure" who performed at The Library of Congress in 2004, but also has the astonishing ability to "play" multiple tunes at once in his head, meaning that he can do incredible tricks like playing music in 3/4, 4/4, and 5/4 simultaneously. There's a fascinating article about his abilities at Mlive.com. The CD title and the famous tune "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee" both refer to the famous steamship which won a race from New Orleans to St. Louis in 1870. I have had The Robert E. Lee sitting around for over a decade but only ever used one track, "Trouble in Mind", regularly, as an interesting change of style for when I DJ for modern blues dancers. Until I started teaching ragtime more often than usual this year I hadn't really gone through the rest of the album carefully. The CD wasn't recorded specifically for dancing, so some of the pieces don't have the regular rhythm one would desire, but about half of them are quite good for dancing, a few others are workable, and the piano playing is invariably a joy to listen to even for the less danceable tunes...[comments on danceability behind the cut]
- [Exeter Caprice](https://www.kickery.com/2017/09/exeter-caprice.html) - The Exeter Caprice is one of a small number of schottisches and schottische-like dances included in the second edition of F. Leslie Clendenen's 1914 compilation, Dance Mad, for which Clendenen solicited dances from dancing masters across the United States and in Europe and South America. One of those who responded was George F. Walters. The Dance Mad index of dancing masters lists him as based in Waltham, Massachusetts, about sixty miles south of Exeter, New Hampshire, and the famous Phillips Exeter Academy, more commonly known just as "Exeter". I suspect that Walters' Exeter Caprice and Exeter Waltz might be named for the school, either because he taught dance there or because he hoped to. While the classic schottische seems to decline in popularity towards the end of the nineteenth century, dances in schottische time still turn up on dance cards and in dance manuals under names such as gavotte, caprice, barn dance, and five-step. It's not clear to me what choreographic or musical trait, if any, distinguishes a caprice from a schottische, but I have found more than a dozen examples of them on New England dance cards from the mid-1880s into the 1890s. "Caprice" on a dance card might refer specifically to the mazurka-like Caprice (or Caprice Schottische) described by M. B. Gilbert in Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) or to one of the occasional named caprices. Or perhaps "caprice" was simply another term for a schottische, as implied by sheet music such as the 1906 "The Famous Princess Royal", shown at left, that listed both dances...[details of the Exeter Caprice behind the cut]
- [Green Mountain Volunteers](https://www.kickery.com/2017/12/green-mountain-volunteers.html) - Green Mountain Volunteers is currently fourth on my list of go-to contra dances for the 1910s, after the Circle; Hull's Victory; and Lady of the Lake. It really ought to be sixth, after Boston Fancy and Portland Fancy as well, but the former is too much like Lady of the Lake, and the latter I'm still thinking about. Unlike the five dances listed above, which appear on a pair of Maine dance cards from 1918-1919, I do not have dance card evidence for this one. The only pre-1937 source for it, in fact, is Elizabeth Burchenal's American Country-Dances, Volume I (New York & Boston, 1918), in which she lists it among the dances "half-forgotten or less used" by the late 1910s: Some of the most widely used of the contra-dances to-day in New England are The Circle, Lady of the Lake, Boston Fancy, Portland Fancy, Hull's Victory, Soldier's Joy, and Old Zip Coon (or, the Morning Star); while among the half-forgotten or less used ones are Chorus Jig, Green Mountain Volunteers, and Fisher's Hornpipe. This is a category distinct from dances which are "obsolete" and which she reconstructed herself from old books. I don't consider those latter ones to be sufficiently documented for my taste. But, frankly, I include Green Mountain Volunteers in my repertoire for 1910s primarily because it's a neat dance by virtue of its unusual figures. Contra dances, then and now, can get somewhat monotonous, so I appreciate the ones that stand out. Green Mountain Volunteers is unusual among 1910s contra dances in having no obvious nineteenth-century pedigree. The only potential connection, suggested by Ricky Holden in The Contra Dance Book (1956), lies in its loose resemblance to figures listed under "Beaux of Oak Hill" in some mid-nineteenth century manuals. I'm not entirely convinced by the association, however, and the differences are substantial enough that "Beaux" warrants a separate post....[description, notes, and music behind the cut]
- [Humming Bird Dance](https://www.kickery.com/2018/05/humming-bird-dance.html) - "Humming Bird Dance" is a hesitation waltz sequence which appeared in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914). It is attributed to "Mr. Menancon", who appears in the list of credits at the end of the second edition as "Elmond Menancon, 909 Elm Street, Manchester, N[ew] H[ampshire]". I believe the first name ought to be "Edmond", since a dancing master of that name is listed in Manchester city directories from 1906 and 1918. In the 1906 Manchester Directory, Edmond Menancon is listed separately as an artist, dancing master, and, interestingly, the sexton of a church. Here's Menancon's advertisement from page 819 of the 1906 directory: The sexton position seems a somewhat odd fit for an artist-photographer-dance teacher; the triple career doesn't seem to leave much time for a day job. Perhaps it was his father? In the 1918 residential directory, as transcribed here, he is listed as an "artist/teacher [of] dancing" having "rms" (presumably "rooms") at 318 Pearl. The Humming Bird Dance itself is a sixteen-bar sequence done in "one-step waltz" style, one step (sometimes with embellishments) per bar of waltz music. The instructions in Dance Mad list it as for "Any waltz music." Whichever piece is used, it will need to be at a fast hesitation waltz tempo, or the dance will drag. To start, both dancers face line of dance, the gentleman behind and to the left of the lady. The lady's right arm makes a semi-circle so that her right hand is over her head, palm up. The gentleman takes the tips of her fingers with his own right hand. Left hands are joined and extended in front. This is referred to as "a la minuet", which would no doubt have startled dancers of the original minuet in the eighteenth century. Both dancers begin with the left foot. The basic step is onto the toes with a slight dip. There is also a repeated three-beat sequence of stepping with a stronger dip (1), striking the free foot on the floor as it swings forward (2), and hopping while extending the free foot into fourth position forward (3). The latter will be listed below as a "step-strike-hop" for brevity...[sequence behind the cut]
- [January 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/01/january-2015-gig-calendar.html) - Happy New Year! Having basically failed to stay home quietly and write in December, I'm going to try again in late January, with two weeks of a mostly-clear schedule at the end of the month. Other than that, I'm slowly picking up my travel schedule again with the usual New York and Boston routine before it starts getting really crazy in February and March...[details behind the cut]
- [February 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/01/february-2015-gig-calendar.html) - Things start getting busy in mid-February before building up to my absolutely crazy March! I've now added to Kickery the oft-requested calendar of my workshops and events past the current month; check the Gig Calendar for upcoming events from March onward...[February details behind the cut]
- [March 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/02/march-2015-gig-calendar.html) - TL;DR version: Regency, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Regency, Regency, Regency, Waltz. I'll be adding more links and details over the next few days, but here's the general plan for March, featuring my exciting Russian whistle-stop tour...[details behind the cut]
- [April 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/03/april-2015-gig-calendar.html) - Crazy, crazy, crazy April! I'll be spending some time in Chicago again plus a couple of weekends in New York/New Jersey. In between I have Research Hibernation Time and an open series of cross-step waltz classes before leaving on the 29th for another trip to Russia! Catch me if you can! I still have some details and links to add, but here's the basic schedule...[behind the cut!]
- [May 2015 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2015/04/may-2015-gig-calendar.html) - Lots of fun ahead in May! I'll spend the early part of the month in Moscow teaching an experimental new class in 16th century improvisation at the Anno Domini festival before heading back home for a Regency ball and then to Boston to spin some blues and back to New York City for some ragtime!
- [Political Dance Jokes: The Italian Quadrille, 1859](https://www.kickery.com/2017/06/political-jokes-italian-quadrille.html) - The humor piece at left, "The Italian Quadrille" (click to enlarge), appeared in the June 4, 1859, issue of the famous British humor magazine, Punch. It's obvious from the timing that it's satirizing the brief Franco-Austrian War of 1859, also known as the Second Italian War of Independence. I love it when dance terms get used this way. This one isn't as clever overall as the near-contemporaneous Quadrille Nautically Described (1856), but what it lacks in clever figures it makes up for in real-world meaning. Some quick background on the war: it lasted from late April until early July of 1859 and featured a French-Sardinian alliance led by Napoleon III (Louis Napoleon) and Victor Emmanuel II fighting against Austria under Franz Josef I and the Hungarian general Ferencz Gyulai. The Austrians were defeated, and major steps were taken toward the eventual unification of Italy and its establishment as an independent kingdom a couple of years later. I'm no expert on this particular bit of history, but my understanding from secondary sources is that the English government was officially neutral, but quietly favored Austria, and that there was some popular sympathy for Italy. The quadrille-based description here favors neither side, but the accompanying cartoon appears to me to be anti-Italian, at least: a British coin spinning toward an obvious racist caricature (short, ugly, swarthy, hairy) of an Italian organ-grinder. I'm undecided as to whether the face is actually meant to represent anyone; Victor Emmanuel would be most logical, but it looks to me more like Louis Napoleon (especially in this picture). The wider implication is presumably that the Franco-Italian side was interested in financial support from Britain. Now, let's look at the actual text of the "quadrille"...[text and light analysis behind the cut]
- [Down East Breakdown](https://www.kickery.com/2012/01/down-east-breakdown.html) - Era: late 1850s-1860s, America (New England) Down East Breakdown is an unusual Civil War-era American contra dance: unlike most of them, it is done in "mescolanze," or four-facing-four, formation. I have directions for it only in two manuals by Boston musician Elias Howe: Howe's Complete Ballroom Handbook (Boston, 1858), and American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862). Unlike many contra dances of the mid-century, it does not seem to have been picked up by later writers. The name of the dance is rather interesting. "Down east," in a New England context, refers to eastern Maine. A "breakdown" in this era was a type of solo dance, like clogging, which was particularly associated with slave dancing and minstrelsy, as may be seen in works like Jig, Clog, and Breakdown Dancing Made Easy (New York, 1873). An illustration at the American Antiquarian Society website, taken from the January 31, 1863, edition of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, shows "contraband children" dancing a breakdown. The dance itself does not incorporate any kind of stepping or anything other than perfectly typical figures, however...[details and notes behind the cut]
- [Bricklayer's Hornpipe](https://www.kickery.com/2011/12/bricklayers-hornpipe.html) - Era: 1850s-1890s, America (New England) Here’s an easy American contra dance of the Civil War era found in three Boston sources. Two are manuals by Elias Howe: Howe's Complete Ballroom Handbook (Boston, 1858), and American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862); the third is Professor L.H. Elmwell’s Prompter’s Pocket Instruction Book (Boston, 1892). The figures for the dance, as given by Elmwell: First couple cross over inside below second couple (4); Up on the outside and turn partners to places (4); First couple down the centre, back and cast off (8); First lady swing second gent (4); First gent swing second lady (4); Right and left (8). The earlier instructions from the two manuals by Howe are virtually identical except that he describes the second move as “up on the outside swing partner to place”, a distinction I will address below, and the swings of the first lady/second gentleman and first gentleman/second lady as “quite round”...[details and reconstruction behind the cut]
- [December 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/12/december-2025-gig-calendar.html) - Jane and more Jane! I have finally succumbed to the Jane Austen 250th hoopla and will be doing two Jane Austen events in Connecticut this month: a lecture with a bit of dancing and a dance-centered evening. In between I'll be up in Hartford for waltz and down in New Jersey for Civil War era
- [In Praise of the Simple](https://www.kickery.com/2018/08/in-praise-of-the-simple.html) - Wandering around the net, as one does, I came across a lovely video of Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark participating in a traditional dance of the Faroe Islands, the kædedans, a circle dance (for a loose definition of "circle") that just so happens to have the same pattern as Branle Simple, one of the "opening branles" published by Thoinot Arbeau (Jehan Tabourot) in 1589 and described briefly by me nearly a decade ago, when I was doing more with Renaissance dance. Double left, single right. Repeat ad infinitum. Frederik and Mary both had a little trouble catching the pattern, in exactly the same way that I've seen people have trouble with Branle Simple nowadays (no, really, go left twice then right, but only once to the right, no, it's not symmetrical...). That's kind of charming; don't they prep royalty before these events? Here's the video: (Video courtesy of BILLED-BLADET Magazine) ...[philosophical musings behind the cut]
- [A Masquerade in Montana, 1899](https://www.kickery.com/2022/10/masquerade-montana-1899.html) - And...it's back to masquerades, fancy dress balls, crazy cotillion figures, and other fun for the month of October! First up: a Christmas masquerade ball in Montana in 1899. The Degree of Honor masquerade ball was held on Christmas night at the Hefferlin Opera House in Livingston, Montana, the elaborate building at right in the postcard photo at left; click to enlarge. At this time, the Degree of Honor was the ladies' auxiliary of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, a post-Civil War "fraternal" mutual benefit society providing insurance, burial policies, etc, to working-class men. In the late 1890s, the Degree of Honor was said to have had 40,000 members nationally. It later spun off into a separate organization and existed independently until 2017. Livingston itself was tiny at the time, having been founded as a cluster of tents at a future railroad stop in 1882. Even today, its population is under ten thousand people (per the 2020 census); at the time of the ball, it was probably only around a thousand. This puts into perspective its description as "largely attended" in the coverage of the ball in the social column of The Anaconda Standard on Sunday, December 31, 1889: seventy-five couples following the leaders of the march. For a town of that size, that is actually quite impressive, and the coverage noted that the event succeeded both socially and financially...[details, a Brownie costume, and racist practices behind the cut]
- [A Victorian "Sir Roger de Coverley"](https://www.kickery.com/2013/12/victorian-sir-roger.html) - Several years ago I wrote up a description of a version of Sir Roger de Coverley from the early nineteenth century and talked a little about the background of the tune and the association of the dance with Charles Dickens' famous novel, A Christmas Carol. Over time, Sir Roger de Coverley mutated in various ways, and I promised back then to describe some of them. Better five years late than never, here's another version, a "modernized" English one from the mid-nineteenth century which moves along much more briskly than the earlier version, even with a fairly lengthy set. According to Mrs. Nicholas Henderson, who seems to have been the first to publish this version, the country dance was generally in decline in the English ballroom by the early 1850s, but Sir Roger de Coverley was an exception: To make amends for the fashionable dereliction and banishment of the old favourites of "Merrie Englande," it is usual to conclude the evening's festivities with one particular species of Country Dance, called "Sir Roger de Coverley." It has of late enjoyed considerable vogue, and is patronised by her Majesty, at her own entertainments. We give it as at present danced at the Palace, somewhat modernised and adapted to the prevailing taste...[reconstruction behind the cut]
- [Go Figure!](https://www.kickery.com/2010/11/go-figure.html) - At our recent Regency Assembly, one of the dancers challenged my call of a "half figure eight" in a country dance, asking why it wasn't called a "figure four". Casey, being an experienced dancer, knew exactly why, but he has excellent comic timing, and the comment broke up the room for a moment. A geekier question would be why I was using the term "half figure eight" rather than the more typical plain "half figure". That was for added clarity for modern dancers, who may not be as familiar with the nuances of Regency terminology, in which a sentence like "The figure of the dance is a double figure made up of five figures, the first being the figure" makes perfect sense. Since it doesn't for everyone, let's figure out all those different usages of "figure"! Although every Country Dance is composed of a number of individual Figures, which may consist of "set and change sides," "whole Figure at top," "lead down the middle, up again," "allemande," "lead through the bottom," "right and left at top," &c. yet the whole movement united is called the Figure of the Dance. -- Thomas Wilson, in The Complete System of English Country Dancing, London, c1815...[gory details behind the cut]
- [CD Review: Dance and Danceability](https://www.kickery.com/2014/09/cd-review-dance-and-danceability.html) - Getting useable music for Regency-era dancing is a chronically frustrating problem, and there are very few albums I can recommend wholeheartedly. Many of the recordings advertised as "Regency" or "Jane Austen" suffer from a weirdly expansive idea of "Regency era" that goes back to the 17th century or forward to the 20th. Almost all have an incorrect number of repeats of the music for period dancing, which matches repeats to set length in a specific way that does not accord with modern recording habits. Dance and Danceability is an Austen-themed album of country dance tunes from the Scottish dance band The Assembly Players (Nicolas Broadbridge, Aidan Broadbridge, and Brian Prentice). Aidan Broadbridge is a name that may be especially recognizable to Austen enthusiasts -- he was the fiddler for the 2005 film adaptation of Pride & Prejudice as well as the fictionalized pseudo-biopic Becoming Jane (2007). Sadly, this is one of the frustrating CDs...[ahistorical accordions behind the cut]
- [Regency Oddities: Roger de Coverley](https://www.kickery.com/2022/12/regency-oddities-roger-de-coverley.html) - Wrapping up my little series on extended-Regency-era oddities, let's talk about an unusual version of the English finishing dance, Sir Roger de Coverley! This is one of the rare dances where tune and dance are so tightly associated that it's reasonable to give the dance the tune name. I discussed a typical Regency-era version of the classic Sir Roger de Coverley figure long, long ago. Since then, I've accumulated a number of other versions of the figure with the same characteristic elements: opening figures performed on the long diagonals followed by whole-set figures that end with the original top couple progressed to the bottom. I've written up a couple of later nineteenth century versions here and here. Now, this is not to say that there were never any other, more typical, country dance figures set to the "Roger de Coverley" tune. In its earliest appearance with dance figures in the ninth edition of Playford's The Dancing Master, published in 1695, it is printed with a normal progressive figure, completely unrelated to the later dance. One hundred and thirty years after that, a different figure, very generic-Regency, was published with it in Analysis of the London Ball-Room (printed for Thomas Tegg, London, 1825). Never underestimate the willingness of music publishers and dancers, to recycle a tune. But there's one set of figures I've found printed with "Sir Roger de Coverley" which is a real oddity...[and I talk about it at length behind the cut]
- [The Overlooked Eight Step](https://www.kickery.com/2008/01/the-overlooked.html) - Era: 1910s Dances: one-step, tango, half & half, hesitation waltz Why, in fifteen-plus years of dancing ragtime socially, had I never done the eight step? It's not an obscure step; it's the first variation world-famous dance couple Vernon and Irene Castle give for the one-step and is also mentioned by them in their descriptions of
- [Same-Gender Couples in the Regency Ballroom](https://www.kickery.com/2015/12/same-sex-regency.html) - One of the critical elements of serious dance history is cross-checking what the dancing masters says in dance manuals against the evidence we have -- if any -- of what people actually did. Those two things aren't always the same. Dancing masters generally explain what people ought to be doing, sometimes interspersed with lengthy complaints about what people are doing instead. Both rules and complaints are useful guides, depending on whether one wants to strive to dance well and politely by period standards, or dance badly and rudely, as no doubt happened plenty in practice. But the very best evidence comes from the letters and diaries of people who actually lived in the relevant era. Here's a great example of how a letter supports something that dancing masters wrote about in the Regency era: people of the same gender dancing together...[etiquette and Austen behind the cut!]
- [Who is Your Partner?](https://www.kickery.com/2017/10/who-is-your-partner.html) - What would Halloween be without masks? And what would a cotillion be without at least one figure where people blunder around blindly crashing into each other? "Who is Your Partner?" is from St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler and appeared in his is easy enough for a leader to run, but it requires some props: A number of black masks, like those used in lodges, viz: those that have no eyes, in order to completely blindfold the wearer. Here's how it goes: The gentlemen are called to the center of the room, and made to join hands in a circle. They are given the masks which they put on; they then join hands again and circle to the right; at signal from the leader, they let go hands, hunt for a lady (the ladies are in their regular seats) dance with her. He is not to remove his mask until he calls the name of the lady with whom he is dancing...[Masonic hoodwinks, behind the cut!]
- ["La Contre Danse", cotillion figure (1900)](https://www.kickery.com/2018/12/contre-danse-cotillon-figure.html) - There are plenty of cotillions - in the sense of "nineteenth-century dance games", not "eighteenth-century French square dances" - that are some variation on "form a square or longways set and do a quadrille figure or country dance". "La Contre Danse" is an interesting take on this theme from W. Gilbert Newell, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and was published in St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler's compilation, Original Cotillion Figures (St. Louis, 1900). It caught my eye because of the unusual formation: couple facing couple across a longways set, as in the American contra "The Tempest", the English "Polka Contre Danse", or quadrille figures done in columns rather than squares. I can't be certain that this is the only cotillion figure using this formation -- hundreds of them were published from the early nineteenth into the early twentieth century, and I can't claim to have looked at them all -- but it's the only one I've found so far. "La Contre Danse" is relatively complicated as figures done in sets go. It opens and closes with two-step done in couples, and in between there is a brief march to set up the longways set before the actual contra/country/contre danse figures begin. Here's how it works...[all the details behind the cut!]
- [Leap Year Cotillion Figure](https://www.kickery.com/2020/02/leap-year-cotillion-figure.html) - For a change of pace, here's a leap year-themed cotillion (dance party game) figure from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912). I think the only "leap year" element in it is that the ladies pursue the gentlemen, rather than the reverse. Here's the original text: LEAP YEAR FIGUREFor this figure you will require one more gentleman than you do ladies. An extra man is required to put on a paper shroud. This figure can be used for any number of couples, but it is always necessary to have an extra gentleman up. Couples up and dance. When they have danced a little while, form a circle, and grand right and left, the leader getting into the circle and when all dance the leader must secure one of the ladies. This will leave one of the gents out. He is "It," and goes to the centre to receive this paper suit. The ladies all receive a large ring having a tissue covering over it. Get another lady who is not in the figure, so that you will also have an odd lady up. She also receives one of the hoops. Now ask the ladies to catch a man. As there are not enough men for all the ladies the one who does not succeed in getting a man will have to contend [sic] herself by dancing with the dummy. It took me a moment to sort this out because of how badly written the instructions are. The first three sentences can be ignored. Here's how it works....[description behind the cut]
- [A Pumpkin Party 1890](https://www.kickery.com/2020/11/pumpkin-party-1890.html) - A Pumpkin Party may seem misplaced in the calendar at this point, but this is specifically a Thanksgiving pumpkin party, taking place the evening of Thanksgiving Day, so it should be considered more like pumpkin pie and less like a jack-o-lantern, though there's definitely an element of that in the theme as well. The overall concept is more harvest than Halloween, however, similar to the Red Ear Party except more, err, orange. The description of the party -- possibly, but not necessarily, fictional -- was published in Demorest's Family Magazine, No. CCCXXIX, Vol. XXVII, No. 1, dated November 1890. Demorest's began as a fashion magazine but expanded to include a wide range of material, including quite a few little dance tidbits. The pumpkin theme began from the very start, with the invitations, which were sent on "pumpkin-colored round cards". The party was held in a "pretty little stone barn and stable" with illuminated "pumpkin lanterns of all shapes and devices, some wearing the old familiar goblin-like 'eyes, nose, and mouth.' while others were cut in stars and flowers and geometrical designs." This is, quite literally, a barn dance...[very orange details, though not much about dancing, behind the cut]
- [Heart Figure, 1900](https://www.kickery.com/2019/02/heart-figure.html) - Continuing the Valentine's Day theme, here's a heart-themed dance game from St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler's 1900 compilation Original Cotillion Figures. I'll give the full text from Mahler first, then a few notes on running the figure and on the listed music. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Heart FigureJacob Mahler, St. Louis, Mo. Music -- Waltz -- "Just One Girl." Properties -- White card board hearts about three inches wide and four inches long, tied with baby ribbon four inches long. These hearts are handed to the ladies; they write their names upon the heart (upon one side only), the leader hangs these hearts upon a curtain at one end of the room, The [sic] written side turned to the curtain. The Figure. The leader calls up as many couple as he has hearts upon the curtain, at signal they all gather in front of curtain, at signal the gentlemen rush forward select a heart, and dance with the lady whose name is written upon the heart. Favors -- Silver hearts, cupid arrow pins, links. Continuing the Valentine's Day theme, here's a heart-themed dance game from St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler's 1900 compilation Original Cotillion Figures. I'll give the full text from Mahler first, then a few notes on the listed music. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Heart FigureJacob Mahler, St. Louis, Mo. Music -- Waltz -- "Just One Girl." Properties -- White card board hearts about three inches wide and four inches long, tied with baby ribbon four inches long. These hearts are handed to the ladies; they write their names upon the heart (upon one side only), the leader hangs these hearts upon a curtain at one end of the room, The [sic] written side turned to the curtain. The Figure. The leader calls up as many couple as he has hearts upon the curtain, at signal they all gather in front of curtain, at signal the gentlemen rush forward select a heart, and dance with the lady whose name is written upon the heart. Favors -- Silver hearts, cupid arrow pins, links. This figure may be made more effective by giving the gentlemen toy guns, with small arrows to shoot at the hearts, and whatever heart he strikes would be his partner. While the figure is more exciting, I am somewhat afraid of the danger attached to the use of the gun...[music notes behind the cut]
- [Fessenden on New England country dancing, 1806](https://www.kickery.com/2018/02/fessenden-on-new-england-country-dancing-1806.html) - "Horace Surpassed" (lengthily subtitled "or, a beautiful description of a New England Country-Dance") was published by the American author Thomas Green Fessenden (left) in his 1806 collection, Original Poems. Fessenden (1771-1837) was, according to the biographical notes here, a lawyer, poet, farmer, journalist, newspaper editor, and member of the Massachusetts legislature. He was born in Massachusetts, educated at Dartmouth, and spent most of his life in New England. His original fame as a poet grew from the 1803 work "Terrible Tractoration", a satire about physicians who refused to adopt a quack medical device. (Yes, really!) In his spare time, Fessenden evidently liked country (contra) dancing, and his poem is a cheerful look at the characters of rural New England society: agile Willy Wagnimble, clumsy Charles Clumfoot, graceful Angelina, etc. The "New England Country-Dance" in the subtitle should be understood as referring to a social evening, not to an actual country-dance. A rather catty review quoted the poem at length not because it is superiour to the rest, but as a fair specimen of the work, and it describes an amusement which is "all the rage." --- The Monthly anthology, and Boston review. (July, 1806) Fessenden topped his poem with a quote from Horace's Odes. "Iam satis terris nivis atque dirae" ("Enough of snow and hail at last") is the opening line of "To Augustus, The Deliverer and Hope of the State" (1.2). This particular Ode concerns the disastrous overflowing of the Tiber, possibly as a punishment of the gods for the ill deeds of Rome (notably, the assassination of Julius Caesar), with Augustus as its hoped-for saviour. An 1882 translation of the Ode may be found here. I must confess that I cannot detect any thematic connection between it and Fessenden's poem, so I'll chalk it up to Fessenden's ego and desire to be recognized as a poet. The full original text with my best approximation of the formatting is in bold below, with a few comments of my own interspersed in italics. In the absence of page breaks, the footnotes have been moved to the end...[poem and a few comments behind the cut]
- [A shorter Victorian "Sir Roger de Coverley"](https://www.kickery.com/2019/12/shorter-victorian-sir-roger.html) - Over the twelve years I've been writing Kickery, I've twice discussed versions of Sir Roger de Coverley, the English "finishing dance" that was the direct ancestor of America's Virginia Reel: a Regency-era version from Thomas Wilson and a Victorian-era version probably originated by Mrs. Nicholas Henderson. The latter version of the dance, which shortened the figures and added an introductory figure for all the dancers, appeared in several English sources from around 1850 to 1870. But it was not the only version in mid-nineteenth century England; at least two variations of a full version more like the Regency one continued to appear in dance manuals, and a fourth version, shortened even further, turned up occasionally as well. The dance being strongly associated with Christmas due to its appearance at Mr. Fezziwig's ball in Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol, Christmas Eve seems an appropriate time to discuss this extremely short version...[reconstruction and sources behind the cut]
- [Christmas Hornpipe](https://www.kickery.com/2015/12/christmas-hornpipe.html) - After my last experience with hornpipes, it's nice to have a contra recommended for tunes called hornpipes without having to hunt down or worry unduly about the music! "Christmas Hornpipe" is the name of the tune in the image below, taken from Elias Howe's Improved Edition of the Musician's Omnibus (Boston, 1861). Click to enlarge. Whether to call the figures "Christmas Hornpipe" is a more ambiguous question, since they appear with other tunes as well (more on this below), reused in the same way figures were in the extended Regency era, from at least 1858 through the mid-1890s...[reconstruction and more music behind the cut]
- [Fessenden's "The Rustick Revel", 1806](https://www.kickery.com/2018/02/fessenden-rustick-revel-1806.html) - Reading onward in Thomas Fessenden's Original Poems (1806), what should turn up but another poem about dance, even lengthier and more detailed than "Horace Surpassed"! "The Rustick Revel" is less impressive as a poem, being made up entirely of rhyming couplets of utterly regular rhythm, but it's even thicker with dance references. As Nathaniel Hawthorne said in his biographical sketch of Fessenden: He had caught the rare art of sketching familiar manners, and of throwing into verse the very spirit of society as it existed around him; and he had imbued each line with a peculiar yet perfectly natural and homely humor. Hawthorne was referring to a different poem, but it could easily serve for this one as well. Among the highlights are the very calculated invitation list, the squire calling a dance, people messing up the figures, and trying to get out of paying the bill. Once again, I'll give the entire poem in bold with my own commentary interspersed in italics. Fessenden's own footnotes have been moved to the end...[longer poem with primitive thumpy rhythm and interesting dance references behind the cut]
- [Country Dances, Two by Two](https://www.kickery.com/2008/03/country-dances.html) - In the comments to a previous post of mine on the realities of Austen-era country dancing, alison[sic] asked about a scene in Pride and Prejudice: ...when describing the ball to Mr Bennet, Mrs Bennet refers to the dances by what I assumed were the time signatures: "Then the two third he danced with Miss King,
- [CD Review: Grandview Victorian Orchestra](https://www.kickery.com/2014/04/cd-review-grandview-victorian-orchestra.html) - I ordered the Grandview Victorian Orchestra's CD Elegant Music from Times Gone By in the wake of a pleasant email exchange with musical director John Reading about quadrille music last autumn. The album is a mix of country (contra) dance medleys of various sorts mixed with a few other tunes and played on an interesting instrumental mix of piano, fiddle, hammered dulcimer, bodhran, shaker, banjo, and acoustic bass. I'm not sure about the acoustic bass, but the other instruments are legitimate for late nineteenth-century America and provide a more "rural" sound than most of the music I use, very appropriate for country dance tunes. The music mix is definitely from "times gone by", though not all of those times are actually Victorian and will need to be considered on a case-by-case basis for historical events. The arrangements are really lovely, though, and it makes a great listening CD even if not every track is strictly correct and/or usable for historical dancing. My comments on the individual tracks follow...[behind the cut!]
- [Galop à Trois Pas (Three-Slide Galop)](https://www.kickery.com/2012/10/galop-a-trois-pas.html) - Known variously as the three-slide galop, three step galop, galop à trois pas, or galop à trois temps, this late-nineteenth-century variation is simply the standard galop step migrated into waltz time. I've previously discussed the galop in 2/4 time in detail; the three-slide version is the same kind of series of slides and "chasing" steps: 1b Slide-close-slide-close-slide = 1 & 2 & 32b Slide-close-slide-close-slide = 1 & 2 & 3 This could also be described as slide-chassé-chassé, with each chassé being a "close-slide". As is standard for galop, the first half is performed leading with the first foot (gentleman's left, lady's right) with the second foot then closing behind in order to again slide with the first foot. The second half is then performed by sliding with the second foot and closing with the first. As with the 2/4-time galop, no hop is mentioned. The three-slide galop is described in several major dance manuals at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century:...[which I discuss behind the cut]
- [Giraudet's <em>Galopade</em>](https://www.kickery.com/2018/04/giraudet-galopade.html) - La Galopade is a short, simple sequence dance created by French dancing master, choreographer, and author Eugène Giraudet and preserved in the enormous 55th edition of his dance manual, La danse, la tenue, le maintien, l'hygiène & l'éducation (c1900) as well as in his 1913 Méthode moderne pour bien apprendre la danse. A matching description appears in George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903). In the companion volume to La danse, Traité de la danse (c1900), Giraudet dates the dance to 1889; its earliest appearance may have been on the accompanying sheet music by composer Félix Chaudoir. The dance itself is consistent across the sources and entirely straightforward to reconstruct. The dancers start side by side, as shown above (click to enlarge), inside hands held high, gentleman's left hand on his hip (palm out) and lady's right hand holding her gown. They start on "outside" feet (his left, her right). Couple follows couple around the room in a line or circle. Because it moves against line of dance, La Galopade is best done by the room as a whole, rather than as a variation in a normal galop or polka. La Galopade (16 measures)2b Polka forward, side by side1b Polka in place, turning half round individually to face against line of dance, changing hands2b Polka forward, side by side, against line of dance1b Polka in place, turning half round individually and coming together in normal closed hold2b One bar of galop and one bar of polka (= four-slide galop); half-turn6b Repeat galop/polka (four-slide galop) sequence three more times; one and a half turns2b Polka; one complete turnOpen to original position holding inside hands and restart from the beginning...[a few more notes behind the cut]
- [The Puritan Waltz <em>(La Puritan Galop)</em>](https://www.kickery.com/2019/04/puritan-waltz.html) - The Puritan Waltz is not, actually, a waltz. It's a galop variation found in both Round Dancing (M. B. Gilbert, Portland, Maine, 1890) and La Danse (G. W. Lopp, Paris, 1903). Gilbert described it under the name The Puritan Waltz and also referenced it under The Jubilee. Lopp chose truth in advertising over adherence to the original and went with La Puritan Galop. The two descriptions match perfectly in the practical aspects, though Gilbert gets a little more poetic in naming the parts of the dance after...a whaling expedition? I feel like there must be some story behind a dance with parts called "The Calm", "The Fluke", and "The Gale", but I've no idea what it might be. Nantucket Puritans? With a title like that, the first question that comes to mind is whether it's mis-listed or mis-described and really meant to be a waltz. It's not; the sheet music by George Fox (cover image at left; click to enlarge) is online at the Library of Congress, complete with dance instructions that are nearly a word-for-word match with Gilbert. It's nice to have an outside source for a Gilbert/Lopp-published dance; it doesn't happen as often as I'd like. Per the sheet music, the dance is by E. Woodworth Masters, was published in 1885, and was accepted by the National Association of Teachers of Dancing. Gilbert and Lopp both duly credit Masters...[reconstruction and music comments behind the cut]
- [The Polish Galop](https://www.kickery.com/2010/02/polish-galop.html) - Era: 1880s-early 1900s, New England & Paris The so-called Polish Galop, which is neither Polish nor necessarily a galop, is one of those odd little variations that was the creation of a single dancing master and was not generally taken up by others. It is not Polish in origin; the name comes from the heel-clicking move it incorporates, which is typical of Polish dances such as the mazurka. Its creator, Maine dancing master and author M.B. Gilbert, explains in Round Dancing, published in 1890, that The movements of this dance were arranged by me for special use in children's classes, and I found the combination a pleasant innovation. I also found it pleasant; it's actually slightly less "busy" than a regular galop. And its ambiguity on where the turn (if any) happens is interestingly similar to that of the racket....[how to do it, behind the cut]
- [Rye, just Rye](https://www.kickery.com/2019/05/rye.html) - Moving right along with late nineteenth-century variations from the usual pair of M. B. Gilbert (Round Dancing, Portland, Maine, 1890) and G. W. Lopp (La Danse, Paris, 1903), here's a short one that's classified as a redowa or mazurka. Lopp attributed La Rye to Gilbert, who had previously printed it in his own work without attribution. Gilbert did not ever credit himself specifically in his own book, unfortunately, which makes it difficult to be absolutely certain of the attribution. The name of the variation suggests that it was meant to be danced to a musical setting of the famous Robert Burns poem, "Comin' Thro' the Rye", which was set in both waltz and schottische rhythms (including both alternately in the Rye Waltz, a sequence dance dating back to at least the 1890s). The waltz version of the tune, which may be heard on this YouTube video, is not accented like a redowa or mazurka and does not offer especially good musical support to this sequence of steps. There may have been a version published with a more mazurka- or redowa-like style, but I haven't been able to locate one. Skilled musicians might also be able to tweak it musically on the fly. It's also possible that there was a completely different tune called "The Rye", but I actually find this less likely, as the word was so strongly associated with a particular tune. There was a 1922 novelty dance ("The New Rye Dance") published which combined a "redowa, Rye movement, and waltz" using "Comin' Thro' the Rye", but that's much too late to mean anything more than that people really liked adapting "Comin' Thro' the Rye" for dancing. In the absence of adventurous musicians or a mazurka/redowa-accented recording of "Comin' Thro' the Rye", I'd not really recommend that piece for these steps. They work much better with an appropriate polka mazurka or redowa tune. For tempo, Lopp offered his typical recommendation of 144 beats per minute, which works quite well and matches Gilbert's overall recommendation for redowa/mazurka....[reconstruction and brief notes behind the cut]
- [CD Review: Dancing by the Shore: Victorian Music from Nahant](https://www.kickery.com/2016/04/cd-review-dancing-by-the-shore.html) - One of my students asked me at class last night whether he owned all of the dance trio Spare Parts' CDs. Apparently not, as he was surprised to hear about the ten-year-old Dancing by the Shore: Victorian Music from Nahant. This album seems to get less attention than their others, perhaps because the music on it cannot be pigeonholed into a single era. The word "Victorian" in the title is a bit of a stretch; more than a third of the tracks are technically pre-Victorian. The tunes for Dancing by the Shore were pulled from sheet music in the archives of the Nahant Historical Society, and the recording was originally advertised as for its benefit. Each piece has some connection to the town of Nahant, Massachusetts, which was a popular island resort in the nineteenth century. The cover image, at left, is a depiction of the Nahant Hotel in the 1850s. Spare Parts plays as a trio (of varying components), and they make high-quality, musically-engaging recordings good for both dancing and listening. That this album is great for the latter is a given. I will discuss the details of the tracks purely in the context of their usability for historical dancing...[thoughts on the tracks behind the cut]
- [The Nahant Quadrilles (1 of 4)](https://www.kickery.com/2020/08/nahant-quadrilles-1.html) - At left is the cover of The Nahant Quadrilles, published in Philadelphia in 1836 but named after the resort town of Nahant, located on a peninsula near Boston and seen in the background of the cover image. For many years, Nahant has been the home of a summer 1860s ball hosted by Nahant resident and Vintage Victorian proprietor Katy Bishop and her late husband Ben. The Nahant Quadrilles were first worked on for these balls by the Bishops and my own late mentor, Patri Pugliese, in a style befitting the 1860s milieu in which they were used. Patri was a stickler in his approach to dance reconstruction and dubbed his version a "choreography" because of the degree of adaptation. I've long had my own reconstruction of this set tucked away, and since the Nahant ball (lately expanded to a full weekend) is canceled due to Covid, this seems an opportune moment to publish it and compare the different approaches. The original sheet music by John H[ill] Hewitt for The Nahant Quadrilles, with the dance calls, may be found online at the Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection of Johns Hopkins University. The five tunes were named after women, with the first, "Rebecca", presumably for the cover dedicatee, Miss Rebecca Willson. It has been recorded by the dance band Spare Parts in a version matching Patri's choreography on their album Dancing by the Shore, which may be purchased here. That is a bit problematic for my reconstruction, which I will discuss as I work through the figures...[the first of which is behind the cut]
- [An Underarm Turn for the Half and Half](https://www.kickery.com/2010/07/underarm-turn-for-the-half-and-half.html) - 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.... [actual description of the turn behind the cut]
- [Side by Side in the Half and Half](https://www.kickery.com/2009/03/side-by-side-in-the-half-and-half.html) - 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.Unfortunately, Franklin is not terribly clear on precisely how the dancers get into this position or out of it or, for that matter, precisely what the alternating and sliding steps they perform are. Since the change of position adds pleasing variety to the dance, I spent some time figuring out how to make this work...[more]
- [A Ballroom Repentance, 1882](https://www.kickery.com/2015/12/ballroom-repentance-1882.html) - Annie Edwardes' two-volume novel, A Ballroom Repentance (London: Richard Bentley & Sons. 1882), was apparently a somewhat racy novel by Victorian standards. By today's, it falls into that dreary research category of deservedly-obscure novels that I plow through for the dance scenes. Edwardes (c1830-1896) was an English author successful enough to publish twenty-one novels between 1858 and 1899, the last published posthumously. Three were adapted for theatre. I haven't read any of her other books, but the title of this one attracted me, since it promised a ballroom scene which might have include some useful tidbits of dance information. The ballroom scene comes very near the end, but to be thorough, I read all seven hundred or so pages of what it would be fair to call Victorian soap opera. It's a quick read with fewer words per page than a modern novel, so that wasn't quite as tedious as it sounds, but I can see why Edwardes has not come down to us as a major writer. A pithy contemporary review: There is not much to be said of a Ball-Room Repentance; indeed, it would be almost enough to say that it is written in the present tense. When that monstrosity was committed because authors knew no better there was some excuse for it; but now that they have had fair warning, the repetition is simply contumacious. A Lake Leman boardinghouse, an American grass widow, a vulgar family of Continent haunters, a refined ditto, a weak-minded young Oxonian, an older person who is deluded by a brazen married woman with a conniving husband, Monte Carlo, Rome, &c, &c. —these are the well-worn ingredients of the book. That they are not mixed up without a certain cleverness is as much as saying that Mrs. Edwardes is the author; but the book makes us deplore more than ever that a narrative faculty so considerable should not have been able to associate with itself better taste, fresher materials, and more conscientious workmanship. There are touches, too, of occasional grandiloquence in this book with which Mrs. Edwardes has not always been chargeable. Here is a wonderful specimen: "The process of degeneration makes itself visible by no outward or visible sign in Roger Tryan. The poppy retains its surface-whiteness, the man approaches our ruined cousins the Ascidians by steps as yet imperceptible." Mrs. Edwardes might have abstained from reminding us so soon after Mr. Darwin's death of the sufferings which a great man sometimes unwittingly brings upon humanity by making persons who are not great talk nonsense. -- Saintsbury, George. “New Novels.” The Academy 532 (1882): 44....[dance references, word by word, behind the cut]
- [<em>The Morrisons</em>, 1863](https://www.kickery.com/2018/04/morrisons.html) - I came across Margaret Hosmer's novel, The Morrisons: a story of domestic life (1863), in my endless quest for dance references in nineteenth-century fiction. Almost four hundred pages later, I have a few new citations, the highlight of which is a mention of two women waltzing together, and a growing distaste for storylines that treat dying of consumption (tuberculosis) as a character-building experience. According to Deidre Johnson's useful website 19th-Century Girls' Series, which catalogues said series and their authors, only basic biographical facts about Hosmer's life are known: she was born Margaret Kerr in 1830, raised in Philadelphia, married Granville Hosmer and had at least one child, bounced back and forth between Philadelphia and California several times, worked in schools, published novels and short fiction for both children and adults, and died in 1897. The website's full biographical listing for her, from which these details are taken, may be found here. I am not enough of a fan of her writing to have done any further research on her life. The Morrisons was Hosmer's first novel. It is generally listed as having been published in 1863 while she was living in Philadelphia. I didn't look hard for an 1863 edition; the one I read was from 1864. An 1868 edition is available online as well. The setting is vague, both in place and time. The city where the Morrisons live is somewhere between New York and the South. Given the author's roots, I suppose it to be Philadelphia; the neighborhood names (West Park, Oak Hill) would make sense for that city. There is no mention of the Civil War. Characters visit "the South" without incident and temporarily-hired black servants make brief appearances. The dresses are not described in detail, other than being bulky enough to make loading the women into carriages a chore. My best guess is that it is meant to take place in the late 1850s. The Morrisons are an Irish-American family, a widowed mother with two daughters, a son, and an elderly uncle, all living on the charity of the mother's relatively wealthy niece, Bess Saunders, whom all expect to marry the son and thus solidify their position. It's a twisted sort of Cinderella story, since the Morrisons themselves are, for the most part, lazy spendthrifts, while the saintly Bess not only supports them (to the point of mortgaging her house and selling her jewelry) but also does all the housework as well. It's clear from the novel that the Morrisons are not the best of society, but Bess, heiress of her successful father, is wealthy enough that they have servants and need not work for a living. The uncle has been in business and traveled extensively, but lost most of his money and now lives modestly with his family. I suspect that the family being explicitly Irish would have signaled much more strongly to the nineteenth-century reader than it does to me, but the idea that most of the Morrisons are stereotypically charming and somewhat disreputable wastrels comes through pretty clearly...[minor dance references behind the cut]
- [Royale gyneska with me, madam?](https://www.kickery.com/2010/03/royale-gyneska-with-me.html) - Sometimes while doing dance research, I come across something so amusing I have to share it. This time it's a blurb from The New York Times on October 5, 1924 about an international conclave of dancing masters held in Paris which voted on the supposed dance of the year. This was a matter of sufficient import to warrant delivery of the results to the Times by special cable: [The five-step], which received thirty-eight approving votes, is a mixture of the waltz and one-step and, as can be judged, somewhat involved. The huppa-huppa, on the other hand, is neo-Chilian, being a backward glide which brings the partners in close contact. The winner of the third place was the royale gyneska... [official opinions on the shimmy behind the cut]
- [The Yale University York](https://www.kickery.com/2010/05/yale-university-york.html) - Era: 1890s-very early 1900s The Yale University York is one of those dance variations that probably had a short to nonexistent life outside the studio of its creator and a few other dancing masters. Unlike the original York (described here), it seems to appear only in two sources: Melvin Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and George Washington Lopp's, La Danse (Paris, 1903), much of which is merely a direct translation of Gilbert. Both Gilbert and Lopp attribute it to A.M. Loomis. Despite its obscurity and probable lack of popularity in its own time, I am devoting a post to it primarily because as a Yale alumna I am charmed whenever anyone names a dance after my alma mater...[how to do it, behind the cut]
- [<i>Chassé-Croisé</i> Sequences for Regency-Era Quadrilles (1 of 3)](https://www.kickery.com/2013/02/chasse-croise-1.html) - By far the most common sequence variations to be found in quadrille manuals of the early nineteenth century are those for setting, forward and back, chassez-dechassez, and crossing over. But a few manuals give sequences for more elaborate figures such as chassé-croisé, in which two dancers, side by side, change places and back. There are quite a few ways to perform the figure, but the most common is probably that danced with one's partner in eight bars as follows: 2b Change places, gentlemen passing behind ladies2b Set2b Change back, gentlemen again passing behind ladies2b Set This can be performed just by two couples (heads or sides) or by all four at once, as in the classic Finale figure of the first set of French quadrilles...[step sequence behind the cut]
- [<i>Chassé-Croisé</i> Sequences for Regency-Era Quadrilles (3 of 3)](https://www.kickery.com/2013/02/chasse-croise-3.html) - (This is the third and final post in a mini-series covering Regency-era step-sequences for the quadrille figure chassé-croisé. Previous posts are here (with a general introduction) and here.) My third and (so far) final sequence for an eight-bar chassé-croisé comes from Elements and Principles of the Art of Dancing, a translation of J. H. Gourdoux published by Victor Guillou in Philadelphia in 1817. The translation, presumably of the 1811 Principes et Notions Élémentaires sur l’Art de la Danse Pour la Ville, is inconsistent in how closely it hews to Gourdoux's original. This step sequence for chassé-croisé does not appear in the 1811 manual at all and may have originated with Guillou himself. Even more than Gourdoux's own sequence, this one features different footwork for the gentlemen and the ladies...[weird step-sequence behind the cut]
- [<i>Chassé-Croisé</i> Sequences for Regency-Era Quadrilles (2 of 3)](https://www.kickery.com/2013/02/chasse-croise-2.html) - (This is the second post in a mini-series covering Regency-era step-sequences for the quadrille figure chassé-croisé. See the first post for a general introduction to the figure.) My second sequence for chassé-croisé actually comes from a French source, the second edition of Principes et Notions Élémentaires sur l’Art de la Danse Pour la Ville (Paris, 1811) by J. H. Gourdoux. The same sequence reappears in his later manual, De l’Art de la Danse (Paris, 1823). It is similar to the Strathy sequence described in my previous post, but the differences are quite intriguing. I won't cover steps in this post, since I just summarized them in the previous one and no additional ones are required for Gourdoux's sequence...[weird step-sequence behind the cut]
- [September 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/09/september-2014-gig-calendar.html) - Back in the saddle after a very productive (and mostly fun) trip to exciting places in August. September puts me back into my usual teaching routine with classes in New York, Middletown, and Boston; a dance weekend in Chicago; and a side-trip to Canada for a private workshop and some off-the-grid time! I'm still working out my class schedule for the rest of this month, but here are the highlights. Check back for a few new things toward the end of the month...[schedule details behind the cut]
- [August 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/07/august-2014-gig-calendar.html) - August is vacation month, for my personal definition of vacation that involves a lot of time spent in libraries and talking about dance history and otherwise geeking out. This is differs from my normal routine of a lot of time spent in libraries and talking about dance history in that the libraries are located and the conversations and geeking out will occur in exciting foreign countries...[minimal details behind the cut]
- [July 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/06/july-2014-gig-calendar.html) - This month I am staying home and writing a lot (or going somewhere else to alternate writing and swimming) then making one extended research trip before spending most of August far, far away. Check back for possible added DJ gigs, but don't expect anything else this month. I am hibernating, socially speaking. I have so, so, so much to do before I leave that at five-plus weeks out I am already in a pre-trip panic...[extremely minimal schedule behind the cut]
- [June 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/05/june-2014-gig-calendar.html) - After some welcome downtime at home, I'm back on the road in June with two trips each to New York City and Massachusetts, but keeping a light schedule since I have a rather enormous amount of writing to do this month. A couple more DJ gigs may pop onto the schedule at some point, but here's how it stands for now...[schedule details behind the cut]
- [April 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/03/april-2014-gig-calendar.html) - Updated 4/10/14April is going to be a crazy month for me, with a slow start, then three weeks of near-constant travel to New York, Boston, Chicago, New York (again), and Toronto! Regency everywhere, a little bit of waltz, blues DJing in Boston, and a fancy dress ball in New York City! [details behind the cut]
- [March 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/02/march-2014-gig-calendar.html) - The highlight of this month will be a trip to a historical dance conference in Russia. Not a lot else is happening around that other than my usual monthly classes and a fast trip to Boston at the end of the month, but I've got a couple more events in the works for late in the month, so check back for updates...[details behind the cut]
- [February 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/01/february-2014-gig-calendar.html) - February will be crazy travel month for me! Early in the month I'll be squeezing my usual New York, Middletown, and Boston-area Regency and blues-DJing gigs plus a waltz workshop all into eight hectic days. Mid-month, I will be a featured performer at the Dance Flurry Festival before heading south to North Carolina. I don't expect to be squeezing anything else into February -- I'm just hoping the weather holds up for all this travel...[details and links behind the cut]
- [January 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/01/january-2014-gig-calendar.html) - Happy New Year! After a wonderful holiday full of friends and family and library research, I'm back on the road again! Nineteenth century to start out the month, then a series of blues DJing gig, wrapping up with a 1770s ball at the end of the month! This list is not yet complete, as I'm still working out a set of waltz classes and events, so check back in a week or so for more listings and links...[gigs behind the cut]
- [June 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/05/june-2012-gig-calendar.html) - June and July are my relatively quiet months this year, at least for public events, though I'm still adding things to my calender. Here's the current status, with more TBA...[details behind the cut]
- [February 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/01/february-2012-gig-calendar.html) - Most of my major gigs are concentrated the first and last weekend of February, but I have a few Connecticut ones in between! I am also available for private lessons in Connecticut (New Haven or Middletown) generally, and in New York City and the Boston area on specific dates. Here's a quick list with links for more information...[list behind the cut]
- [January 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/01/january-2012-gig-calendar.html) - I have lots of dance workshops and events scheduled this month to start the new year off right -- see the list below. I am also available for private lessons in Connecticut (New Haven or Middletown) generally, and in New York City and the Boston area on specific dates. Here's a quick list with links
- [May 2014 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2014/05/may-2014-gig-calendar.html) - After a perfectly crazy April, I am devoting most of May to staying home and catching up on research and writing as I wind up my fellowship year. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, and my cats will be ecstatic! By some weird coincidence, all of my gigs this month are Regency-era, though I might tag on something else if the opportunity arises. Here's the calendar...[behind the cut]
- [December 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/12/december-2013-gig-calendar.html) - I'm winding down my gig and class schedule for the year, so I have a light schedule through mid-month followed by seven quiet days at home with no teaching or travel before I go away over Christmas. Here are the details...[behind the cut]
- [August 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/08/august-2013-gig-calendar.html) - One more fellowship trip, a couple of workshops, and another ball, all crammed into early August! I may add a couple of DJ stints or other workshops, but mostly this is a recovery-and-writing month after three months of near-constant travel. I'll have some much-needed vacation time at the end before things pick up again in
- [September 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/09/september-2013-gig-calendar.html) - Back in the swing of things for fall! I'll be teaching 19th century dance in Chicago, Connecticut, and New York and doing blues DJ gigs in New York, New Haven, and Boston. In between there'll be a bit of Renaissance dance and a Regency tea dance in Connecticut, a basic cross-step waltz class series, and a walking tour of historical song and dance in Boston! Here's the schedule as it stands, subject to a few more additions. I'll be adding details and Facebook event links as they become available...[full list behind the cut]
- [October 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/10/october-2012-gig-calendar.html) - October is when life gets crazy again, with a weekend in New York City, several days in Boston, the tenth Regency Assembly mid-month, and heading off to beautiful Санкт-Петербург at the end...[details behind the cut]
- [We have a problem here...](https://www.kickery.com/2015/07/we-have-a-problem-here.html) - Written on the Trans-Siberian Railroad somewhere between Novosibirsk and Moscow. Just had to mention that! At left is a page from a dance manual published in Philadelphia in 1904: Dancing Without an Instructor, by one Professor Wilkinson. This is one of the challenges I gave to the students in my just-completed reconstruction class in Novosibirsk. Could they reconstruct this version of the racket? If you want to test yourself with it, click the image to enlarge it, but before diving into the technical details of the dance, take a step back mentally and read through the instructions as a whole. Notice anything weird? You should. Don't click through to the rest of the post until you think you've got it...[if not, the answer is behind the cut]
- [The Yale Schottische, 1895](https://www.kickery.com/2014/12/yale-schottische.html) - As previously noted, I always have an eye out for dances named after Yale University and Yale-related dance ephemera. Walking through the campus earlier today on my way to a meeting reminded me that I had another Yale-themed dance to discuss: the Yale Schottische, which was published with the eponymous sheet music in 1895 and dedicated to the Yale University Football Association. Yale has one of the oldest football programs in the world and was a regular national title winner in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Some of the players pictured at left (click to enlarge) are probably among the several Yalies of the 1890s chosen as All-Americans or inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. (More details about Yale's place in football history may be found here.) The music for the Yale Schottische was composed by J. Edward Geary, but the dance was choreographed by a local dancing master, C. Francis Malone, who regularly taught Yale students, probably including some of the football players in the photograph! An article about Malone from 1896 notes that the Yale Schottische has been "danced onstage at Daly's Theater, New York, and in the greater part of the United States." The Yale Schottische is actually a double-length schottische sequence -- eight measures instead of four. The general pattern of the dance is quite straightforward, but several details are left unspecified. I have used my best guesses on those and included both options where there is no way to make a definitive choice...[reconstruction behind the cut]
- [Victorian Dance Workshop, NYC (Sunday, May 23, 2010)](https://www.kickery.com/2010/05/victorian-dance-workshop-nyc-sunday-may-23-2010.html) - A quick reminder that I will be teaching a mid-19th century dance workshop in New York City on Sunday, May 23rd, for a new group, Vintage Dance Northeast. The quadrilles for the workshop will include selections from the First Set followed by the unusual Double Quadrille composed by London dance teacher Mrs.Nicholas Henderson in the 1850s and rarely taught today. Couple dances will include waltz and polka with galop as needed for Mrs. Henderson's Quadrille.Here's the official event announcement:19th Century Ballroom Basics: Step back in time, step forward to waltz!May 23rd 2-5 PMNOLA Studio C - 250 W. 54st 11th FloorNew York, New York...[more details behind the cut]
- [Goucher & Newport](https://www.kickery.com/2009/07/goucher-newport.html) - I'm going to be traveling to two dance events in the next week, one as a student and one as a teacher. On Saturday, July 25th, I will be attending a one-day historical dance workshop held by the New York Baroque Dance Company at Goucher College, near Baltimore, Maryland. The teachers are Catherine Turocy and Richard Powers. There will also be a country dance party in the evening, called by Catherine Turocy and Charles Garth. This event precedes a full-week workshop at Goucher which I am unable to attend because......from Monday, July 27th through Saturday, August 1st, I will be at Newport Vintage Dance Week, sponsored by the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers, at Roger Williams University. near Newport, Rhode Island. I am on the faculty for this week, and will be teaching intermediate/advanced nineteenth century couple dances: racket, schottische, and two-step. Also on the faculty this year are Joan Walton, Marc Casslar, and Barbara Pugliese. There will be balls in the style of the 1860s, 1890s, and 1910s as well as informal dancing in the evenings, a silent movie, and other fun historical pastimes. This is my third year on the faculty for Newport.I'd be happy to chat with any Kickery readers attending either event.
- [Victorian Bustle Ball ~ New Haven, CT (March 29, 2008)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/03/victorian-bustl.html) - Coming up in just a couple of weeks: On Saturday, March 29th, I will be precepting a small Victorian Ball for The Elegant Arts Society in New Haven, Connecticut. The theme is 1880s, the era of the bustle in ladies' costume, but period costume is not required - come have fun dancing regardless! There will
- [May 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/05/may-2012-gig-calendar.html) - I started out May in the wonderful city of Moscow, teaching nineteenth century dance at Anno Domini, and have a burst of events in the first half of the month before things quiet down substantially. I may add a few more events later this month, but for now, here's the calendar: Sunday, May 6th ~
- [November 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/10/november-2013-gig-calendar.html) - Lots of southward travel this month: New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Sadly, no Boston DJing this month, but I'm working on a couple more gigs, so check back for updates...[event list behind the cut]
- [December 2011 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2011/12/december-2011-gig-calendar.html) - I have a bunch of small events and workshops this month before I take my brief winter break. This is a particularly good month if you want to enjoy some waltzing -- I have waltz events in New York, Connecticut, and Boston! I am also available for private lessons in Connecticut (New Haven or Middletown) generally, and in New York and the Boston area on specific dates. Here's a quick list with links for more information...[list behind the cut]
- [October 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/10/october-2013-gig-calendar.html) - The big event this month is the 11th Regency Assembly, this year with a masquerade theme! Other than that, this is a quiet month between the wildness of September and November, with just my usual New York/New England travels and a bit of DJing. I'll be making some short research trips mid-month in my continuing quest to track down every tiny little American country dance/cotillion manual in New England, and then I'm spending a few days in Florida with family...[full gig list behind the cut]
- [Known World Dance Symposium](https://www.kickery.com/2009/07/known-world-dance-symposium.html) - I'm off this weekend to a Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) event, Known World Dance Symposium VII, in Hamilton, Ontario (near Toronto). I'm not an active SCA member, but I have very pleasant memories of the last one of these I went to, in Boston back in 2001. I'll be there Friday through Sunday, off
- [From the Tourdion to the Tango (February 17, 2008)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/02/from-the-tourdi.html) - Rather last minute, but if any of my readers are in New York City, I will be doing some dance commentary at a concert by the New York Consort of Viols tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 p.m. in Manhattan. A flier is here. The music will primarily be 14th-18th century dance music as well as some period and modern pieces inspired by dance music. My comments will be popularly oriented rather than academic - brief introductory remarks in between pieces, not a lecture.
- [April 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/03/april-2013-gig-calendar.html) - April will be a crazy travel month for me, flitting between Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York repeatedly over the course of the month. The schedule as it stands now is below. I tend to add DJ gigs to my schedule at the relative last minute, so check back to see when those appear. Tuesday, April
- [May 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/04/may-2013-gig-calendar.html) - Along with my usual monthly classes, this month I'll be calling for a Regency-era ball with an American theme and making a trip down south to teach waltz in North Carolina before making my way slowly back up the east coast. The schedule as it stands now is below. As usual, I add DJ gigs to my schedule somewhat randomly, so check back to see when those appear...[full schedule behind the cut]
- [June 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/05/june-2013-gig-calendar.html) - I'm going to spend large parts of June on fellowship-related research work, so my public gig schedule is very light this month. The schedule as it currently stands now is below. DJ gigs appear on my schedule somewhat randomly, so check back for those...[schedule behind the cut]
- [July 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/07/july-2013-gig-calendar.html) - This is another month that's going to be mostly occupied by fellowship research, but I'll also be spending a week at dance camp and then doing a cluster of workshops and a ball at the end of the month! I'm barely leaving Connecticut, but I'll be ping-ponging constantly among four different cities. Here are the details...[behind the cut]
- [January 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/01/january-2013-gig-calendar.html) - Happy new year! I'm back on the road again in New York, Connecticut, and Boston this month after my holiday break: Sunday, January 6th ~ New York CityRegency Dance Workshop (Facebook event page)Beginner-friendly lesson 3:00-5:00pm Monday, January 7th ~ Bound Brook, New Jersey7:00-10:00pm. Couple dances & mixers for a folk dance group; semi-private event. Contact
- [February 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/01/february-2013-gig-calendar.html) - I'm staying warm this winter with lots of travel and dance, including our first Connecticut Regency tea dance and DJ gigs in three cities! I'm still adding gigs, but here's the February schedule so far...[details behind the cut]]
- [March 2013 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2013/02/march-2013-gig-calendar.html) - March is going to be a very quiet month for me. I'm clearing my calendar of most outside gigs for the last couple of weeks of the month to work on some writing and reviewing projects...[gig details behind the cut]
- [September 2012 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2012/08/september-2012-gig-calendar.html) - I'm on the road through early September, and then after a little flurry of gigs in the middle of the month, spending a couple of quiet weeks catching up after five weeks of near-constant travel. Here are the gigs open to the public...[details behind the cut]
- [Professor Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille](https://www.kickery.com/2017/07/sheldon-presidential-polka-quadrille.html) - Professor Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille was created by Washington, D. C., dancing master George T. Sheldon, who had a lengthy career as a dancing master to both children and adults and was the author of at least a couple of other quadrilles. In May, 1898, Sheldon was discussed briefly in M. B. Gilbert's dance journal, The Director, in which it was said that he was then 72 and had been teaching for 57 years. His most famous pupil was probably Nellie Grant, daughter of President Ulysses S. Grant. This quadrille was said in several sources to be dedicated to her. Professor Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille seems to have first been published around 1893, possibly by H. N. Grant, and thereafter turns up in a number of midwestern dance manuals running through the early years of the new century. It is referred to variously by its full name, by the shorter Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille or Sheldon's Polka Quadrille, and, in one manual, as Williams' Presidential Polka Quadrille. I have no idea who Williams was or why he was credited with a quadrille well documented as having been authored by Sheldon. Like most polka quadrilles, Professor Sheldon's Presidential Polka Quadrille is primarily an excuse to polka, with just a few stray figures thrown in between polka segments. I was drawn to it by the interesting mixer element in Figure 3 and the unusual way of performing the right and left (chaîne anglaise) around the edge of the set in each successive iteration of Figure 4. In general, this is a straightforward reconstruction with only two real problems to resolve, which are discussed in the notes below....[entire quadrille behind the cut]
- [Crossing Over Sequences for Regency-Era French Quadrilles](https://www.kickery.com/2008/10/crossing-over-sequences-for-regency-era-french-quadrilles.html) - As with setting, there are a number of different step sequences available for dancers to use in the Regency-era quadrille figure Traversez (cross over), in which a lady and the gentleman opposite her exchange places. Traversez appears most notably in L'Été, the second figure of the first set of French quadrilles, and in the many versions of the Finale figure which incorporate L'Été. Below I will give a sample of five of the easier step sequences that may be used to dance Traversez. This is not an exhaustive list of all the period sequences I have for this move, but it should suffice for most dancers...[more]
- [Dancing Mormons](https://www.kickery.com/2015/01/dancing-mormons.html) - I come across little tidbits of information about dance history in the oddest places. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, better known as the Mormon church, places a premium on genealogical research for theological reasons. This has inspired one Mormon family, the Blakes, to create a website about their immediate ancestors. Among the reminiscences on their site is an interesting excerpt from the book In Search of Zion: King, Youngberg and Allied Families by Richard K. Hart, which apparently features the recollections of one James King, a friend of Blake ancestor Walter Frank Blake (1880-1965). According to the information on the Blake family site, Walter Blake was born in England and immigrated to Utah with his parents at the age of two. His mother converted to the Mormon faith in the 1880s and Walter and his siblings followed suit. The King family, already Mormons, were neighbors and friends. James King recounted his memories of life in turn-of-the-century Utah farm country to his wife in 1959. Though the stereotype of Mormons is rather stuffy, apparently social dancing was (and is) allowed and even encouraged, provided that it doesn't get too intimate or suggestive. King's stories of life near Utah's Great Salt Lake include a wonderful glimpse of rural dancing around 1900...[behind the cut!]
- [The English Liked to Waltz](https://www.kickery.com/2010/12/the-english-liked-to-waltz.html) - A telegraph from London updates Americans on the early twentieth-century dance scene in London...
- [A ball in Milwaukee, 1847](https://www.kickery.com/2015/11/milwaukee-ball-1847.html) - One of the weirder books I've ended up flipping through lately is Milwaukee Under the Charter, From 1847 to 1853, Inclusive, by James S. Buck. This is the third volume of a series on the Pioneer History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which amasses a bizarre collection of historical trivia about life in Milwaukee in the early to mid-nineteenth century. Buck is not exactly a scintillating author, and he jumps around somewhat randomly from events to people to what seems like the history of every building in the city. You get chapter summaries like this one for the year 1847: Opening Address—Democratic Policy and its Effects—War on the Constitution—Meeting of January 30th, at the Council Room—L. P. Crary—S. P. Coon—Job Haskall—Ordinance Passed—Business Directory—Sketch of J. F. Birchard and of Edward Emery—R. W. Pierce—Graffenburg Pills—Bridges—Sketch of Hon. J. H. VanDyke—McGregor Female Seminary—August Greulich—Badger Supper—An Old Settler—David Bonham—Political—Noonan vs. King—The Earthquake—Steamers—April Election—Retirement of Solomon Juneau—Reliance Works of Decker & Saville—Sketch-New Board—Jonathan Taylor—Torch Light Procession—Report of School Commissioner—John B.Smith—Incidental—Council Proceedings—Tavern Inspectors—Leonard Kennedy, Sketch of—Report of Finance Committee—Brick Sidewalks—Painting a Painter—The Empire Mill—Assessments—Legislative—Fall Election—William Shew's Speech—Exports and Imports. Not obvious from that list is the inclusion of one dance history gem: a public announcement of a ball to be held on January 8th, 1847, in honor of the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans, which was presumably taken from a newspaper or some other piece of ephemera. Since Buck did not burden himself with anything so tedious as footnotes, or even a bibliography, and I have not, so far, been sufficiently motivated to track down a piece of ephemera for which I have so little information to start with, I don't know the exact source of this ball announcement. That makes me a little uneasy. But I have no ball cards, or photos of cards, from the 1840s in my collection, and I can't see any reason why Buck would misrepresent something as innocent as the details of a ball. So I feel reasonably comfortable that this is a reliable transcription of the mystery ephemera...[more questions than answers behind the cut]
- [Regency & Victorian Dance Workshops, NYC (Sunday, January 4, 2009)](https://www.kickery.com/2009/01/regency-victorian-dance-workshops-nyc-sunday-january-4-2009.html) - I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, January 4th. Logistical details are below....[class details behind the cut]
- [Society of Dance History Scholars Conference, Saratoga Springs, NY (June 12-15, 2008)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/06/society-of-danc.html) - I will be attending the annual conference of the Society of Dance History Scholars this weekend up in Saratoga Springs, New York. I am not presenting at the conference, but I hope to meet other scholars with an interest in social dance history and reconstruction and possibly involve myself in some of the working groups
- [Regency & Victorian Dance Workshops, NYC (Sunday, December 7, 2008)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/12/regency-victorian-dance-workshops-nyc-sunday-december-7-2008.html) - I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, December 7th. Logistical details are here....[class details behind the cut]
- [Regency & Renaissance Dance Workshops, NYC (June 1, 2008)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/05/regency-renaiss.html) - I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, June 1st. Logistical details are here. The first (1:00-3:45pm) will focus on the dances of the Regency era (1810-1820), including steps and figures for country dances and the Royal Scotch and Caledonian Quadrilles, plus the Regency-era waltz.
- [March 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/02/march-2017-gig-calendar.html) - After a quiet three months of teaching hiatus, I am back on the road this month...but all roads this spring will be Russian ones...[details behind the cut]
- [April 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/03/april-2017-gig-calendar.html) - Continuing my wonderful Russian residency, this month I'll be continuing my regular Moscow classes in cross-step waltz and American ragtime dance as well as making trips to Saint Petersburg and Vladimir to teach ragtime dance in those cities as well! I'll also have a couple of one-shot classes for Moscow studios in ragtime dance and American Civil War-era contradance. For Russian-language information and questions about my classes in Russia this spring, please see my VK community...[very full schedule behind the cut]
- [September 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/08/september-2017-gig-calendar.html) - This is my last month of mostly-hibernation! As of September 24th, I will once more be taking residency in Moscow (Russia, not Idaho) and doing my teaching primarily there and elsewhere in Europe for eight months, with occasional brief excursions to the USA for special events. In the three weeks before I leave, I'll be in Chicago for a ball, the Boston area to DJ blues, and home in Connecticut for an informal Regency dance. I'll also be in and out of New York City a couple of times. Catch me if you can...[USA-based gig schedule behind the cut]
- [May 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/04/may-2017-gig-calendar.html) - This will be my final month of Russian residency, continuing my regular Moscow classes in cross-step waltz and American ragtime dance, plus at least one one-shot class in Moscow in nineteenth-century American contradance before I head home. A couple of other things are in the works and may yet be added to this schedule, so check back as the month goes on! For Russian-language information and questions about my classes in Russia this spring, please see my VK community....[schedule details behind the cut]
- [Death of a dancing-master, 1699](https://www.kickery.com/2019/03/death-of-a-dancing-master-1699.html) - While on the topic of late seventeenth-century dancing masters behaving badly, I came across information on one George Norton, seventeen years old, condemned to die for the murder of Thomas Harris, a dancing master whom he accidentally killed with Harris's own sword in a street fight. Here's Norton's brief confession, excerpted from A True Account of the Behaviour, Confessions, and last Dying Speeches of the Condemn'd Criminals, that were Executed at Tyburn on Wednesday the 2d. of August, 1699, by John Allen, Ordinary. George Norton, Esq ; 17 Years old, Condemn'd for the Murder of Mr. Harris; being examin'd gave this Account, which he confirmed with repeated and solemn Asseverations, when he receiv'd the blessed Sacrament, viz. That as he was going to his Lodgings, he accidentally met with the Deceased, whom he never saw before; who held a Woman in his Hand; he taking the Wall of her, she asked Mr. Harris, if he wou'd permit such a Puppy to affront her so: Upon which the Deceased pushed him, which made him demand who he was? Mr. Harris replied, he was a Man; this occasion'd several Words, which at length made them both draw, and as he protested, the Deceased drew first, and made several Passes, ten or twelve, before he receiv'd his fatal Wound. Being demanded how the Deceased's Sword came to be bloody and broke, and his bright and entire? He added farther; That as they were Pushing at one another, the Woman took away his Sword, which made him defend himself for some time with his Cane, but perceiving the Deceased to press hard upon him, he closed with him, and endeavoured with all his Force, to wrest the Sword out of his Hand, which breaking short, with the Point of his own Sword, the Hilt still remaining in his Hand, the Deceased receiv'd his mortal Wound; for which he seem'd very Penitent, earnestly beseeching God, to Wash him throughly from his Iniquity, and cleanse him from his Sin, in that Fountain opened for Sin and for Uncleanness, the precious Bloud of the Immaculate Lamb of God, Slain to take away the Sins of the World. I believe he is a true Penitent. (source: Old Bailey Online) Later on in Allen's account is a brief note: George Norton, Esq ; is Repriv'd till the ninth instant. But the story didn't end there. According to a surviving "true crime" broadsheet containing a fuller confession, Norton committed suicide by poison on August 8th, the night before his new execution date. But why, exactly, were Norton and Harris fighting in the street in the first place...[Shakespeare, an angry Widow, an alias, and general dissipation behind the cut]
- [A dancing master's epitaph](https://www.kickery.com/2014/12/maddox-epitaph.html) - From a book of "select and remarkable" epitaphs published in 1757: On Mr. Maddox, a Dancing-Master, and his Wife.They were lovely and pleasant in their Lives, and in their Deaths they were not divided.Hail happy Pair! predestin'd long to proveThe chastest Raptures of connubial Love!Who took no Step thro' Life's perplexed Dance,But what would well your mutual Bliss advance!Who figur'd not a Plan but what was meant,Again to join your Hands with fresh Content.Tho' ceremonious--yet with Ease still fraught;The very Image of the Art you taught !Polite in all Life's mazy Measures try'd,As the gay Partner to his destin'd Bride.Twice thirty Years in gentle Wedlock past,The first was not so happy as the last !Still each to each so complaisantly gay,As raptur'd Lovers on their Nuptial Day !All wing'd with Down their Years advancing roll,And still improve this Unison of Soul!Unvarying--courtly to his latest Breath,He gave his Spouse Precedence e'en in Death.The truest Honours to each other given,He just surviv'd, then led her up to Heaven....[a few comments behind the cut]
- [A Valentine Cotillion](https://www.kickery.com/2017/02/valentine-cotillion.html) - I return once more, in honor of Valentine's Day, to H. Layton Walker's delightful Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912), which is always guaranteed to provide me some interesting figures for imaginative dancers. Christmas was a bit disappointing, as holiday cotillion themes go. Valentine's Day seems much more promising, since both cotillions and valentines have the goal of matching up people and thus ought to combine nicely...[and they do!]
- [Ending a Grand March](https://www.kickery.com/2014/10/ending-a-grand-march.html) - In almost seven years of writing Kickery (has it really been that long?) I think I've only once said anything at all detailed about the Grand March, which was generally performed as the opening dance at American balls in the latter part of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, though occasionally it appears later on the program. Clearly an overview is overdue! This isn't it. While working recently on the ball program for a pair of Civil War-era balls to be held in Gettysburg in November, I started wondering idly how many ways there were to end a Grand March. So I made a little list. I won't be using most of these, alas; the Gettysburg balls are insanely crowded and thus do not lend themselves to really interesting Marches. But I thought it might be fun to share some of the possibilities...[which appears with only minimal levity behind the cut]
- [Polish Dance, 1832](https://www.kickery.com/2023/02/polish-dance-1832.html) - This blandly named "Polish Dance" was published by expatriate English dancing master William George Wells in The danciad, or companion to the modern ball room in Montreal in 1832. I have my doubts about whether there is anything authentically Polish about it, but the dance itself is...interesting. Let me start with a transcription. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ POLISH DANCE To be danced by an unlimited number of couples, and placed exactly in the same situation as for the Original Gallopade. WALTZ TIME. Fig.— Promenade = = Poussette = = sett and turn partners = ladies’ hands across and back. joining hands to partners’, forming a cross = = all promenade in a cross and turn partners to places = = all the couples now fall into Quadrille parties of four, and perform La Pantalon, still in Waltz time = sauteuse = =. [This may be repeated at the pleasure of the party.] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've previously discussed both Wells' "Original" Gallopade and the possibly-more-original Original Gallopade published by J. S. Pollock. It's clear that the Polish Dance is performed in a circle of couples. The reference is also a reminder that Wells was not necessarily the originator of many (any?) of the dances in his book; see here for another example. So, the Polish Dance should be done in a circle of couples, specifically, in an even number of couples, since in the second part of the dance, they form half-quadrille sets, couple-facing-couple, to perform the Pantalon figure of the French quadrille. There are some minor reconstruction problems with the dance, but before going on to those, let's take a look at the basic structure of the dance: the couples move around the room, promenading and doing figures as a group they do a quadrille figure in pairs they end with sauteuse waltz Does this remind you of anything?...[answer behind the cut]
- [A Vauxhall Masquerade (12th Annual Regency Assembly), Saturday, October 18th, New Haven, CT](https://www.kickery.com/2014/09/vauxhall-masquerade-2014.html) - Saturday, October 18th, in New Haven, Connecticut we will have a night of Regency-era revelry with a masquerade ball in the style of Vauxhall Gardens, the famous pleasure gardens of early 19th century London! This will be our twelfth annual Regency Assembly in New Haven. Regency-style fancy dress costume is welcome (though not required; plain
- [November 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/11/november-2025-gig-calendar.html) - One ball down, one to go! The big event this month is my annual trip to Gettysburg for Remembrance Day Weekend, this year with only one ball. I'll also squeeze in a quick trip to Boston and a three-week series of disco line dance classes before retreating home to more-or-less hibernate for a couple of
- [La Musette](https://www.kickery.com/2025/11/la-musette.html) - La Musette is one of the many (many!) little dances and variations found in both M. B. Gilbert’s collection Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and G. W. Lopp’s even larger compilation, La Danse (Paris, 1903), much of which seems to have been copied and translated directly from Gilbert. The dance was classified under "Redowa and Mazurka" in Gilbert and
- [The Latest York](https://www.kickery.com/2019/05/latest-york.html) - Years ago, when I was working intensely on the "York set" of variations (see here, here, here, here, and here), I somehow skipped The Latest York, possibly because, unlike all those other "Yorks", it does not feature the characteristic York step sequence of slide-close-slide-cut/close in "1&23" rhythm. M. B. Gilbert published The Latest York in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) "by permission of Constantine Carpenter, Son, and Charles C. Martel". This style of credit generally refers to the choreographer of the sequence and/or composer of the music. The same pair are also credited with the Gavotte Glide. Carpenter is listed in Gilbert's directory of dancing masters as living in Philadelphia. Martel is not in Gilbert's directory, but his name appears in Philadelphia newspapers (The Times, October 21, 1894, e.g.) during the 1890s offering parties and lessons. Interestingly, The Latest York is one of the few dances from Gilbert that G. W. Lopp did not translate and reprint in La Danse (Paris, 1903)...[quick description and notes behind the cut]
- [A Fancy Medley (1893)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/12/fancy-medley-1893.html) - Throughout the mid- and late 19th century, dancing masters had mixed quadrille figures and couple dances such as the waltz, polka, schottische, and galop into single figures or entire quadrilles. A popular variation on this idea was a "varieties" or medley quadrille in which each figure used a different kind of music and incorporated a different couple dance. Such a one is this Fancy Medley, published in Boston in 1893 in The Prompter’s Handbook by J.A. French. The three figures of the quadrille include a polka figure, a schottische figure, and a waltz figure. The original instructions may be seen here (page one) and here (page two). The individual figures are quite similar to some of French's single-figure quadrilles, such as the Waltz Quadrille and Polka Quadrille discussed in earlier posts here (waltz) and here (polka) and bear a close family resemblance to other single-figure quadrilles of the era.
- [Revisiting the Flirtation Figure](https://www.kickery.com/2016/05/revisiting-flirtation.html) - Almost six and a half years ago, I reconstructed and briefly discussed the Flirtation Figure, which appeared in William Lamb's How and What to Dance (London, 1903 or 1904) as a separate figure after the usual five figures of the first set of quadrilles. My slightly revised reconstruction of Lamb's figure: Flirtation Figure (8 bars + 32 bars x4 + 8 bars) 8b Introduction (not repeated)4b Grand Circle: all take hands and forward and back4b All turn partners two hands4b All four ladies forward and back 4b All four gentlemen forward, turn, and bow to lady at their left (their corner lady) 4b Facing corners, all balance by stepping right, close left behind, step right, touch toe of left in front (1, 2, 3, 4); repeat to left4b Turn corners two hands, ending in gentleman's original place and taking closed hold8b All galopade around the set (four-slide galop to each position, alternating over hands/over elbows) Repeat previous thirty-two bars three more times. After last repetition: 8b Grand Circle and turn partners two hands I recently noticed that versions of the Flirtation Figure appear as the fifth figure in a number of "old time dance" manuals published in England during the 1940s, including: Francis & Day's Ball Room Guide of Old Time Favourite and Modern Dances (London, c1940) Cecil Taylor, Old Time and Novelty Dances (London, 1944) Victor Sylvester, Old Time Dancing (London, c1949; 4th impression 1951) Taylor and the Francis & Day book referred to it as the "Grand Circle" and danced it with a galop at the end of each figure, as in Lamb. Sylvester gaves it no special title and had the couples promenade instead. All three had the ladies curtsey in the center before retiring to places and gave very precise instructions that the gentlemen should advance, bow first to each other, then step back on the right foot, turn to the left, and bow to the corner lady. Francis & Day also gave an adapted version of the figure in the "present day" version of the quadrille, which replaces turns and promenades with waltzing. But I more interested in the history of the figure and how at least some writers in the 1940s considered it not an alternative figure but actually the standard Finale figure for the first quadrille...[details and a meander through sources behind the cut]
- [Thoughts on teaching polka and polka redowa](https://www.kickery.com/2015/08/polka-and-polka-redowa.html) - I recently had the opportunity to watch another teacher do a general introduction to the standard mid-nineteenth century couple dances. That's a rarer event than you'd imagine. Historical dance teachers aren't that thick on the ground, and even at multi-teacher festivals, either there aren't any introductory classes or I'm busy teaching my own classes during them. Watching this class reminded me of something I've been meaning to write up for months about altering how we teach this repertoire. This doesn't apply to the one-night-stand sort of teaching gig, but I think it's something other teachers with ongoing classes may find useful...[pedagogical geekery behind the cut]
- [Paine's Quadrilles, Twelfth Set, 1819 (1 of 4)](https://www.kickery.com/2018/01/paines-twelfth-1.html) - As with my earlier reconstructions of Howe's figures for "Les Rats" and the third set of Simonet's Parisian Quadrilles, I was primarily motivated to reconstruct Paine's Twelfth Set of Quadrilles by the existence of a high-quality recording of the music. I'm not sure what prompted Green Ginger to choose this quadrille, out of more than a dozen of Paine's other sets of quadrille music (besides his most-famous and oft-recorded first) to include on their CD of Regency-era dance music, Music for Quadrilles, but it's an excellent set of tunes played beautifully. I've used these recordings in the past as variant music for the standard quadrille figures, which they were structured to fit. But Paine's original sheet music also included new figures for those who didn't want to dance the usual ones, and they turned out to have some unusual figures which I quite like. The booklet of liner notes for Music for Quadrilles includes instructions for each dance; the quadrille ones are clearly Ellis Rogers' work. I mostly agree with those reconstructions, but they are bare-bones figure lists with no steps or details of performance. I have a few minor quibbles with figure interpretations and some of the musical repeats, and I think there are reconstruction issues with the fifth figure that are worth pointing out...[further thoughts on this behind the cut]
- [The Nahant Quadrilles (4 of 4)](https://www.kickery.com/2020/08/nahant-quadrilles-4.html) - The final post in my series on The Nahant Quadrilles: figure five and some thoughts on the quadrille as a whole! The original wording: 1st two cross over give right hand. And back give left hand. Form a line. Balancez. Half Promenade. Forward 4. Half right & left to places This one should look familiar to anyone who has danced the French quadrille: it's a slightly shortened version of the third figure, La Poule. This makes it quite easy to reconstruct, but it does present a problem with the music. The shortened figure is twenty-four bars, while the music has four strains with no indications of any repeat structure. Conveniently, however, the fourth strain is a transposed and elaborated version of the A strain, so for a twenty-four bar figure one could play A + BCA'x4 or perhaps save the A' strain for the last time through and play A + BCAx3 + BCA'. The Spare Parts recording ignores the A' strain and just plays A + BCAx4, which works fine for dancing my reconstruction. This figure really needs no further commentary; it's La Poule minus eight bars done by the lead pair alone and the reconstruction is completely straightforward...[and may be found behind the cut, along with a suggestion for restructuring the whole quadrille]
- [The Nahant Quadrilles (2 of 4)](https://www.kickery.com/2020/08/nahant-quadrilles-2.html) - Onward we go, with figures two and three of The Nahant Quadrilles! For figure two, the music (available here) has two strains with a Da Capo, which works without any tweaking. The Spare Parts recording matches my reconstruction. The original language for the figures: Four ladies grand chain. Forward & back 1st two. Back to back. Repeat 4 times. This is a very short figure, only sixteen bars. The second half is very straightforward: the first pair (first lady and opposite gentleman) go forward and back then perform a dos-à-dos. As in the first figure, each time through this is a different pair. The first half, however, presents an interesting choice...[which I discuss behind the cut, along with figure three]
- [The Nahant Quadrilles (3 of 4)](https://www.kickery.com/2020/08/nahant-quadrilles-3.html) - And now we come to figure four, the biggest mess in the entire quadrille! Problems with the figures, problems with the music, problems correlating the two...I believe in my conclusions, but I can't deny that there's a lot of guesswork involved in any reconstruction of this figure. First, the music. Take a look at Figure 4's tune, "Georgette", here. There are three eight bar strains marked with a Da Capo al segno, to which my first response was, what segno? There is no segno! There's a Fine, oddly located at the end of the B strain, so presumably it was meant to be Da Capo al Fine. But quadrille music usually ends on the A strain, and while the length of the figure is the next problem to consider, it's difficult to come up with a reasonable repeat structure that has AB at the end. In thirty-two bars, A + BCAB repeated, perhaps, but in twenty-four bars, it's just impossible. The solution Spare Parts used on the recording was to simply decide the Fine was wrongly placed and should be at the end of the A strain. Matching Patri's thirty-two bar reconstruction, they played it A + BBCAx4. While it's hazardous to go purely by instinct, I believe that the A strain feels like it ought to be the ending strain. You can listen for yourself here, where the audio clip plays A + BBCA BBCA B(fading out). So I agree with the choice to end on the A strain. I am much less certain about the figure length and the four repeats, however....[and I discuss these issues at length behind the cut]
- [The Three-Step Boston or English Boston](https://www.kickery.com/2009/04/threestep-boston.html) - 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....[more]
- [The Five-Step Boston or Five-Step Waltz, 1914](https://www.kickery.com/2009/04/fivestep-boston.html) - In his 1914 manual, Dances of To-day, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman describes a four-bar waltz variation he calls the Five-Step Boston or Five-Step Waltz. Unlike the five-step waltz of the mid-19th century or the half-and-half of the 1910s, this waltz is done in the usual 3/4 waltz time, spreading five movements out over the six counts of music. This is a hesitation waltz movement, well-suited the fast waltzes of the early 20th century. It is easy to learn and provides a pleasant break from constant fast spinning....[more]
- [CD Review: Returning Heroes](https://www.kickery.com/2012/03/cd-review-returning-heroes.html) - Brand new this month -- the release party is coming up in a couple of weeks -- is the dance band Spare Parts' latest CD of mid-nineteenth-century dance music, Returning Heroes. After dancing for many years to music from their earlier CD, The Civil War Ballroom, it's a delight to have new music for this era! The short review: it's a great CD; buy it immediately if you enjoy dancing of the Civil War era. The longer version follows. Disclaimer: the musicians of Spare Parts are personal friends, and my advance copy of this CD was sent to me as a gift...[more details behind the cut]
- [CD Review: The Regency Ballroom](https://www.kickery.com/2009/12/cd-review-the-regency-ballroom.html) - The very short version of this review is: historical dance band Spare Parts' The Regency Ballroom is one of the very best and most diverse recordings available for Regency-era dance music, and everyone should go out and get their own copy to support the making of such recordings. The longer version follows. But first, a disclaimer: the musicians of Spare Parts are personal friends, the band has played for my Regency Assemblies for the past several years, the selection of dances on this CD parallels the program of those Assemblies, and I served as one of the dance consultants for the recording and thus received a copy of it for free. Unsurprisingly, I am very pleased with it. I do not, however, receive any financial benefit from its sales or anything like that. So what's on the CD...[details behind the cut]
- [Late Victorian Waltz Variations: The Bowdoin](https://www.kickery.com/2010/08/late-victorian-waltz-variations-bowdoin.html) - This is the final post in this month's little series of easy and useful late nineteenth century waltz variations from M.B. Gilbert's 1890 manual, Round Dancing. The first three posts in the series may be found here, here, and here. Gilbert notes of the Bowdoin that he "applied these movements to the Waltz during the seasons of 1888-89, and found the application very pleasing." Once again, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding the waltz steps, with my preference being for the smoother transitions allowed by the gliding version....[details of the Bowdoin behind the cut]
- [Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Le Metropole](https://www.kickery.com/2010/08/late-victorian-waltz-variations-le-metropole.html) - Returning once again to my short series on some of the more useful waltz variations published by M.B. Gilbert in his 1890 manual, Round Dancing, here's a third simple variation for the late nineteenth century waltz. The first and second posts in the series may be found here and here. Le Metropole uses the same simple sliding and waltzing steps of the Gavotte Glide but mixes them in a different way. Gilbert attributes it to H. Fletcher Rivers. Like the Gavotte Glide, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding. And as with the Gavotte Glide, its gliding feel makes me lean toward the latter for the sake of smoother transitions...[details of Le Metropole behind the cut]
- [Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Gavotte Glide](https://www.kickery.com/2010/08/late-victorian-waltz-variations-gavotte-glide.html) - This is the second in my short series on some of the more useful waltz variations published by M.B. Gilbert in his 1890 manual, Round Dancing. The first post in the series may be found here. Of all of the variations in Gilbert, this simple mix of sliding steps and waltz turns is probably the easiest and the one I use most frequently in teaching new dancers. Gilbert attributes it to "Constantine Carpenter, Son, and Charles C. Martel." As with the Diagonal Waltz, this variation will work either leaping or simply gliding, though its gliding feel makes me lean toward the latter for smoother transitions within the variation....[details of the variation behind the cut]
- [How to Dance the Early Schottische](https://www.kickery.com/2008/02/how-to-dance-th.html) - Era: 1850s-1870s A short, performance-oriented summary for those who want to skip the background and just go out and schottische. This is intended as a summary for those already generally familiar with couple dancing, not as a way for new dancers to learn from scratch; a live teacher is always to be preferred to a
- [La Marjolaine](https://www.kickery.com/2025/11/marjolaine.html) - La Marjolaine, The New Society Dance, was published by the White-Smith Music Publishing Co. in 1888. The music was "arranged from an Italian theme" by Pierre Duvernet with an accompanying "combination of figures" by E. W, Masters. The title page of the sheet music may be seen below; click to enlarge. The figures are a
- [Mysteries of the Manitou](https://www.kickery.com/2015/10/mysteries-of-the-manitou.html) - I keep saying that I don't think there's much need to memorize all the variations in sources like Melvin Ballou Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) in order to accurately reenact the social dance of late nineteenth-century America. But I keep reconstructing and posting them anyway, since I find there's often something to learn by examining how they're constructed. The dance published as the "Maniton", which I am fairly sure is a typo for "Manitou", has two elements that caught my interest: a major change between sources and an unusual use of the "new waltz", the late nineteenth-century version of the box step that I've been thinking and writing about recently. First, the name. In Gilbert, both the index and the title within the text are "Maniton". As far as I can tell, that just isn't a word. In the other source for the dance, George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903), much of which is merely a French translation of Gilbert, it is "Maniton" in the text but "Manitou" in the index. I think the latter is the actual name of the dance and/or its intended music. Switching "n" for "u" is a typesetting error I've encountered elsewhere...[more mysteries behind the cut]
- [The Five Step York](https://www.kickery.com/2014/07/five-step-york.html) - The Five Step York, created by Indianapolis dancing master D. B. Brenneke, is yet another of the myriad variations for the York, one of the more durable and popular redowa/mazurka waltz variations of the late nineteenth century. It builds directly on Brenneke's own New York sequence. While it is not a regular part of my "York set", the Five Step York is an easy little variation to add to one's York repertoire. I am aware of only two published descriptions of the Five Step York: in English, in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), and in French, in [George] Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903), where it is listed as "Le York à 5 Pas". Gilbert puts it under redowa/mazurka variations, and Lopp lists it as a mazurka. Much of Lopp is simply a translation of Gilbert, but he differs just enough to add either clarity or confusion to some of the descriptions. In this case, I believe that both Gilbert and Lopp have flaws in their descriptions, but I can make two reasonable guesses as to what the actual sequence should be....[details behind the cut]
- [The Independent York](https://www.kickery.com/2013/04/independent-york.html) - The Independent York is an interesting variation on the original York, albeit one that was probably rarely danced outside a studio context. I have found it in only two sources. The earlier is Melvin Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), where it is uncredited, suggesting that Gilbert himself created it. The later source is La Danse, by [George] Washington Lopp, published in Paris in 1903, much of which is simply a French translation of Gilbert. It appears there as L'Indépendant York and is credited to Gilbert. The sequence is identical in both sources. Gilbert classifies it, as he does the York, under "redowa and mazurka"; Lopp lists it as a mazurka...[details behind the cut]
- [New York, New York](https://www.kickery.com/2013/04/new-york-new-york.html) - The New York is another of the myriad "redowa and mazurka" variations given in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890). Along with the Fascination, it is one of only a few variations credited to Indianapolis dancing master D. B. Brenneke. It reappears among the material translated directly from Gilbert in [George] Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903), where it is listed as a mazurka and again credited to Brenneke. Gilbert gives both this "New York" and another dance called "The New York", making it unclear whether the name refers to the city or whether it is simply a new version of the York. Lopp lists it as La New York, along with two different dances called La Nouvelle York. Lopp's translations suggest that the reference is to the city as much as to the popular dance. That might make it something of a pun, since the New York does include the characteristic sliding sequence found in the first measure of the York. Contradicting this is the appearance of the dance in the addenda of the fifth edition of William B. De Garmo's The Dance of Society (New York, 1892), where it is listed simply as "The York, No. 2", which leads one to the new-version-of-the-York interpretation of the title. De Garmo notes that "This method has become very popular...[details behind the cut]
- [The York](https://www.kickery.com/2010/05/york.html) - Era: 1890s-very early 1900s The York is a waltz variation which appeared in several American dance manuals in the last decade of the 19th century. The earliest reference I have located is in Melvin Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), where he includes it "by permission of E.W. Masters," possibly the creator. George Washington Lopp, who reprinted much of Gilbert in La Danse (Paris, 1903) directly attributes it to Masters. Unlike many of the variations included in Gilbert, the York seems to have enjoyed some minor success. Allen Dodworth did not include it in the first (1885) edition of his substantial tome, Dancing, but it appears in the 1900 edition in an appendix of recently developed dances which appear to be have been copied in large part from Marguerite Wilson's Dancing (Philadelphia, 1899). Wilson's fellow Philadelphian, dancing master Albert Newman, included it as "Yorke (Mazurka)" in his 1903 A Complete Practical Guide to Modern Society Dancing, and Wisconsin dancing master A.C. Wirth has "The Yorke" in his 1902 Complete Quadrille Call Book and Dancing Master. It also appears with identical language to Wirth's in D.F. Jay's A.B.C. Guide to Ballroom Dancing, published in Chicago around 1900, and M.I. Quick's Complete Guide to Dancing, also Chicago, 1903. All three midwestern manuals were probably plagiarized from a common source....[how to do it, behind the cut]
- [The America](https://www.kickery.com/2021/07/america-carr.html) - In honor of America's birthday, here's an appropriately-named variation by C. A. Carr (creator of the Highland Glide) which is long enough with enough dancing in place that it should probably be classified as a sequence dance and danced by all dancers in unison, as it would be quite the annoyance to other couples if done in the midst of a normal dance. In M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) it is listed in the redowa/mazurka section and in George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903) under "Les mazurkas". If forced to a decision, I'd call it a polka mazurka and note that it features a stealthy bit of York hidden inside it....[York and all behind the cut]
- [Late 19th Century Jig-Time Dances: The Rockaway](https://www.kickery.com/2012/05/rockaway.html) - I've recently been looking more closely at some of the "Miscellaneous Dances" found in the back of M. B. Gilbert's 1890 tome, Round Dancing, and noticed that quite a few of the dances there are labeled specifically as for dancing to jig time (6/8) or for either jig or galop (2/4) time. The Rockaway is one of those given as suited for either time signature. The earliest source I have for this dance is a New York dance manual, and it seems likely that it was named for the Rockaway Peninsula, a part of Long Island which was a popular seaside resort area in the nineteenth century...[details of the dance behind the cut]
- [Lowe's Gallopade Quadrille](https://www.kickery.com/2010/12/lowes-gallopade-quadrille.html) - Here's an easy and interesting quadrille taken from Lowe's Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide, Third Edition, published in Edinburgh by the "Messers. Lowe." The manual is not dated, but internal references and the type of dances included suggest that it is from the late 1820s or early 1830s. Given the era, I would expect to dance the figures with early nineteenth century quadrille steps, but the steps and sequences required are few and easy. The Gallopade Quadrille, or Quadrille Galope, is for the usual four couples in a square and consists of three figures, each with three parts. The format of each figure is: 16b Galopade 16b Various quadrille figures 16b Sauteuse This gives a length of 48bx3. Following the third figure, the dancers continue to sauteuse until the end of the music. I have no specific music for this dance, but using a piece of music at least 16b x 10 (160 bars) long will allow for the standard eight bars at the beginning for bows and an additional eight bars for the final sauteuse. Lengthier music will permit a longer sauteuse at the end. Taking the parts piece by piece...[detailed breakdown behind the cut]
- [Gothic Ancestry: A Country Dance Gallopade](https://www.kickery.com/2011/11/gothic-ancestry-a-country-dance-gallopade.html) - A year or so ago I published a discussion and reconstruction of the 1862 country dance gallopade known as The Gothic Dance and mentioned that there was a very similar dance in London dancing master J. S. Pollock's c1830 manual, A Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne. I've taught this dance at the few 1830s events I've had an opportunity to run, but have not previously published a reconstruction. The original instructions for the dance, one of a pair of country dance gallopades with numbers but no titles, are as follows: No. 2. (4 parts) All advance, retire, and cross over, changing places with partners -- advance, retire, and cross over back again -- first and second couples right and left -- first couple gallopade down the middle to the bottom of the dance, and remain at the bottom. The formation is a long line of couples, gentlemen on one side (with their left side toward the top of the set, or orchestra) and ladies on the other, in two facing lines. While not specified, I'd have the dancers take hands along those lines. The reconstruction is fairly straightforward: 4b All advance and retire in lines4b All cross over, passing right shoulders and turning to the right to form facing lines again8b Repeat all of the above to original places8b First two couples right and left8b First couple gallopade down the center to the end, remaining there (repeat until all couples have gone down the dance) The similarity to the Gothic Dance as well as to the traditional English Galopede, which this appears to be an early version of, is obvious in the advance/retire/cross over pattern and final gallopade, though the Gothic Dance is far more creative in its figures. This dance is simple and rather sedate by comparison...[notes on the reconstruction and performance after the cut]
- [Another "Original" Gallopade](https://www.kickery.com/2021/07/another-original-gallopade.html) - Whatever the Original Gallopade published by dancing master W. G. Wells ("late of London") in The danciad, or companion to the modern ball room (Montreal, 1832) may be, it's certainly not the "original", in the sense of being the first version, since it's clearly a variation of the Original Gallopade published in Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (Second Edition) by J. S. Pollock (London, c1830). The introductory material is also blatantly plagiarized from either Pollock or some common source, so it can hardly be called "original" in the creative sense either, and it is unlikely to be exactly what was originally introduced in 1829 and referenced in the introduction to the dance, which I will append in full at the bottom of this post. I think that introduction is more about gallopade-as-a-dance-in-general rather than this specific gallopade. But in any case, it's virtually identical to the introduction in Pollock, and they can't both be the original. The one element actually original to Wells was a diagram showing the circle of couples (represented by X for gentlemen and O for ladies). But all in all, I would say that "The Original Gallopade" should be considered a proper name rather than a description. That said, the dance figures themselves are an interesting variation on the Pollock dance, and I have such a small collection of figured gallopades for circles of couples that any addition is of interest....[figures and such behind the cut]
- ["The Leap Year Ball": a poem, 1896](https://www.kickery.com/2024/02/leap-year-ball-poem-1896.html) - Before getting back to detailed newspaper descriptions of leap year balls, here's a less detailed but still useful description of one in the form of a very mediocre poem. It was published on page three of the Oakdale Leader, in Oakdale, California, on Friday, February 14th, 1896. The leap year elements mentioned specifically in the poem are: the ladies "managing" things and taking the author into the ballroom the "beaux" sitting in a row waiting for partners and the ladies rushing to find one, making sure no one was left out Fannie and Julia as some sort of ball organizers or floor managers, wearing badges and making sure things went smoothly a lady acting as treasurer and, by implication, asking the author to dance I admit to cynically feeling that the ladies being concerned that none of the "gints" were slighted was showing more care for their feelings than many gentlemen showed for those of ladies when in conventional roles -- the ladies were perhaps deliberately setting an example for the gentlemen of how they wished to be treated....[a few comments and a bad poem behind the cut]
- [The Ladies' Ball, 1835](https://www.kickery.com/2016/01/the-ladies-ball-1835.html) - 2016 being a leap year, some folks have been chatting about leap year balls or leap day dances, including the idea of such balls being a traditional occasion for ladies to ask gentlemen to dance, rather than the standard vice-versa. I'm not sure how far back that tradition actually goes, but it reminded me of an amusing story published in Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post & Bulletin in 1835, entitled "The Ladies' Ball". Atkinson's Saturday Evening Post & Bulletin was a Philadelphia newspaper published under various names from 1800; Samuel Atkinson was the publisher from 1831-1839. Along with domestic and foreign news, Atkinson also included essays, fiction, poetry, household hints, etc. Its descendant survives to this day as the bimonthly Saturday Evening Post, famous in the mid-twentieth century for its Norman Rockwell covers. "The Ladies' Ball" tells the story of a social crisis: the gentleman of a certain nameless city, distracted by the study of mnemonics and other sciences, had forgotten to organize the traditional Christmas ball...[behind the cut: how the ladies respond!]
- [A Young Mothers' Reception, 1891](https://www.kickery.com/2023/05/young-mothers-reception-1891.html) - In honor of Mother's Day in the USA, another specialized (and much smaller) dance event from the pages of the October, 1891, issue of Demorest's Family Magazine: A young mothers' reception, with dancing, is the unique entertainment to which only young married couples are invited. Round dances are tabooed, and what time can be spared from the discussion of the charms and precocious sayings and doings of their little ones is devoted to sedate square dances. To give a little touch of piquancy to the affair, partners are selected by favors, children's toys being used for the purpose. The following day the guests call on the hostess, with their children. -- Demorest's Family Magazine, Volume XXVII, No. 12, October, 1891, p. 756 This brief description appeared in a "Chat" column which primarily covered the decor of several autumn-themed events (the "Dahlia Tennis Court" was my favorite)...[brief description and comments behind the cut]
- [Giving thanks!](https://www.kickery.com/2016/11/giving-thanks-3.html) - It's that time of year again...the start of the (American) winter holiday season, and the culturally-ordained time to give thanks! This year a big thank-you goes to my wonderful Patrons, whose financial support of this blog through Patreon keeps me researching and writing as well as providing a level of emotional support that's really helpful for a
- [Giving Thanks!](https://www.kickery.com/2018/11/giving-thanks-2.html) - It's that time of year again! America celebrates Thanksgiving, and this American living abroad, sans turkey and trimmings, celebrates by thanking two sets of organizers who have hired me regularly for events. As everyone who knows me understands, I love visiting new places and teaching new groups. But it's also a special delight to have places and events I return to regularly, making friends and developing communities and watching dancers progress over time...[specific thanks behind the cut]
- [Seasonal Cotillions](https://www.kickery.com/2016/12/seasonal-cotillions.html) - Once more, some cotillions, this time to wrap up the year with midwinter cheer! As with the North Pole figures, these are taken from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Buffalo, New York, 1912). This trio of figures is pure fun, however, with no special historical significance. Three figures aren't enough to comprise an entire party on their own, but mixed with standard, non-winter-themed figures, they add a nice seasonal touch. But first, let's let's decorate the ballroom with a winter theme... Snow Flake Dance (party decor)I can do know better than to quote Walker on the details: Produce a winter scene that would cheer rather than chill the dancers. Ceiling to be festooned with crepe paper, and hung with ornaments. Under these decorations have network of wires loaded down with artificial snow. Provide serpentine [long, string-like confetti] to the participants which is to be thrown over the snow-laden festoons and wires, sending down the shower of flakes. The effect is very pretty. Souvenirs for the dance are caps for the ladies and hugh [sic] chrysanthemums for the gentlemen. Orchestra can occupy an ice cave at the end of the hall and all the decorations of the room are to be consistent with the snow-flake effect. Presumably those are huge chrysanthemums for the gents. As is often the case, I am bemused by the level of effort and money this description implies. The orchestra can occupy an ice cave? A real ice cave? A fake one seems like it would be less messy and less likely to result in frozen fingers wrecking the music, but with the conspicuous-consumption aspect of cotillions, one can't be quite certain they didn't actually consider building the orchestra a giant igloo. But least the whole thing seems safer than decorating with evergreens. On to some figures....[three of them behind the cut]
- [Double Scotch Reel](https://www.kickery.com/2013/10/double-scotch-reel.html) - Double Scotch Reel does not seem to be Scotch and, as I reconstruct it, does not actually include any reels (heys). It is a trio contra (three facing three in long lines own the room) which I have found only in one source: the Gems of the Ball Room Call Book published by E. T. Root & Sons in Chicago in 1896. The Gems call book appears to have been published specifically as dance calls for quadrilles and contra dances to go with the tunes in a series of music books called Gems of the Ball Room also published by Root. The contra dance figures in Gems have some noticeable variations from those found in New England manuals such as those of Elias Howe, which might indicate regional variations between the northeast and midwest or might be simple carelessness on the part of the editor. The language and format of the different figures makes it obvious that they were pulled from different sources, so I suspect that somewhere there is another source for Double Scotch Reel, and that the collator of dances for Gems copied it exactly. I love Double Scotch Reel both because I am perennially fascinated by the possibilities of the trio dance form and because the figures of this dance, as I reconstruct them, flow together beautifully. There is a modern reconstruction with a rather different take on the dance which I will discuss briefly below. Here are the figures in the exact language and with the number of bars given in Gems: 4b Swing right hand lady 4b Swing left hand lady 8b Ladies chain, right hand partner 8b Balance four with left hand partner 8b Six right and left 8b Forward all and pass through and my own reconstruction, with extensive notes following...[behind the cut]
- [The Royal Gallopade](https://www.kickery.com/2009/11/royal-gallopade.html) - The Royal Gallopade is an interesting mix of popular 1830s dances, with elements borrowed from country dances, galopades, and quadrilles, plus a concluding sauteuse waltz. My only source for it is the Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (Second Edition) by J. S. Pollock, London. It is undated, but the mix of dances and a textual reference to an 1829 event suggests the early 1830s. Pollock claims that gallopades "appear" to be of Russian origin. Among those he credits with their introduction is the sixth Duke of Devonshire, who was a close friend of both the Prince Regent (later George IV) and Czar Nicholas I and had traveled to the Russian court. Pollock depicts the original gallopade as a choreographed sequence dance for a circle of couples with gallop interspersed with short dance figures and gives not only this original but gallopades in country dance and quadrille form. Fittingly, the Royal Gallopade is given a separate section of its own between the quadrille and country dance gallopades. My photocopy of the Pollock book is at least third-generation and extremely blurry, but as best I can make it out (I make no guarantees on the punctuation) the description of the dance sequence is as follows: Gallopade (as described in the original Gallopade) straight forward to the top of the room the lady crossing the gent at the end of each four bars; on arriving at the top, the first couple in one set, faces the first couple of the other set; the second couples faces the second, and so on to the bottom of the dance, then each four perform the figure of Le Pantalon -- the whole of the party then face the bottom of the room, and gallopade as before -- then perform La Poule -- gallopade to the top of the room, and finish with the sauteuse round the room. While given as a social dance, this makes a spectacular performance piece as well....[spectacular dance described behind the cut]
- [Starting the Waltz, Cellarius Style](https://www.kickery.com/2016/04/starting-the-waltz-cellarius-style.html) - Several years ago I wrote about starting the "new waltz" of the late nineteenth century in the way recommended by Allen Dodworth, who suggested a preparatory measure of music in which the dancers move from the usual starting orientation for couple dances, gentleman facing the wall/lady facing the center of the room, to one in which the gentleman's back is to line of dance, making it easier for him to accomplish a clean leap backward on the first step of the waltz, while the lady faces forward and can easily perform her forward leap. I'd thought at the time to make that post part of a series addressing different ways recommended for starting various forms of waltz over the course of the nineteenth century, but for one reason or another never got back to the topic...[solution in search of a problem, behind the cut!]
- [Two-Stepping <em>en français</em>](https://www.kickery.com/2014/04/two-stepping-en-francais.html) - As previously noted, European descriptions of American dances like the late nineteenth-century two-step are sometimes more helpful than American ones. Having spent more time than expected this past weekend speaking French in Toronto (with a bunch of folks from Montréal), I'm inspired today to point out a couple of American-influenced descriptions of the two-step from Paris around 1900...[descriptions behind the cut]
- [Le Klondike Two Step](https://www.kickery.com/2009/07/klondike-two-step.html) - Reading this morning's headlines about events in Alaska, it seems the moment to post this little French sequence dance, which can also be used to vary an early twentieth-century two-step. I've found this sequence in only one source: La Danse, by [George] Washington Lopp, published in Paris in 1903 as part of a two-book compendium. The smaller part (forty-five pages to the two hundred-plus of La Danse) of the compendium is a brief manual of etiquette and costume written by J. Chéron. Mr. Lopp seems to have been an interesting character, an American expatriate and former Chicago dancing master whose partnership in a Parisian musical conservatory went extremely sour, resulting in lawsuits, lockouts, and a "very tempestuous scene" with one of the patronesses of the conservatory, who insisted on performing a concerto she had composed. Apparently the piece was so dreadful that the audiencewas unable...to endure the entire infliction, and most of those present incontinently left after the first movement had been half finished.While La Danse is dated 1903, I think it most likely that this dance dates to 1897 or 1898, the height of the Klondike Gold Rush. Lopp attributes the dance to H.-N. Grant, whom Giraudet mentions in his list of dancing professors as being active in Buffalo, New York, in 1898...[how to do the Klondike Two Step behind the cut]
- [Leap Year figure, Washington, D. C., 1892](https://www.kickery.com/2024/02/leap-year-washington-1892.html) - Not having any more convenient descriptions of cotillion (dance party game) figures with leap year themes in books of such figures, I have to take them where I find them -- in this case, in a description of a society leap year ball attended by no fewer than seven foreign ministers of different nations held in Washington, D. C., on March 24, 1892. The ball was described briefly in The New York Times on March 25, 1892. The majority of the short article is taken up by lengthy lists of all the important people who organized and attended the event, but in between, there is a description of a cotillion figure. Interestingly, it was led by two couples simultaneously, from "opposite ends of the hall". Dancing was general until 9:30 o’clock, when the cotillion began, led from opposite ends of the hall by Miss Richardson with Mr. William Slack and Miss Stout with Mr. Clifford Richardson. In the selection of the favors the greatest ingenuity had been exercised, and the laughter-provoking devices were highly satisfactory. Perhaps, sensible of the number of people attending, they were actually running two cotillions in parallel?...[a simple cotillion figure and a long list of names behind the cut]
- [A Fancy Dress Ball, Saratoga, 1847](https://www.kickery.com/2017/10/fancy-dress-ball-saratoga-1847.html) - Another costume-heavy description of a fancy dress ball was published in The New York Herald on August 17, 1847, in the social column "The Watering Places" on page two. The ball was held at Congress Hall of the United States Hotel in the summer resort town of Saratoga Springs, New York, on August 14, 1847. Sadly, no information is given about the dancing, though the writer does mention the generous size of the hall, one hundred and fifty by fifty feet, and the beautiful decorations, featuring flowers and greenery plus "miniature flags of every nation which supports a navy" hanging "just above the heads" of the dancers. The ball was popular, but some who had recently arrived in Saratoga were unable to attend because they could not get costumes ready in time: Among the company at Saratoga, which is the best in America, there seemed to be a general interest in this event; there were few who, if time could have been had to make suitable preparations, would not have attended that ball. Many persons who have lately arrived did not know that such a ball was to be given until it was too late for them to prepare for it. The "resident visitors", presumably meaning those who spent the entire summer in Saratoga, had more warning and were able to spend considerable sums on costumes: But there were no impediments to the ardor with which the resident visitors looked forward to this carnival, as something which would be more brilliant and extraordinary than any previous party; sums which some could not lose without becoming a beggar, were expended for jewels and dresses to be worn upon this occasion, and in procuring these articles, there was all that furor and agitation and hubbub which is characteristic of the American exclusives. The writer of the column listed quite a few costumes, though he or she noted that there were "hundreds of characters" that he or she did not include. Most of those listed are men's outfits; for any gentlemen looking for fancy dress ideas, this is a great list...[and it is behind the cut]
- [Brain Fever, 1840](https://www.kickery.com/2023/10/brain-fever-1840.html) - Ah, sweet October, which I generally devote to discussion of fancy dress and masquerade balls, weird cotillion figures, and similar frivolity! I have two words to start off the month in the proper spirit: headless quadrille Specifically: The first couple is Anne Boleyn and Louis XVI. They are facing Lady Jane Grey and Marino Faliero (a 14th century Venetian Doge). Marie Antoinette and Charles I make up the first side couple, facing the Earl of Essex, dancing alone. In case anyone missed the connection, all of these people were beheaded. Themed quadrilles from history or literature were very common at fancy dress balls in the nineteenth century, but this really has got to be the Best Theme Ever. I just about died laughing when I realized the joke...[more dance weirdness behind the cut]
- [The Woodland Yorke](https://www.kickery.com/2023/07/woodland-yorke.html) - The Woodland Yorke was introduced by Maine conductor and dancing master Horace M. Pullen at the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the American Society of Professors of Dancing, held in New York City on September 4th-7th, 1894, and published in the proceedings of the convention. Specifically, it was introduced on Tuesday, September 4th, 1894, as one of a list of eleven "works" placed in the hands of the Directors. The convention then promptly adjoined to practice them. The original text, as published in the convention proceedings: "WOODLAND YORKE."By Horace M. Pullen.First Part. -- Slide left forward to fourth position (1); close right to left, and at same time slide left forward chassé (2);close right foot chassé to left (3). 1 bar. Hop on right and slide left forward (1); close right to left (2); leap forward on left (3). Repeat all the above with right foot. 4 bars.Second Part. -- Face partners; make three slides with left foot (1 bar); change, make three slides with right foot. Repeat the above. 4 bars in all.Pose for first part. Both facing same direction; join hands, gent's right, ladies' left...[reconstruction and biographical notes behind the cut]
- [The <em>Thé Dansante</em>, 1891](https://www.kickery.com/2022/12/the-dansante-1891.html) - Dropping back to the late nineteenth century, here's another short blurb from the pages of Demorest's Family Magazine, following the Thanksgiving Pumpkin Party I described last year. This little tidbit appeared in the "Chat" column of the February, 1891, issue, along with a description of a Valentine's party and comments on the overuse of floral decorations. The anonymous author described the fashion that season of using a thé dansante (tea dance) held at the "usual hours" for a reception, four o'clock to seven o'clock in the late afternoon, for the purpose of introducing debutantes to the fashionable world. The thé dansante could stand on its own as an event or might be the lead-in to a dinner. One might assume that this reception-with-dancing (and, presumably, afternoon tea) was less work than giving a full-scale ball, but lest the name give you the idea this was an intimate event, be aware that the Demorest's description claimed that five hundred non-dancing "friends" (meaning a large chunk of upper-class society) were said to attend such an event just as a reception, while the debutantes and their partners danced with a "delightful informality". The potential following dinner would be a much smaller affair. There's not much to the description -- no details of the dancing -- and what there is is mostly concerned with a set of coordinated outfits, but here is the original text in full...[flowery outfits behind the cut]
- [A Ballroom Basilisk, 1897](https://www.kickery.com/2019/10/basilisk-1897.html) - I'm just going to leave this story here without any commentary. Happy Halloween! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GONE WITH A BASILISK. A LURID SHORT STORY. BY G. L. Calderon Reginald passed his hand wearily over his aching brow, and glided languishing between the purple portières. Within was a chaos of whirling muslin and hungry faces swimming on a sea of passionate, throbbing music. There was a mist before his eyes; grinning heads floated restlessly by, gibbering in the shell-like ears of painted women. Amid the fevered maelstrom, one figure loomed large and close upon his attention. It was the hostess. A hot wet hand pressed his. “Law! what a squash!” he murmured in her ear, then plunged into the stream, and was borne away to the other side of the room...[it gets better, or worse, behind the cut!]
- [Wayside Gavotte](https://www.kickery.com/2019/05/wayside-gavotte.html) - Just to be thorough, here's a quick reconstruction of the Wayside Gavotte I mentioned in my previous post on the Stephanie Gavotte. This is another short couple dance sequence, but unlike M. B. Gilbert's Stephanie Gavotte, it moves normally along line of dance throughout and loosely follows a "doubled" schottische pattern with four bars of forward travel and four bars (more-or-less) of turning. Though it is meant to be danced to "Stéphanie-Gavotte", there is no reason it can't be danced to other schottische music. Per Gilbert Dances, Vol. II (1913, Susan Hoffman Gilman, ed.), the Wayside Gavotte was choreographed by Helen C. Way, whom I presume to have been a student of Gilbert's. It is undated, and since, according to the biography in Gilbert Dances, Vol. I, Gilbert was teaching until his death, it could be from as late as the beginning of 1910. The use of the waltz-galop step feels to me more reminiscent of the schottische sequences of the 1880s-1890s, however, so I suspect it is from closer to 1900...[reconstruction and notes behind the cut]
- [A Montréal Gavotte, 1918](https://www.kickery.com/2014/11/montreal-gavotte-1918.html) - The classic schottische of the mid-nineteenth century and its later incarnation, the Barn Dance (a.k.a. the Military Schottische and the Pas de Quatre) had mostly faded from fashionable ballrooms by the late 1910s. But a few very simple schottisches or schottische-like sequences turn up now and then in dance manuals and on sheet music of the 1910s, often under the name "gavotte", a musical form with the same 4/4 meter characteristic of the schottische. La Gavotte is a short sequence taken from Professor A. Lacasse's La Danse apprise chez soi, published in Montréal in 1918. There were many dances called "gavotte" in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, not all of them in 4/4 time, so while this particular gavotte may have been locally popular in Montréal, it should not be considered any sort of definitive gavotte for the 1910s or any other era. Lacasse described La Gavotte as one of several "Danses de Fantaisie", a group which also included the Ostende, the Spanish Boston, Bellfield, and the Oxford Minuet. It's hard to know exactly how to translate "danses de fantaisie", which literally means "imaginative dances", but all of those given are sequences, though some are very short ones. He noted that these dances were still on programs and were danced mainly "in our private families", which implies that they were traditional favorites rather than the very latest fashion. La Gavotte apparently was notable enough to be listed on the title page, along with the one-step and foxtrot, as one of the principal dances in the book, though that may well be a sign more of how trendy the name "gavotte" was than of the popularity of this particular sequence...[the details of which may be found behind the cut]
- [Tales of the Schottische from Godey's Lady's Book](https://www.kickery.com/2014/06/schottische-godeys.html) - A comment from one of my Russian correspondents that the schottische was rarely, if ever, danced in Russia in the nineteenth century* started me thinking, after a series of mental jumps**, about how well-accepted (or not) the schottische was in America in its early years. There appears to have been some dissension on the merits of the dance after its introduction to America around 1849. Edmund Ferrero claimed in The art of dancing (New York, 1859) that the schottische had "acquired great favor", and all the major dance manuals from the end of the 1850s onward include it. But the anonymous author of Beadle's dime ball-room companion and guide to dancing (New York, 1868) claimed that the schottische was considered "vulgar". Since it appeared regularly on dance cards from at least the late 1850s all the way into the early twentieth century, that can't have been a universal opinion. But was it really anyone's other than, presumably, those of ministers and others who condemned dancing altogether? Two short stories from the famous nineteenth-century women's magazine Godey's Lady's Book suggest that the popularity and vulgarity were not mutually exclusive, and that there was continuing concern in some circles about "fashionable" dancing...[fiction excerpts behind the cut]
- [Five Step Schottische](https://www.kickery.com/2009/05/five-step-schottische.html) - Era: 1870s(?)-1890s (America) The Five Step Schottische, as described by prominent late 19th-century dancing master M.B. Gilbert in his tome of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and later by Marguerite Wilson in her oft-reprinted Dancing (Philadelphia, 1899), squeezes five movements, rather than the standard four, into each bar of schottische for an interesting variation which alternates sideways slides and half-turns for a sequence similar to that of waltz variations such as the contemporary Le Metropole (also included in Gilbert's manual) or the later Five-Step Boston described by Philadelphian Albert Newman in 1914. Putting this combination into schottische rhythm makes for an interesting but not overly complicated dance worth resurrecting by the modern late-19th-century dance reenactor.Of the dance's name, Gilbert complains that:Some more appropriate name might have been given to this dance, but I think it best to adhere to the phrase, rather than take upon myself a lingual reform.This does not stop him for long. A few pages later, he lists "Redowa Schottische" and "New Schottische" as alternate titles for the variation. He attributes the former name to E.W. Masters, whom he claims originated it in 1871 (pushing the date of the dance back significantly), and feels that Although this dance is better known as the Five Step Schottische, the name given above [Redowa Schottische] is far more appropriate.The name Five Step Schottische, however, is more straightforwardly descriptive and thus more useful.....[more]
- [Star Schottische](https://www.kickery.com/2011/07/star-schottische.html) - One of the myriad minor schottische variations described in M.B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (1890), is notable as the earliest appearance I've noticed of what has become the standard style for the first part of modern folk schottische: three running steps forward in "military position" (as described in my previous post, "À la Militaire") rather than the step-close-step of the nineteenth century dance...[performance details behind the cut]
- [Imperial Gavotte](https://www.kickery.com/2017/05/imperial-gavotte.html) - The Imperial Gavotte is one of the many schottische variations included in M. B. Gilbert's book of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and in G. W. Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903). It is attributed to Professor A. T. Graves of Albany, New York, and noted by Gilbert to have been accepted by the American Society
- [American Gavotte / Polka Américaine](https://www.kickery.com/2017/04/american-gavotte.html) - The American Gavotte is another of the variations published by dancing master M. B. Gilbert in his manual of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and republished by G. W. Lopp in La Danse (Paris, 1903). It was attributed by Gilbert to James P. Brooks of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (and by Lopp to "J.-D. Brooks"). Gilbert also noted that it was adopted by the American Society of Professors of Dancing, New York -- this would have been in 1886, from contemporary writeups of the event -- and published by permission of White Smith Music Publishing Co. Lopp listed it as "Polka Américaine (American Gavotte)" I've discussed a couple of other American "gavotte" variations before, but both of those were for the schottische. The American Gavotte is listed as a polka, though it actually works perfectly well to schottische music and there is some confusion surround how it is notated that suggests that it might have originally been meant as a schottische; see the music note below. It certainly has some choreographic kinship with the schottische gavottes in that it also uses the rhythm pattern "1&2&3,4" stepped as "slide, chassé, chassé, close" or "slide-close-slide-close-slide, close". This is one measure of schottische as usually counted, but two measures of polka. Because of the pattern of the following four beats of music, I actually prefer to break the first four up into two bars, polka style, as follows, with dancers starting on their first foot (his left, her right)...[reconstruction and music issues behind the cut]
- ["Mixed Pickles" Tango](https://www.kickery.com/2018/08/mixed-pickles-tango.html) - Continuing with my lengthening series of tiny tango sequences from the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914), here's another short (sixteen-bar) tango sequence. If not performed by all the dancers on the floor in unison, it must be done with care, since the dancers move directly against line of dance at two separate points. For such a short sequence, there are quite a few niggling little problems with the instructions and reconstruction, which I'll talk about a bit below...[long discussion of tiny problems along with reconstruction behind the cut]
- [Schottische Gavotte](https://www.kickery.com/2019/02/schottische-gavotte.html) - I suppose this could be considered the next post in a very stretched-out series covering American "gavotte" variations for the late nineteenth century schottische; my first post on the topic appeared almost ten years ago. I'm glad I put this one off a bit, however, since my experience since then with reconstructing, dancing, and teaching rackets has given me a better appreciation for how this "gavotte" variation works. Essentially, it's two halves: a slow schottische turn and a racket. It's kind of beautiful. The Schottische Gavotte, like so many other variations, is found in M. B. Gilbert's book of couple dances, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and in G. W. Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903). Gilbert does not attribute it. Lopp attributes it to Gilbert. Lopp also lists it as 3/4, but since it is under schottische, notated like a schottische (in 4), and has a given metronome speed of 76 beats per minute in schottische time, I think that 3/4 is an error and it is intended to be in 4/4. Other than that, the two descriptions agree nicely and the reconstruction is quite simple and straightforward. The gentleman starts with the left foot, the lady with the right....[beautiful synergy of schottische and racket behind the cut]
- [The Rag-Time Crawl](https://www.kickery.com/2016/04/rag-time-crawl.html) - I semi-jokingly call the Rag-Time Crawl "the dance for when I get tired of the Castle Schottische". It basically fulfills the same function: easy to dance, accessible to beginners, and comforting to people who are not up to leading and following and enjoy the Macarena-like effect of everyone moving all together in the same pattern. My source for the dance is Frank H. Norman's Complete Dance Instructor (Ottawa, 1914). The author is J. B. McEwen of Glasgow, Scotland. I don't know a lot about either of these gentlemen, but I can offer a few bits of trivia: There seems to have been considerable back-and-forth between North America and Europe by dancing masters in this era. Norman's introductory pages note that he was a member, honorary member, or affiliate of dancing organizations in the U.S. and Canada, England, Scotland, and Paris. He had been teaching long enough to include a testimonial from the Countess of Aberdeen (wife of the Governor-General of Canada from 1893-1898) for teaching her children back in 1894, and in 1919, he was the master of ceremonies for a ball in honor of the Prince of Wales in Montréal, as reported in the November, 1919, issue of the Buffalo (New York) dance journal, The Two-Step. McEwen published at least one book, The Ball Room Exponent and Guide to Fashionable Dancing (Glasgow, c1902), which I do not have a copy of, and by the 1920s had a dancing school associated with the Norwood Ballroom, as may be seen on The Glasgow Story website. Like Norman, he boasted international connections; he is quoted as listing himself in his book as “the only Teacher of Dancing in Scotland possessing the British, French, and American Badges of Proficiency.” He turns up in the same November, 1919, issue of The Two-Step in a blurb datelined London, November 5th: The hesitation waltz is to be the dance of the season in London, in the opinion of J. B. McEwen, dance instructor de luxe, who has just completed his education in the latest dances in Paris and America. The hesitation dates back eight or ten years in the States, but McEwen has just discovered it, and he thinks it will be all the rage here in a few weeks...[dance details and music suggestions behind the cut]
- [La Lyonnaise](https://www.kickery.com/2018/11/lyonnaise.html) - Third in my impromptu mini-series of late-nineteenth century French dances based on the schottische or pas-de-quatre is La Lyonnaise, which appears to me to be unimportant in and of itself but somewhat interesting as an example of typical variations and a source for variations to use in improvisation. Despite having been published in 1890, it does not appear in the seventh edition of Eugène Giraudet's Traité de la danse, published in the early 1890s. It does turn up by the 58th edition (c1900), which informs us (via the extensive dance glossary in volume II) that Giraudet choreographed it himself. I don't think it does him any particular credit; it's just a mishmash of steps....[details behind the cut]
- [The Union Dance](https://www.kickery.com/2009/01/union-dance.html) - Era: 1860s-1880s The Union Dance is a short, schottische-like dance sequence which I have found in only two sources: Thomas Hillgrove's 1863 A Complete Practical Guide to the Art of Dancing (pp. 170-171) and the 1883 Professor M.J. Koncen's Quadrille Call Book and Ball Room Guide (p. 89) The latter is a compilation of numerous other sources and the instructions therein are nearly identical to the earlier ones, so Hillgrove may be regarded as the preferred source for dating this dance. Given the timing and Hillgrove's location in New York, it is possible that the name of the dance was meant as a political statement, though it is also possible that it was simply the name of a tune to which it was danced or a completely random title....[description behind the cut]
- [The Pan-American Glide (a 1910s Schottische)](https://www.kickery.com/2009/01/panamerican-glide.html) - By the 1910s, the schottische had almost complete vanished from the ballroom floor. But a few dancing masters were still creating variations, among them the "Pan-American Glide," published in the F. Leslie Clendenen's collection Dance Mad, or the Dances of the Day in St. Louis in 1914. It is attributed to F.W. Bouley....[more]
- [Schottische à Pas Sauté](https://www.kickery.com/2010/02/schottische-a-pas-saute.html) - By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, as the standard Victorian couple dances were becoming somewhat stale, there was a flurry of innovation among dancing masters attempting to come up with new variations, most of which do not appear to have caught on widely. In M.B. Gilbert's 1890 tome, Round Dancing, he describes a variation, the Schottische à Pas Sauté, which resembles the old "doubling" of the schottische parts (as described in my review of the early schottische) in consisting only of "step-hops" but employs the recently stylish "military position", as described in my previous post, "À la Militaire", rather than using the closed position of the earlier era throughout. Gilbert footnotes this variation as the Hop Waltz, harking back to the jeté waltz of the Regency era...[performance details behind the cut]
- [Waltz Step, Galop Time](https://www.kickery.com/2009/02/waltz-step-galop-time.html) - Era: 1880s-1890s (America) In his sizable manual of couple dance variations, Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), late 19th-century dancing master M.B. Gilbert describes the Waltz-Galop succinctly as:Waltz step, Galop timeWhile no other dancing master that I have found includes the waltz-galop by name, the accenting of a waltz step done in duple rather than triple time is discussed by Allen Dodworth in Dancing and its relations to education and social life (1885, reprinted several times through 1900) and is included in dances such as the turn-of-the-century Pasadena, and the idea that waltz steps can be transposed from triple to duple and vice-versa dates back as far as the sauteuse waltz of the first quarter of the 19th century.
- [Reminiscences, 1865](https://www.kickery.com/2017/07/reminiscences-1865.html) - I have what seems like an endless collection of works of nineteenth-century women's fiction that I plow through for the dance references whenever I have the chance. Most of them are overly sentimental and laden with heavy-handed moral messages. "Reminiscences", which was serialized in the American women's periodical Godey's Lady's Book from February to June, 1865, was no exception to this, alas, but at least it was relatively short. The background of the piece is a bit of a mystery. The author is the same "Ethelstone" credited with "Dancing the Schottische" (Godey's, July 1862), which I discussed a few years ago. I've never been able to locate any information about this author. And "Reminiscences" adds a new element of confusion because it is written in first person and purports to be the story of one Ethel Stone. Was "Ethelstone" actually a woman named Ethel Stone? Is this fiction masquerading as memoir? Or part of an actual memoir of a life that oh-so-conveniently included the elements of a mid-nineteenth-century morality tale? That seems unlikely, so I assume that it's fiction. But I may never know for certain. The setting of "Reminiscences" is equally unclear; it takes place in a nameless village and nearby city, and the only clues to the time in the text are that it is before the era of hundreds of people attending "stand-up" parties and dancing the polka and schottische (dances which became popular in the 1840s), instead taking place back in the days when parties were smaller gatherings where some people would sit around the edges of the room while others danced cotillons and contra dances. That doesn't help much; "cotillons" was used for decades in America to refer to what the rest of the world thought of as quadrilles, so the tale could take place any time from the late eighteenth century to the 1830s, or even early 1840s. The plot is typical of the women's fiction of mid-nineteenth century. A quick summary: Ethel ("Ettie") Stone meets a Mr. Morton at her very first adult party. Despite the rivalry of local beauty Helen Leland for his affections, she wins his heart by her innocence. Morton has a tragic past involving being abandoned by a mother who was corrupted by society, so his and Ettie's engagement is jeopardized when she visits the big city and enjoys its gaieties and flirtations. After overhearing Morton's plans to break their engagement, Ettie reforms herself, returns to her village, and marries Morton. At the end, Morton's mother, diseased and dying, shows up on their doorstep and is taken in due to Ettie's kind heart. She reconciles with Morton's father, though perhaps not with Morton, and dies, penitent and forgiven. The message is not exactly subtle. For once, however, dancing is not presented as part of society's corruption, perhaps because in comparison with the polka and schottisch of 1865, with their close ballroom hold and tendency toward romping, the set dances of the unspecified earlier era had come to seem quite innocent...[details behind the cut]
- [The Original Gallopade](https://www.kickery.com/2010/12/original-gallopade.html) - Like the Royal Gallopade, which I discussed here, the Original Gallopade was published in the Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (Second Edition) by J. S. Pollock (London, c1830) and is a specific choreography that combines galop round the room, short quadrille-like figures, and a final sauteuse waltz. I'm not sure about the original part; I suspect that the original form of gallopade was nothing but galop. But that's the title Pollock published it under. Here is the general description of the dance, as given by Pollock: La Gallopade may be danced with an unlimited number of persons, standing circularly in couples, following each other round the room. In the first figure, the gent. passes his right arm round the waist of the lady, and with his left hand takes hold of the lady's right, the lady's left hand resting on the gent's. right shoulder -- the whole of the couples being thus placed, the ladies are all on the outside of the circle. At the end of the first four bars, the lady crosses to the left of the gent. resting her right hand on the gent's. left shoulder and holding hands in front as before, which brings the ladies to the inside of the circle. This figure is performed four times over, and occupies sixteen bar of the tune. At the fourth time, the whole of the party fall back in a circle, the ladies all standing on the right hand of their partners, ready to commence the figures as they occur. This dance is performed with a particular and characteristic step, of which it is impossible to give such a description, as would enable any one to dance it, without personal instruction....[figures behind the cut]
- [Corte Mad](https://www.kickery.com/2008/01/corte-mad.html) - Era: 1910s Dance: tango In the interest of not losing my mind, I’m going to be writing more short posts interspersed with the longer articles that cover entire dances. Today, a lovely little move for your 1910s tango. Many teachers labor under the impression that the “Argentine” consists of one dance only, which is not
- [Zebley's Tango](https://www.kickery.com/2018/08/zebleys-tango.html) - Moving right along with my tiny tango post series, here's another sequence from F. Leslie Clendenen's two editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914). This one is simply called "Tango" and was provided by T. Victor Zebley, a Washington, D.C., dancing master. It isn't really a "tiny" tango; it's a full thirty-two measures, which is enough for a full-fledged sequence dance. Zebley's tango is very straightforward to reconstruct and, provided one remembers the full sequence, easy to dance, with three points where the dancers can make some minor choices of their own. I give my preferences, but also describe the other options in the performance notes below...[easy tango sequence below]
- [Two-Step Tango](https://www.kickery.com/2018/07/two-step-tango.html) - The Two-Step Tango is an anonymous eight-bar sequence published in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions 1914). There are several of these tiny "tango" sequences that travel decorously around the room without much tango feel to them -- see the similar Butterfly Tango and Dixie Swirl. These short progressive sequences all appeared in the first edition, along with the somewhat better-composed and more tango-like ones (including a "Tango Two-Step") from Albert Newman. The impression I get from this is that the more authentic tango was still making its way across the country in early 1914, so the authors of these sequences were still interpreting it as "slow one-step to tango music". The second edition of Dance Mad expanded the tango section enormously, retaining the short sequences but adding twenty-two pages of more authentic Argentinian and Parisian tango steps...[easy dance behind the cut]
- [Ballroom Marsupials](https://www.kickery.com/2009/09/ballroom-marsupials.html) - 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....[kangaroos and wallabies behind the cut]
- [Late 19th Century Jig-Time Dances: The Bronco](https://www.kickery.com/2012/05/bronco-2.html) - Like the Rockaway, the Bronco is another dance listed under the "Miscellaneous" category in M.B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) as suitable for either jig time (6/8) or galop time (2/4)...[details behind the cut]
- [Tracking the Mescolanzes](https://www.kickery.com/2016/06/tracking-the-mescolanzes.html) - The topic of mescolanzes, four-facing-four country dances, and whether the famous dance La Tempête was the only surviving member of the genre by the mid- to late nineteenth century, came up in an email exchange recently. Mescolanzes are one of those dance genres for which I have spent years slowly accumulating examples, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about the format and where dances called mescolanzes appeared over the course of the nineteenth century. I'm going to limit this quick survey to more-or-less anglophone countries -- England, America, Scotland, Canada, and Australia -- since I've not yet collated all the information I have from other countries. I'm also not going to discuss La Tempête specifically, since that is an enormous topic all on its own. Here and now, I will only survey dances appearing under the name or classification "mescolanze" and its several (mis)spellings...[much mescolanze trivia behind the cut]
- [Hesitate, Hesitate, Hesitate!](https://www.kickery.com/2008/03/hesitate-hesita.html) - Era: 1910s Dance: One-Step In his 1914 manual, Dances of To-day, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman describes three different hesitations suitable for the one-step or Castle walk. In one description he notes that a hesitation is ...most practical, especially when one finds himself in a decidedly congested position, surrounded on all sides by merry
- [An Easy One-Step Sequence](https://www.kickery.com/2009/05/easy-onestep-sequence.html) - 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.Counts Steps1-2-3-4 Back the lady four steps1&2 Two-step (step-close-step), angling diagonally forward to the left3&4 Two-step (step-close-step), angling diagonally forward to the right1-2-3-4 Back the lady four steps(Turn a quarter clockwise)1-2-3-4 Slide left foot along line of dance (1) close right to it with weight (2); repeat(Turn a quarter counter-clockwise so gentleman faces line of dance, ready to repeat)The angling to the left and right on the two-steps rather than moving straight forward along the line of dance cues the lady to perform a two-step rather than simply walking. Clendenen describes this as "throwing [the] body slightly to [the] side on the 2 step" and moving "quite freely at left and right of partner."An interesting variation, not given in the source but compatible with period practice, would be to turn clockwise rather than counter-clockwise at the end so that the sequence is then repeated with the gentleman backing up. The mid-sequence turn will then be counter-clockwise. This will not result in full turns, but the dancers could alternate backing the lady and backing the gentleman.
- [Sorority Glide](https://www.kickery.com/2013/12/sorority-glide.html) - Most of the steps in Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) were collected by "author" F. Leslie Clendenen from other dancing masters, but he gives himself credit for the Sorority Glide, a sixteen-bar one-step sequence that he recommends be danced to "Too Much Mustard" or "any One Step music of a similar swing. It's a fun little sequence with a very "Castles" feel to it and room for some personal style. It works as an independent dance or can be plugged into a regular one-step as a variation. The dancers begin in a ballroom hold, turned out slightly so both face line of dance. The dancers need to be far enough apart to make a cross step without crowding. Weight should be shifted onto the forward (outside) foot, the gentleman's left and the lady's right, since the dance starts on the inside foot. The Sorority Glide1. Cross-Chassez (four bars/eight counts)Cross inside foot (his right/her left) over outside foot (1) and use outside foot to make a chassez, closing and pushing the inside foot forward again (&2). Repeat, counting 1&2&3&4&5&6&7&8, ending on a cross of the inside foot. 2. Point-cross-point-close (two bars/four counts)Point outside foot (his left/her right) sideways along line of dance (1), cross it over inside foot (2), point inside foot (his right/her left) sideways against line of dance (3), and close it to the other foot with weight (4). 3. Draw steps (two bars/four counts)Step sideways along line of dance (1), close (2), step sideways (3), close (4). 4. Gallop and half-turn (four bars/eight counts)Gallop one bar (side-close-side-close, 1&2&) then step side (3) and close (4). The half-turn is a slow, three-count two-step turn: side, starting to turn (5); close (6); side, completing turn (7). The dancers are now turned halfway; line of dance is "over elbows". Point the inside foot (his right/her left) along line of dance without weight (8). Repeat the gallop and half-turn over elbows, but at the end, put weight on the pointing foot (his left, her right) to set up for a repeat of the sequence...[reconstruction and music notes behind the cut]
- [Dixie Swirl](https://www.kickery.com/2013/06/dixie-swirl.html) - 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...[better version behind the cut]
- [Figure Four?](https://www.kickery.com/2013/10/figure-four.html) - In a post a while back on the Regency "figure eight" and the many meanings of the term "figure" in that era, I mentioned a joking suggestion made by a guest at one of my Regency balls that a half figure eight should be called a "figure four". Much to my astonishment, while pursuing some research on American country dance of this era, I actually found a figure four! [details behind the cut]
- [A ballroom brawl, 1804](https://www.kickery.com/2015/09/ballroom-brawl-1804.html) - Going beyond simple rudeness in the ballroom, here's a wonderful account of a French-American culture clash turned violent at a ball in New Orleans on January 23, 1804. Aside from showing what people of that era would fight over and how hair-trigger tempers were in New Orleans in particular at that time, it also usefully documents some ballroom dance practices of the era. Slowly piecing together such tidbits eventually allows me to draw larger conclusions. I'm not going to explain the whole background of the Louisiana Purchase, which transferred an enormous swathe of North America from French to American control in 1803, but it is worth noting that the formal transfer of New Orleans itself took place on December 20, 1803, only a month or so before the incident described. There is a suggestion earlier in the article that feelings were running high among the French in the wake of (perceived?) American disrespect during the replacement of the French flag with the American one. There had already been a "slight misunderstanding" at a previous assembly on January 6th. The fight on the 23rd is a small example of the sort of cultural conflicts that would be a problem in New Orleans society for decades afterward...[the French want to waltz! read on...]
- [A miscellany of mescolanzes](https://www.kickery.com/2016/11/misc-mescolanzes.html) - I don't often get asked to write about particular topics on Kickery, but I recently received, via the comments here, a request from a teacher at Mrs. Bennet's Ballroom, a historical dance group in London, UK, for a few of my favorite figures for mescolanzes, the four-facing-four country dance format I surveyed earlier this year. Since the focus of the group seems to be the Regency era, I'll stick with figures from manuals by London dancing master G. M. S. Chivers, which are from the very tail end of the official Regency period (1811-1820) and a few years after. As I discussed in my earlier survey, Chivers seems to have really liked the mescolanze format, and a few other dancing masters and authors picked it up, but other than the special case of La Tempête, I can't really say with confidence that mescolanzes were a popular or even common dance form in nineteenth-century. But the format appears across enough different sources that I'm comfortable with using it sparingly to add variety for the late Regency and immediate post-Regency era. I don't ever do more than one mescolanze at a ball, however. Mescolanze figures are derived from country dances and quadrilles, with some figures from the latter descending from much older French contredanse (cotillon) figures. A characteristic figure, of course, is the famous chassé-by-couples featured prominently in La Tempête. Since the group already has that dance in its repertoire, I'll not include any others with the same figure...[actual useful mescolanze figures behind the cut]
- [The Twinkle Hesitation Waltz](https://www.kickery.com/2013/12/twinkle-hesitation-waltz.html) - 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...[full sequence behind the cut]
- [The Pompadour Waltz](https://www.kickery.com/2009/04/pompadour-waltz.html) - 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...[more]
- [The Dip Schottische](https://www.kickery.com/2015/08/dip-schottische.html) - The Dip Schottische is one of the minor schottische sequences created by dancing masters in the early 1910s. In this case, the author was one I. C. Sampson, of Lynn, Massachusetts, and the dance was published in both the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914). Unfortunately, the dance instructions have one major ambiguity that makes it very difficult to come to a definitive reconstruction: what, exactly, does "turn" mean? Here's the original language for one move in the dance: "One Step" turn (pivot, four steps, two measures) The problem is that there is no single "one step turn". There are at least two very plausible candidates: the spin and the traveling turn, better known today as pivots. If I had to guess which would be the "one step turn", I'd guess the spin, but there are some problems with that in regard to this particular sequence. But there are problems with the traveling turn as well. Here's some of what I considered when trying to choose between them...[lots of contradictory clues, behind the cut]
- [Lamb's American Schottische](https://www.kickery.com/2009/02/lambs-american-schottische.html) - English dance teacher William Lamb, in his Everybody's Guide to Ball-Room Dancing (London c1898-1900), published quite a few short dance sequences, most of limited interest to the average dancer. His American Schottische has more potential than most of these because it does not involve any reverse-line-of-dance movement and thus can be easily used as a simple variation when dancing a late 19th-century schottische. Despite the name, there is nothing specifically American about this particular sequence, and it does not seem to have been taken up by other writers/compilers of dance manuals, even those who otherwise plagiarized Lamb quite freely. I suspect it was not a particular hit, perhaps never having any life in period outside the pages of Lamb's book. Nonetheless, I find it quite danceable and an interesting break from more typical schottische patterns...[more]
- [Tantivy: The New Hunt Dance](https://www.kickery.com/2009/01/tantivy-the-new-hunt-dance.html) - Era: late 1890s-1900 England/France "Tantivy: The New Hunt Dance," was invented by English dancing master R. M. Crompton, later to become the first president of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing and a part of the early 20th-century movement to keep ballroom dance out of the hands of the "wrong" people, which primarily meant American, and especially African-American, influences. That was all in the future in the 1890s, however, when this dance first appeared. It may have first been published in Crompton's own book, Theory and Practice of Modern Dancing (London, c1891). Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of Crompton's work. The dance, however, can be found in at least three other works of the late 19th century, attributed in each case to Crompton.I first noticed Tantivy in T. Leggett Byrne's Terpsichore: Her Votaries and Fashions, published in London in 1899 (but with a preface dated to Dublin in 1898) and made available online by Chris Brady here. A second source is Saxon's Everybody's Guide to Ball-Room Dancing, written by Crompton's contemporary William Lamb and published in London circa 1898-1900 (it is listed in The English Catalogue of Books for those years, which was published in 1901). The description of the dance in these two sources is word-for-word identical. Finally, Tantivy was included in the massive French tome Traité de la Danse, published in Paris in 1900 as volume II of an immense work on dance by Eugène Giraudet that went through dozens of editions in the late 19th century. Giraudet dates the dance to October, 1896. While Crompton was certainly known to American dance teachers (Philadelphia dance teacher and writer Albert Newman claimed in the early 1910s to have received dances directly from him), I have not so far found this particular dance in any American source.The word tantivy is associated with hunting in England, with an implication of going full-speed or headlong, as discussed by Michael Quinion at World Wide Words, and the dance does require a certain enthusiastic commitment to perform successfully...[more]
- [Mr. Faurot's Hesitation Waltz](https://www.kickery.com/2015/06/faurot-hesitation-waltz.html) - This hesitation waltz sequence by Seattle dance teacher George G. Faurot (c1879-1954) was published in both editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914). Faurot himself was a native of Lima, Ohio, where his uncle Ben discovered oil and his brother Lee eventually became mayor. Faurot Park in Lima was donated by Ben and is named for him. According to George's obituary, he fought in the Spanish-American War and then had a career in the oil industry before moving to Seattle, where he ran the Faurot Studio of Dancing with his wife, Nellie, for thirty years. The Faurots' residence in the late 1930s is now a historical site in Seattle. The building that housed their dance studio, the Oddfellows Building, still stands and is still home to a dance studio, Century Ballroom, though the Faurot Ballroom itself seems to have been in the first-floor space which is now the Oddfellows Cafe. Interestingly, Lee, before becoming mayor, also seems to have dabbled in dance teaching before ending up in the insurance business and politics. A family passion? Faurot's hesitation waltz consists of two sixteen-bar sections which Faurot noted can be used individually or combined into a single thirty-two-bar sequence. The first section moves against the line of dance at one point, so it's not a good sequence to do in a crowded ballroom unless the whole room is dancing in unison. The second section travels only intermittently, with two two-bar sets of in-place hesitations, but is more practical for general use...[detailed sequence behind the cut]
- [A St. Louis Hesitation Waltz (1914)](https://www.kickery.com/2017/02/st-louis-hesitation-waltz.html) - The generically named One Step Hesitation is a short hesitation waltz sequence that appeared in the second edition of the collection Dance Mad, or the dances of the day, compiled by F. Leslie Clendenen and published in St. Louis in late 1914. It is subtitled "As Recommended by St. Louis Association Dancing Masters", and with no author listed, may have come from the hand of Clendenen himself. Since the One Step Hesitation is almost entirely in the slowest possible type of hesitation (one step per bar of music), it calls for very fast waltz music or it will drag badly. I prefer 180 beats per minute and up for this type of hesitation waltz. The starting position is a normal ballroom hold with both dancers facing the line of dance. The steps below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite. In general, forward steps are performed with a slight bounce to them: step (1), rise (2), fall (3). The full sixteen-bar sequence...[may be found behind the cut]
- [The Mistletoe Hesitation](https://www.kickery.com/2008/05/the-mistletoe-h.html) - The Mistletoe Hesitation is a lovely little sixteen-bar hesitation waltz sequence originally published in F. Leslie Clendenen's Dance Mad, or the dances of the day (St. Louis, 1914), a collection of dances and dance moves borrowed liberally from other dance teachers and manuals. The Mistletoe is attributed to M.W. Cain and is one of the
- [On Old Fashioned Dances, 1926](https://www.kickery.com/2016/09/on-old-fashioned-dances-1926.html) - On January 21, 1926, a column unfavorably comparing modern dancing to that of earlier eras was published in the Lewiston Evening Journal, published in Lewiston, Maine. "On 'Old-Fashioned Dances' " appeared under the column title "Just Talks On Common Themes" and the byline of A. G. S. The initials are those of Arthur Gray Staples (1861-1940), a Maine writer who was the editor-in-chief of the Lewiston Evening Journal (later just the Lewiston Journal) from 1919-1940. "Just Talks On Common Themes" was his daily column. Staples described these columns many years later in an inscription of one of his books to the Maine State Library: The only claim for these things is their spontaneity. They write themselves — “after hours,” chiefly. In their day and generation many good folk seemed to like some of them and many did not. A collection of the columns was published in 1919 or 1920 and may now be found online at archive.org. Later collections were issued in 1921 and 1924, but a 1926 column was obviously not included in any of them. Fortunately, it is now online in its original newspaper publication...[quotes and thoughts behind the cut]
- [Tired of the company, 1789](https://www.kickery.com/2015/09/tired-of-the-company-1789.html) - I've recently been reminded by some discussions on a mailing list that there are plenty of people who don't really have much grasp of the social context of dance in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century or that a ball could be a much more complicated and socially perilous event than just a bunch of folks getting together and having a nice time dancing. Here's an interesting example of rudeness on the dance floor wielded as a social weapon...[disrupting a country dance as social payback behind the cut]
- [Teaching the hey for three](https://www.kickery.com/2016/05/teaching-the-hey-for-three.html) - I didn't realize my way of teaching heys for three was particularly unusual until one of my regular musicians, who is himself a contra dance caller, commented on it, impressed by how quickly I was able to get a roomful of dancers at a public ball (meaning dancers of wildly mixed ability and experience) doing heys in unison. Since heys of one sort or another are especially popular in early nineteenth century dance, I teach them frequently and prefer not to take too much time about it, especially when calling at a ball. My little trick for teaching a hey for three is to start by teaching it from an L-shaped formation, as a "corner hey", rather than in a straight line. I find that it can be difficult for dancers, especially beginners, to visualize the figure-eight path of the hey when they all start in a straight line, and that it is not intuitively obvious in which direction the second and third dancers move when everyone starts at once (as they should!) rather than one dancer moving and the other two waiting out a measure or two before starting. Doing a corner hey simplifies things...[details behind the cut]
- [Mr. Layland's Polka Contre Danse](https://www.kickery.com/2017/03/layland-polka-contre-danse.html) - There are at least five different dances in the second half of the nineteenth century whose name is some variation on the generic "polka country dance". The one I'm looking at here was published as both "Polka Contre Danse" and just "Polka Contre". Unusually, it is attributed to a particular dancing master, Mr. Layland, who was active in London in the mid-19th century. I've mentioned him before in the context of his mescolanzes. That makes it very much an English dance, despite its appearance in a couple of American dance manuals. My first English source for the Polka Contre Danse, The Victoria Danse du Monde and Quadrille Preceptor, dates to the early 1870s, but I suspect that it actually dates back to the 1850s. It actually appears earlier in two of the manuals of Boston musician/dance caller/publisher Elias Howe, the earlier of which is from 1862. Howe was a collector and tended to throw dances from every book he collected into his own works, so I suspect there is an earlier English source somewhere, possibly by Layland himself. Maybe someday I'll find it. Until then, on with Polka Contre Danse!
- [The Trio](https://www.kickery.com/2015/10/trio.html) - Since I frequently have to deal with an imbalance in numbers between the ladies and the gentlemen at nineteenth century balls, I'm always interested in dances that use a trio formation. This can be one gentleman with two ladies or vice-versa, though the former is the more common situation. This dance, simply called "The Trio", appears in at least two editions of Elias Howe's American dancing master, and ball-room prompter (Boston, 1862 and 1866). Howe's instructions are a bit vague and neglect to mention the actual timing of the figures, but a little experimentation convinced me that the following reconstruction is workable and fun. This is an extremely easy dance, good for groups of beginners...[reconstruction and notes behind the cut]
- ["agoing to dance the spanish dance"](https://www.kickery.com/2014/12/agoing-to-dance-the-spanish-dance.html) - "...George Cowls says tell Nancy he is right in his glory to day and when he comes home he is agoing to dance the spanish dance with you and he says tell Abby he is agoing through ceders swamp with her..." -- Pvt. Jairus Hammond to Nancy Titus, December 8, 1862 Here's rare documentation of a specific dance: a mention in a letter from a Union soldier during the American Civil War to his sister, dated one hundred and fifty-two years ago today, that another man plans to dance the Spanish Dance (previously described here) with her when he returns. There has been no real doubt that the Spanish Dance was actually danced and was as popular as its frequent appearance in dance manuals suggests. I have found it listed on dozens of dance cards. But this is another little piece of documentation demonstrating that its popularity extended well down the social scale...[a bit more about Hammond and the letter behind the cut]
- [Three "Scottish" Setting Sequences for Regency-Era Quadrilles](https://www.kickery.com/2013/12/three-scottish-setting-sequences.html) - (This continues a very occasional series of posts on setting steps for quadrilles, with the previous posts including eight easy sequences and two French sequences.) Calling these three sequences "Scottish" is really a bit of a misnomer, since the sources are Alexander Strathy's Elements of the Art of Dancing (Edinburgh, 1822), which is in large part a translation of a French manual by J. H. Goudoux, and an anonymous Scottish manuscript entitled Contre Danses à Paris 1818. All three sequences are certainly French in their steps and style and quite possibly in origin. They probably would not have caused anyone in Paris in that era to bat an eyelash. But technically, they are documented to Scotland, not France, in the late 1810s-early 1820s...[details behind the cut]
- [Two French Setting Sequences for Regency-era Quadrilles](https://www.kickery.com/2013/12/two-french-setting-sequences.html) - Several years ago I posted eight easy setting sequences for Regency-era French quadrilles and said in the comments I'd try to post more "soon". That has now stretched to more than five years, but, better late than never, here are a couple of others, this time directly from a trio of French manuals by J. H. Gourdoux (or Gourdoux-Daux): Principes et Notions Élémentaires sur l’Art de la Danse Pour la Ville (2nd edition, 1811)Recueil d’un Genre Nouveau de Contredanses et Walses (1819)De l’Art de la Danse (1823) Once again, these are easy sequences, but a bit more interesting than the previous set...[details behind the cut]
- [A Promiscuous Figure: Flirtation](https://www.kickery.com/2010/01/promiscuous-figure-flirtation.html) - Era: circa 1905 A while back I published a couple of posts on so-called "promiscuous figures," which may be substituted into the first set of quadrilles for variety. The Flirtation figure is another of these, taken from English dancing master William Lamb's How and What to Dance (London, 1903), an undated New York edition of which was published in the first decade of the 20th century. The figure is probably intended as a finale figure, replacing the usual fifth figure, since it is entirely full-set moves and finishes with a galopade, typically included in finale figures....[figures behind the cut]
- [The Sixdrilles (3 of 3)](https://www.kickery.com/2016/03/sixdrilles-3.html) - Wrapping up my mini-series on the Sixdrilles, here are the final two figures and some overall thoughts. The earlier figures can be found in my first and second posts in the series...[figures four and five and two informal appendices behind the cut]
- [Run, run...a redowa!](https://www.kickery.com/2013/02/run-run-a-redowa.html) - To be perfectly specific, that's a polka redowa, a polka step in slow waltz time. This variation for it, called The Run, was, as far as I can tell, unique to the fifth edition (1892) of William B. De Garmo's The Dance of Society. The sequence is simplicity itself: In normal closed position, dance polka redowa, turning (six measures) Release hands and open up into "military" position, side by side (as described and shown here). Run forward six steps (two measures) Join hands again to repeat from the start De Garmo made a point of noting that the polka redowa should be danced in a gliding style as in his description of the polka step, found earlier in the book: "...hop or spring on right foot and almost simultaneously glide left foot directly sidewise to 2d position -- count one; draw right foot to 1st position -- two; glide left foot again to 2d position -- three..." He also noted in the polka description that the hop "may be so modified as to be nearly imperceptible," provided the dancers take care not to lose the elasticity of the knee. In his description of The Run, he reiterated that it should be danced with "the three steps being glided, the glides a little longer than usual" and that the running steps should be "with spirit...[a teeny bit more behind the cut]
- [Ladies leading, 1898](https://www.kickery.com/2016/12/ladies-leading-1898.html) - Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about some of the tidbits of evidence of ladies or gentlemen dancing in same-gender couples in Regency-era ballrooms. I'm returning to the topic of same-gender dancing with an interesting article I discovered in an issue of a late-nineteenth-century American dance magazine, The Two Step, published at the time by
- [The Racket Waltz, or The Society](https://www.kickery.com/2009/08/racket-waltz.html) - Era: 1880s into very early 1900s The simplest description of the racket waltz is that it is the step of the one-slide racket converted to waltz time, with the extra beat of music per measure added to the initial slide. Edna Witherspoon, in The Perfect Art of Modern Dancing (1894), gives it the alternate title "The Society" and notes that
- [Introducing the racket](https://www.kickery.com/2009/06/introducing-the-racket.html) - The racket, or racquet, is one of the major new couple dances that began appearing in American dance manuals in the early 1880s and lingered into the beginning of the twentieth century. It spread to France in the mid- to late 1890s. I have found no information on its origins or reference to any creator.
- [The Two-Slide Racket](https://www.kickery.com/2009/12/two-slide-racket.html) - Era: 1880s into very early 1900s I'm going to wrap up the year at Kickery with a different kind of racket waltz, the two-slide racket. This variant appears in at least two major and two minor sources in late nineteenth-century America, as listed at the bottom of this post. In the minor sources, the Cartier and
- [Alternating racket waltz patterns](https://www.kickery.com/2013/02/alternating-racket-waltz-patterns.html) - Era: 1880s into very early 1900s The last of the racket waltz patterns appears only in Allen Dodworth's Dancing and its Relation to Education and Social Life (New York, 1885, reprinted 1900) and is thus saddled with his prosaic yet unwieldy title, "Alternating One Slide and Three Slide to Waltz." That's more a description of the technique a name, but it's what we've got. Unlike "Alternating the One Slide and Three Slide to Galop," more usually known simply as the racket, the waltz-time version does not just combine the two existing racket waltzes (one-slide and two-slide) in a short/short/long short/short/long pattern. That works in waltz time since both the "short" and "long" patterns take only one measure apiece. Instead, this racket actually uses a three-slide racket, as in galop time, stretched in an irregular way from four beats to six, similarly to how the one-slide racket in galop is stretched from two beats to three in waltz time...but more complicated...[spiraling complications behind the cut]
- [Four Tiny Polka Redowa Variations](https://www.kickery.com/2024/01/four-tiny-polka-redowa-variations.html) - Believe it or not, even I get a little bit tired of going through the seemingly endless list of insignificant couple dance variations published in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and reprinted in French in G. W. Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903). Studying all of them is important for my overall project of analyzing late nineteenth century American couple dance variations, but a lot of them are just trivial as individual dances, though still useful as data points and material for improvisation. As with my trio of tiny galop variations a few years ago, here are four dances that fall in the mazurka/redowa classification that just don't have enough to them to warrant individual posts. What these four have in common: They all use the polka redowa (polka in 3/4 time): (hop) slide-cut-leap, counted &123. While three of the four are called mazurkas, they have very little obvious mazurka in them and a great deal of polka redowa. All four will work to redowa and mazurka music in general. Gilbert and Lopp both specify a tempo of 144 beats per minute for that entire genre of music. They almost certainly all have matching sheet music, their names being the names of the tune they were originally attached to. But the music hasn't emerged in my searches so far, the dances are regular enough in pattern that specific music isn't critical, and they just aren't interesting enough for me to devote a lot of time to continued searching. If the music turns up, it turns up. If not, these make easy variations for improvisation. They all appear in both Gilbert and Lopp, and the descriptions match with only insignificant exceptions. They present no reconstruction issues. So, in the interest of efficiency, here are the four dances, with brief notes about each....[four tiny dances behind the cut]
- [Highland Mazourka](https://www.kickery.com/2024/08/highland-mazourka.html) - Let's get the important part out of the way first: The Highland Mazourka is not a mazurka. It is, however, a delightful example of the nineteenth-century tendency to transpose dances from one time signature to another. In this case, typical polka mazurka sequences have been transposed from 3/4 time to 4/4 time with a bit of extra hopping added to fill out the music, which should be of the Scottish strathspey style. The polka mazurka itself consisted partly of polka (2/4) steps transposed to 3/4 time. Confused by all these shifting time signatures? Fear not; all will be made clear below...[behind the cut]
- [Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Double Glide Waltz](https://www.kickery.com/2013/10/double-glide-waltz.html) - The Double Glide Waltz, as described by Melvin B. Gilbert in his compendium Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), is an elaboration on the alternating measures of sliding and waltzing found in variations like the Metropole. In La Danse, by [George] Washington Lopp, published in Paris in 1903, it is called La Double Boston and credited to Lopp himself. Much of La Danse is a direct French translation of Gilbert, so Lopp's addition of the credit to himself is notable. Like other late variations such as the Bowdoin and Fascination, the Double Glide Waltz alters the sliding steps, in this case to include in each sideways measure two "slide-closes", one slow and one fast. The pattern here is "one, two-and-three" or "slow, quick-quick-slow". It also reverses the Metropole pattern from slide/waltz/slide/waltz to waltz/slide/waltz/slide, a distinction which is not particularly significant when actually dancing...[how-to behind the cut!]
- [Late Victorian Waltz Variations: The College Step](https://www.kickery.com/2019/04/college-step.html) - Working my way through the waltz variations in Round Dancing (M. B. Gilbert, Portland, Maine, 1890) and La Danse (G. W. Lopp, Paris, 1903), here's one that can fairly confidently be classified as a step rather than a sequence written for a particular piece of music. It's actually quite interesting, though less for the step than for the fact that though at first glance it looks like a two-part sequence, it's actually not. Gilbert specifically (and ungrammatically) wrote: Repeat ad lib, commencing at the second part. At the termination of the side movement. Waltz at pleasure, introducing the second part at will. In other words, waltz (the first part) for as long as you like, then do the second part (a set of sideways movements akin to a racket) for as long as you like. In short, use the second part as a variation in your waltzing. That's in line with how I suspect many of these variations were actually used, but it's unusual to see it stated so explicitly...[reconstruction and notes behind the cut]
- [Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Fascination](https://www.kickery.com/2012/05/fascination.html) - Fascination is another of the myriad minor waltz variations given by dancing master M. B. Gilbert, in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), who includes the dance "by permission of D. B. Brenneke", presumably the creator. It is essentially a longer and slightly more complex elaboration on the Gavotte Glide...[details behind the cut]
- [Twinkle, Twinkle: Fast and Slow](https://www.kickery.com/2014/05/twinkle-twinkle-fast-and-slow.html) - 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?...[meandering discussion of twinkly things in foxtrot and other dances behind the cut]
- [Against the odds](https://www.kickery.com/2018/12/against-the-odds.html) - I recently made note of a mailing list post that referred to dances done at American Civil War reenactments, such as the Virginia Reel, and couple-facing-couple dances like the Spanish Dance/Waltz, as "historically-flavored". I don't think the poster meant to imply that these dances were actually ahistorical; this is someone whom I'm certain knows better. But there's an interesting underlying point I wanted to expand on in this, which is that it's possible to have an entire ball full of historically-appropriate, accurately-reconstructed dances, and still have the ball as a whole not be convincing as a historical event. Because having all the dances accurate to the time period is not enough. There are at least two other external factors to consider: the geographic setting and the specific type of ball and ball attendees. A ball held by a member of high society in New York City is not going to have the same dance repertoire as a ball set in a frontier town in Oregon, even if they are both set in 1898, and a middle-class French ball would be even more different. There is also an internal element, which is the mix of dances and the proportions of different types of dances. It's fairly clear to me that the most typical ball format for an American ball in the last half of the nineteenth century included large numbers of quadrilles (choreographed classics like the Lancers and Caledonians and some that were probably called on the spot by the ball's master of ceremonies), smaller numbers of couple dances, and a modest number of contra (country) dances, which included both ones "formed as for the Spanish Dance", meaning in a "Sicilian circle" of couple facing couple, and more conventional longways proper dances. This would vary somewhat by location and social class, of course. Note that this applies only to balls which are actually attempting to reenact specific times and places. Events along the lines of "everyone put on a costume and lets dance some random dances" are not what I'm talking about...[more rambling behind the cut]
- [The Sixdrilles (2 of 3)](https://www.kickery.com/2016/03/sixdrilles-2.html) - Moving right along from my first post in the Sixdrilles series, here are the reconstructions of the next two figures: Figure Two: L’Été (8b introduction + 24bx4)4b First gentleman and two opposite ladies en avant and en arrière.4b Same three chassez-dechassez (à droite et à gauche)4b Same three traversez, gentleman crossing between the two ladies4b Same three chassez-dechassez4b Same three traversez/balancez [see note below] while partners balancez4b Same three rond de trois The figure is then repeated by the second gentleman and the two opposite ladies, the third gentlemen and two opposite ladies, and the fourth gentleman and two opposite ladies...[details and La Poule behind the cut]
- [The Sixdrilles (1 of 3)](https://www.kickery.com/2016/03/sixdrilles-1.html) - The Sixdrilles are a clever reworking of the figures French Quadrille (or First Set) for a group of twelve dancers in the form of a square of trios, each consisting of a gentleman and two ladies. I have two Scottish sources for them, which match fairly closely: The Ball-Room, by Monsieur J. P. Boulogne (Glasgow, 1827). Lowe's Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide...Third Edition, by the Messrs. Lowe (Edinburgh, c1830) Monsieur Boulogne is billed as French, but I know no more about him. The Messrs. Lowe were a group of four brothers, all dance teachers, one of whom eventually became famous as dancing master at Balmoral for the family of Queen Victoria. Their book is difficult to date, especially since it is a third edition. A reference to the Sixdrilles being created around the time of the coronation of Charles X puts it at 1824 or later, and a late reference to the opera Guillaume Tell (Paris, 1829) at the very end of the book suggests 1830 onward. The last half-dozen pages look like a later attachment, however, and may have been added for the second or third edition. The Sixdrilles appear much earlier and are integrated into the overall work. Whatever their precise date, Boulogne ensures that these particular trio-quadrilles are at least documentable to late-1820s Scotland. Let me note, however, that the idea of a quadrille of trios is not unique to Scottish sources. Either a lot of people had the same inspiration or there was significant borrowing of ideas (if not precise figures) going on. In Germany, quadrilles for twelve (called Douzes) in four-trio (as opposed to six-couple) formations were published in the 1811 and 1813 editions of Wilhelm Gottlieb Becker's Taschenbuch zum geselligen Vergnügen and, closer in time to the Sixdrilles, in Christian Langer's 1824 and 1838 editions of Terpsichore. In London, G. M. S. Chivers included a set of "Troisdrilles" in his mid-1820s The Dancing Master in Miniature, and in far-off Quebec, W. G. Wells included "Tredrilles" in his 1832 Danciad. Wells copied most of his book from English sources, so I suspect his Tredrilles are likewise borrowed. Given Boulogne's nationality and the Lowes' tendency to borrow liberally from continental sources, it would not particularly surprise me if the Sixdrilles have a French or German source. None of the other trio-quadrilles are precisely the same as the Sixdrilles, however. The Becker Douzes have some interesting figures, but the Tredrilles and Troisdrilles are banal. The Sixdrilles are excellent, however: intelligent variations on the basic figures that are easy to learn for dancers who know the First Set, as any good dancer of the 1820s would, and a convenient solution to the problem of having more ladies than gentlemen at a ball. Sadly, it is near-impossible to definitively answer the critical question of whether they were ever actually danced. There's a dearth of written ball programs for the British Isles in this era, and the Sixdrilles need not even have been listed on such. They were musically compatible with the First Set, so most of the room could be dancing a normal quadrille while a few individual sets danced in trio formation. But since the imbalance of genders continues to be a problem today, I find it useful to have a solution documentable to dance manuals, if not to the dance floor...[reconstruction and notes behind the cut]
- [Chivers' Troidrilles (2 of 2)](https://www.kickery.com/2021/07/troidrilles-2.html) - Continuing on with figures two and three of Chivers' Troidrilles... Figure Two (Tune: Eté) 8b + 24bx48b Introduction (not repeated)2b First head trio forward (en avant) and stop2b Opposite trio forward (en avant) and stop4b All retire to places, turning round to the right twice8b Four head ladies right hands across (moulinet) and left hands back8b Set (pas de basque) in trios (4b) and hands three round (4b)Repeat three more times, other couples leading in turn This is another straightforward reconstruction. The figure is done four times as in standard quadrille practice: twice by the head couples (first couple leading, then opposite couple leading) then twice by the side couples, led first by the couple to the right of the first head couple. StepsFor the en avant, normally an opportunity for fancier steps, I would use a single chassé, jeté-assemblé because with three dancers holding hands, it's once again too awkward to have everyone dancing different steps. For the retire to places, three chassé, jeté-assemblé. The same each way for the moulinet and the final hands three round in trios...[details and notes for Figs 2 and 3 behind the cut]
- [Chivers' Troidrilles (1 of 2)](https://www.kickery.com/2021/07/troidrilles-1.html) - I adore dances that are for trios rather than couples. There are so many interesting things one can do when there are three dancers in the mix rather than just two! And, of course, it helps the address the problem that historical dance tends to be imbalanced in gender, with many more women than men interested, but many of them desiring to dance in historical gender roles...though those were not always as rigid as people believe. Figures for one gentleman and two ladies go some way toward addressing this at balls. I've written previously about G. M. S. Chivers' "Swedish" dances, trio country dances that were not actually Swedish, and the Scottish Sixdrilles, a reworking of the French quadrille to be danced by four trios rather than four couples. The Troidrilles are more in the spirit of the latter (though the name is more harmonious): a miniature "quadrille" of only three figures for four trios published in Chivers' The Dancing Master in Miniature (London, 1825). The figures are original, though very Chivers in style. The Troidrilles were published as set to tunes -- presumably the English ones -- for the French quadrille: Pantalon, Eté, and Finale. I believe that implies that there was no specific sheet music published for them. Any quadrille set with a Finale figure of the same length (not always the case!) should work. I generally teach and dance them using the recording of Paine's 12th Set of Quadrilles found on the album Music for Quadrilles by Kevin Smith and Green Ginger, with the Finale figure edited to remove the coda. The formation, as noted, is a square of twelve dancers, each trio consisting of one gentleman between two ladies. The head trios are the trio with their back to the music and the trio facing them. The side trios are, obviously, the other two trios. The figures were originally printed entirely in English; I've added French translations here and there for those who learned the figures in that language. General familiarity with quadrille figures and steps is assumed; I will not explain either in detail. I'll go through the figures one by one with notes on reconstruction or performance as required...[figure one behind the cut]
- [June 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/05/june-2021-gig-calendar.html) - I just can't seem to quit the online classes! Much to my surprise, I'm doing one more series - this is really the last one, I think - of experimenting on students with fresh cotillion research. I also hope to add a couple of Connecticut-local, vaccinated-only, in-person classes later this month...[small but fun schedule behind the cut]
- [July 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/07/july-2021-gig-calendar.html) - All right, this is getting a little ridiculous. Remember I said last month that that series of online classes was really the last one? Well...it wasn't. So let's try this again: Still no in-person classes, but this month I'll be doing one more series (the last one! really!) of cotillion working group classes, using a different potpourri scheme - multiple figures repeating multiple times. I'll also be lecturing for the Regency Fiction Writers Virtual Conference and teaching hand jive at the fabulous (and free!) online Stockton Folk Dance Camp. Stockton is a fabulous bargain - a week of classes with an international cast of teachers, tons of dancing and music, and free. And if anyone is ready to sponsor in-person classes in the USA again...I'm fully vaccinated and ready to travel...[schedule details behind the cut]
- [September 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/08/september-2018-gig-calendar.html) - September includes my last few weeks in the USA before my biannual transatlantic migration; the last week will be spent settling into my Moscow life once more. I'll be taking some vacation early in the month (real vacation this time - no dance gigs sneaking in!) and then have some research time and a pair of DJ gigs in Boston before heading home to pack! Once in Moscow, I'll pick up my autumn schedule quickly with a waltz party to launch my cross-step classes and a pair of historical classes covering the 1880s-1890s and 1910s with a special emphasis on dance connections to Russia in both France and America...[details behind the cut]
- [December 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/11/december-2018-gig-calendar.html) - I'll have just one short trip in December, plus a Christmas waltz party and wrapping up my classes for the year! Plus, I'll be teaching a quick lesson in cross-step waltz (probably the standard mixer) at a Russian-organized ball. I'm hoping to do this entirely in my still-fragmented but (hopefully) comprehensible Russian, with no English at all and without using a translator. We'll see how that goes...[schedule behind the cut]
- [August 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/07/august-2018-gig-calendar.html) - Emerging from my summer hibernation -- how did I get my hibernation season so out of whack? -- I'll be on the road this month for blues in Boston and a somewhat random bunch of workshops in San Jose, California, where a non-dance-related trip has turned into something of a busman's holiday...[details behind the cut]
- [November 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/11/november-2019-gig-calendar.html) - I'll be juggling two big trips in November - to Kyiv, Ukraine, for a ball and a day of classes, then back to the USA in November for the Remembrance Day Weekend balls and a country dance evening in Chicago! In Moscow, I'll be continuing some private lessons and doing another public dance at the American Center at the U. S. Embassy...[details behind the cut]
- [January 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/01/january-2021-gig-calendar.html) - Well, we're still online-only...this month is planned as a research/writing month, so while I'm doing one brand-new lecture, I'm not planning any other major teaching events, just a few low-key private pop-up classes, which will keep popping up here throughout the month. I expect more organized public classes to resume in February...[very few things behind the cut]
- [February 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/02/february-2021-gig-calendar.html) - My excitement for February: returning to DJing blues! I'm not a big blues dancer, but I love the music and look forward to spinning online for my old Boston-area pals at Bluesy Tuesy and new folks from Powerhouse Blues! I'll also be returning to my ultra-basic footwork classes and might add another pop-up class or lecture somewhere in there... Otherwise: it's still a pandemic. But the vaccines are coming! Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance...[short list of classes behind the cut]
- [November 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/11/november-2021-gig-calendar.html) - Back in the ballroom at last! This month I will return to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for a Remembrance Day Ball (though in a different location and with a different organizer than in previous years) as well as doing a presentation for an online conference in the UK. I'll squeeze in a research jaunt around the Gettysburg trip and expect to spend time early in the month sewing a new costume for it since my ballgown is (sigh) still in Moscow. I'm so excited to get back on the dance floor in costume for the first time since early March, 2020...[details behind the cut]
- [December 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/12/december-2021-gig-calendar.html) - And...we may be heading into another winter viral surge. Fortunately, I've only got online events this month, but I'll be making research trips to Boston and Washington, D.C., and continuing to push my writing (now with extra added translation!) forward. Life may be quite, but it's not boring...[two small things only behind the cut]
- [July 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/06/july-2018-gig-calendar.html) - July is going to be another quiet month for me, holed up at home doing a bunch of unrelated work, writing, research, etc. I'll make a brief research trip to Boston and do some DJing on the side, and I may be out and about later in the month. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuesday, July 10th ~ Cambridge, Massachusetts (Boston area)Bluesy Tuesy 7:30-11:00pm (lesson then dancing). DJing blues for the second set, 9:45-11:00pm. Thursday, June 12th ~ Somerville, Massachusetts (Boston area)Blues Union7:30-11:00pm (lessons until 9:30 then dancing). I'll be DJing blues from 9:30-10:30. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am available for private lessons in Connecticut or on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space. Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson. New Haven and Middletown, Connecticut: July 1-9, 13-26, 30-31Boston area: July 10-12 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...[no more behind the cut, move along, nothing more to see there]
- [May 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/04/may-2021-gig-calendar.html) - Moving right along, pandemic-wise, I've now had both vaccinations (Pfizer/BioNTech) and am waiting out the two weeks until my immunity matures. For May, I'm teaching what will probably be my last full series of online classes and starting to plan out summer travel, which will with luck include both research and, just maybe, some in-person teaching...[one last online series, behind the cut]
- [March 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/03/march-2021-gig-calendar.html) - The pandemic continues, but vaccines are rolling out apace in the USA, so I am feeling cautiously optimistic about later this year, though I've no idea when I'll be able to resume significant travel again. In the meantime, I'm still online-only...[a few classes behind the cut]
- [April 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/04/april-2021-gig-calendar.html) - I am now half-vaccinated and anticipate being fully so around the end of the month! Lessons and events continue to be online-only for me for now, with a return to limited in-person teaching possible as early as June. This month's highlight for me: after many years, a return to NEFFA (online version) to teach, of all things, 1950s hand jive! Details below! Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance...[details behind the cut]
- [September 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/08/september-2021-gig-calendar.html) - I'm cautiously optimistic that things will start to pick up this autumn, though I'm not sure about winter. This will be a fairly quiet month (like so many recently...) with an online lecture and a research trip. And if your dance group us back to actual in-person dancing, I'm willing to travel for small, vaccinated-only events and classes and, of course, to do Zoom lessons and talks for those who are not yet back to in-person events. Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance...[a very few things behind the cut]
- [October 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/09/october-2021-gig-calendar.html) - All right, this month is actually less of the same, relative to last month. Let's hope that roots grow deep in the dark, because this is definitely a dark and quiet month for me. But better things - including an in-person thing - are coming in November...[one lonely thing behind the cut]
- [Setting a higher standard](https://www.kickery.com/2013/07/setting-a-higher-standard.html) - Moving on from what ought to be the rock-bottom minimal standard for anything calling itself a "Jane Austen ball", even in the modern English country dance community, let me talk a little about higher standards, and what you'd want to do if you were interested in actually approaching as close as is practical to period practice. I've made two lists, one of what I consider to be important and one of elements that I do not consider as critical. Some items are characteristics of the dancing itself, and some have to do with ball format, because the latter is just as important as the former in establishing a period atmosphere and breaking people out of the modern mindset. Modern English country dance groups are unlikely to want to try most (or any!) of this, but I hope it's interesting to see how different an experience a ball would have been two hundred years ago. Some people have the bizarre idea that by suggesting that using "dances" (in the modern sense) from Jane Austen's lifetime for something called a "Jane Austen ball", I am somehow trying to impose actual historical practices on them. No, really, not! For simplicity's sake, I've limited this to just things pertaining to country dancing, rather than trying to cover the entire range of possible dance forms for either Austen herself or the actual decade of the Regency...[lengthy list behind the cut]
- [Jane Austen balls for dummies](https://www.kickery.com/2013/07/jane-austen-balls-for-dummies.html) - First off, let me note that the title of this post is not a comment on anyone's intellect. It's a riff on the titles of the popular series of "For Dummies" books, which are intended simply as accessible how-to guides for people who are not familiar with a topic. I have a couple of them myself. Neither I nor this post have any actual connection with these books, and no copyright infringement is intended. It's been pointed out to me that negative critiques of historically ludicrous "Regency" ball programs, however justified, are not actually helpful for people who are not dance scholars and whose audience is not interested in serious study of historical dance, but who would like to do a decent job programming such a ball, or at least avoid making obvious idiots of themselves by calling seventeenth-century dances at a Regency- or Jane Austen-themed event. That's a reasonable complaint. It's always easier to criticize than to be constructive. And most of Kickery delves too deeply into the details for a modern country dance caller who just wants to do their gig. I'm not going to write a modern caller's guide to doing such balls (not as a blog post, anyway!) But I can at least give some basic help to people who don't have the time (or motivation) to go for higher levels of authenticity. I went with "Jane Austen" in the title rather than "Regency" because I think the name recognition and audience are higher for the author than for the era and because the single easy-to-find reference I'm using has more dances drawn from sources published in Austen's lifetime than from the years of the actual Regency. But everything below would be acceptable, if not exactly the latest fashion, for country-dance-focused Regency balls as well...[sample program behind the cut]
- [They ought to be ashamed of themselves](https://www.kickery.com/2013/06/they-ought-to-be-ashamed-of-themselves.html) - A while back, a friend sent me a flyer and the dance program for a "Regency ball" (the organizers' term, not mine) in their area. I'm not going to tell you where, or when, or who the caller was, because there are plenty of similar events going on all over (at least) the English-speaking world. But I am going to tell you one thing: This program is utter bullshit....[details behind the cut]
- [What Did Jane Austen Dance?](https://www.kickery.com/2009/11/what-did-jane-austen-dance.html) - Since early 19th century ("Regency") dance is one of my particular specialties, I get many questions that boil down to either "what did Jane Austen dance?" or "did Jane Austen dance _____?" So let's see what I can do for a general answer. I can divide things loosely into three categories: what we know she danced, what she might have danced, and what she didn't dance....[lots of gory details behind the cut]
- [August 2021 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2021/08/august-2021-gig-calendar.html) - I'm now in that in-between space in which online lesson series are no longer viable but, with the delta variant surge, in-person lesson and classes have not really started up again, at least not to the extent of hiring traveling teachers. But I have a wonderful research trip planned this month -- two separate libraries, two days in each, plus seeing friends I haven't see since 2019 -- and expect to have plenty of work to keep me busy, what with wrapping up my July events, revamping my masquerades lecture for another outing in September, and pushing several research and writing projects forward...[not much in the way of publicly-accessible events behind the cut]
- [December 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/12/december-2019-gig-calendar.html) - December will be a quite month of hibernation, research, and private lessons and classes. The dance series at the American Center at the U. S. Embassy will continue with one regular dance and a holiday party...[details of mostly private events behind the cut]
- [January 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/01/january-2019-gig-calendar.html) - Happy new year! January is going to be a quiet month for me. I'm going to DJ blues in Russia for the first time at a swing dance camp, which I'm really looking forward to, and restart my regular waltz and historical dance classes and parties at some point (edited 1/27/19 to add) with a waltz evening at the end of the month before beginning regular classes in February. Most of my time after the holidays (through January 8th in Russia!) is going to be spent on some research projects and pulling together a bunch of material for my February weekend in Saratov...[details of very few things behind the cut]
- [February 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/01/february-2019-gig-calendar.html) - I will spend most of February in Moscow, with one trip to Saratov at the end of the month for a weekend of classes on late nineteenth and early twentieth century dance, with an emphasis on improvisation in everything from tango and foxtrot to polka mazurka and quadrilles. This is something of a sequel to my intensive weekend in Samara three years ago. I'm really excited about teaching this material -- finally, back to advanced nineteenth century! -- and visiting a new Russian city! Other than that -- my usual classes, a waltz party, and balls to attend...[exact schedule behind the cut]
- [March 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/02/march-2019-gig-calendar.html) - Local classes only this month as the Moscow winter hopefully wraps up: cross-step waltz (two intermediate classes) and polka mazurka variations with a bit of a wander through other musical rhythms as well, plus my monthly waltz evening. Lots of research and writing in between...[details behind the cut]
- [April 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/03/april-2019-gig-calendar.html) - April is going to be busy with local teaching for me: my regular weekly cross-step and "polka mazurka" (now expanding to all sorts of late-nineteenth-century dance) classes and waltz party plus private lessons and an Easter ball! In between, I'll be preparing a whole list of classes for Vintage Dance Exchange 2019 - By the Sea, coming up in mid-May in Odessa...[details behind the cut]
- [May 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/04/may-2019-gig-calendar.html) - Last month in Moscow! Along with preparing for my homeward migration at the end of the month, I'll be traveling to Odessa for Vintage Dance Exchange 2019 - By the Sea and teaching a full slate of waltz and nineteenth-century classes and private lessons...[details behind the cut]
- [June 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/06/june-2019-gig-calendar.html) - I have some personal and research travel planned during June, but otherwise am taking my annual summer reading/research/writing break. I don't expect (and am not looking for) any public events at all this month...
- [July 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/07/july-2019-gig-calendar.html) - I am still mostly on my summer reading/research/writing break, but I plan to emerge briefly for my second lecture to the Beau Monde (Regency-focused) subgroup of the Romance Writers of America at their conference in New York in July. Other events may emerge, but I'm not really seeking them. Lots of work to do...
- [August 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/08/august-2019-gig-calendar.html) - I probably should start calling these summer calendars non-gig calendars, since I'm having a quiet summer dance-wise. I don't have anything planned this month, nor am I planning to change that. I am still available for private lessons in Connecticut when I'm there. Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson...[no gigs behind the cut! because SUMMER!]
- [September 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/09/september-2019-gig-calendar.html) - One last non-gig calendar for my extended summer vacation! This month I am moving back to Russia, and starting in October there will once more be classes, parties, and the occasional weekend of travel. I don't expect any public events this month. In the meantime, I am still available for private lessons in Connecticut before I leave (though I will be super-busy packing!) and in Moscow once I arrive. Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson. See you in October! Connecticut: September 1-13Moscow, Russia: September 17-30...[nothing else to see, no need to click through]
- [October 2019 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2019/09/october-2019-gig-calendar.html) - I am once more happily ensconced in Russia! I am not launching a full public schedule this month, but I will be experimenting with teaching a short class at the American Center in Moscow (part of the U.S. Embassy); if it goes well, it will become a regular series. And I may throw a small party at the end of the month - watch this post for updates...[details behind the cut]
- [June 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/05/june-2018-gig-calendar.html) - I'm thrilled to start out June with another trip to Kyiv before heading back to the USA at last! I am not planning any further public classes in June, just research, writing, and non-dance projects. And maybe a little vacation! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Saturday-Sunday, June 2-3 ~ Kyiv, UkraineCross-Step Waltz Weekend (Facebook event - Ukrainian)Four waltz classes each day, evening party Saturday (I will be DJing), and afterparty Sunday (details in Ukrainian here). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am available for private lessons in Connecticut or on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space. Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson. New Haven and Middletown, Connecticut: June 6-13, 16-30Boston area: June 14-15 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- [May 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/04/may-2018-gig-calendar.html) - A light month for me, with the first half of it taken out by Russian holidays and some private travel. I'll only have a short cross-step course and a final party before I head back to the USA for the summer! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Tuesdays, May 15, 22 ~ Moscow, RussiaCross-Step Waltz Mini-Course19:00-21:00. Intermediate cross-step waltz; previous experience required. Mini-course registration packaged with the party on May 29th! Tuesday, May 29 ~ Moscow, RussiaWaltz Evening/Farewell Party (VKontakte event - Russian)19:00-22:00. The end of my teaching year in Moscow! Come celebrate with an evening of waltz (cross-step and otherwise!) Included with May mini-course. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am available for private lessons in Moscow, or on my various travels; during the latter, you must provide the dance space. Email me directly if you would like to schedule a private lesson. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- [February 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/01/february-2018-gig-calendar.html) - February will be a writing month for me, staying close to home-2 (Moscow) and trying to catch up on an enormous pile of unfinished work. I'll be continuing my public and private waltz classes and conducting another small waltz party, and might add a couple of other one-shot classes, but overall I am planning a quiet month! Any groups or individuals in Moscow or elsewhere in Russia or Europe that might be interested in workshops from now through May should contact me directly. No American gigs through the end of May unless accompanied by plane tickets...[scheduled classes behind the cut]
- [January 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/12/january-2018-gig-calendar.html) - I'll be starting off 2018 with a quick trip to London, where I'll attempt to hit several libraries and pick up a couple of sources relevant to some small projects I've been working on. I will not have time to teach on this trip. Afterward, it's back to Moscow and my waltz classes and a couple of Russian balls to attend as I attempt to keep warm through the worst of the Russian winter! Other than the London trip, I am not planning to travel out of Moscow for the remainder of January, but I will continue teaching regular waltz classes on Tuesday evenings. For the latest information on those, join my VK community (Russian). Any groups in Moscow or elsewhere in Russia or Europe that might be interested in workshops from February through May should contact me directly....[details behind the cut]
- [October 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/09/october-2018-gig-calendar.html) - Back in Moscow for the school year! I'll be doing four courses this autumn on cross-step waltz and historical dance plus a small waltz party at the end of the month. No travel before November as I settle in...[schedule of classes behind the cut]
- [November 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/10/november-2018-gig-calendar.html) - November will be rather hectic, with a journey to Kyiv, Ukraine, for our third Kyiv Waltz Weekend and a grueling weekend trip back to the USA for the Remembrance Day Balls in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. See you on the dance floor!...[schedule behind the cut]
- [March 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/03/march-2018-gig-calendar.html) - I'm planning another quiet month in March, as I have some substantial non-dance-related obligations for the last half of the month. I'll be continuing my public and private waltz classes, but otherwise will be fairly invisible! Any groups or individuals in Moscow or elsewhere in Russia or Europe that might be interested in workshops from now through May should contact me directly. American gigs can resume in June...[short gig list behind the cut]
- [April 2018 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2018/03/april-2018-gig-calendar.html) - April is going to be a little bit insane for me with preparing new dances and classes for the Kyiv (Ukraine) dance festival and ongoing non-dance-related volunteer work. I'll be continuing with a waltz class and hoping to get out to some of the post-Easter Moscow balls! Sanity and time will return in May...[short gig list behind the cut]
- [October 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/09/october-2017-gig-calendar.html) - As of October I am back in teaching mode in Moscow! This will be a light month as I get myself settled, but I will be teaching a six-week class series on a variety of twentieth century American dances and am actively working on setting up a few more things -- check back for possible additions later in the month. Moscow groups interested in workshops should contact me directly...[class series link behind the cut]
- [November 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/10/november-2017-gig-calendar.html) - I'm fully settled in Moscow now, and my November teaching schedule here is a pleasant mix of modern waltz and early twentieth century dance, continuing my work with Studio "Танец весны" and teaching advanced waltz classes on my own. I'll also be making a lightning trip back to the USA on Remembrance Day weekend to return to my long-running engagement leading 1860s dancing at The President's Remembrance Day Ball in Gettysburg!I do not have much availability for the rest of 2017, but groups in Moscow or elsewhere in Russia or Europe that might be interested in workshops should contact me directly...[schedule behind the cut]
- [August 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/07/august-2017-gig-calendar.html) - This month is mostly about writing and non-dance-related travel, but I will emerge briefly to teach a couple of classes in Moscow (Russia) and a Regency dance class in Connecticut. Otherwise, see you in September...[a few things behind the cut]
- [December 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/11/december-2017-gig-calendar.html) - Living this binational life keeps me insanely busy, but I'm thrilled to be teaching a higher-level waltz series this month in Moscow, plus private classes and a return to beautiful Vladimir for a weekend of master-classes there! I do not have much more availability for December, so the classes below are probably all I'll do this month. Any groups in Moscow or elsewhere in Russia or Europe that might be interested in workshops in 2018 should contact me directly. I'm also interested in exploring the Moscow blues community and maybe seeing about some DJing while I'm here...[schedule behind the cut[
- [October 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/10/october-2025-gig-calendar.html) - This was always intended to be an at-home month as I teach my local classes and work on promoting two, count'em, TWO balls which, in a fit of insanity, I scheduled only three weeks apart. Life is now complicated by the ongoing project of restoring my blog on a new platform and developing a website
- [June 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/05/june-2017-gig-calendar.html) - Back in the U.S.A. at last! I'm going to be keeping a very light teaching schedule with minimal travel this summer while I try to catch up on research and writing and various things I've neglected while living in Russia, but I'll be emerging from my warm-weather hibernation for a few little events here and there...[pleasingly minimal schedule behind the cut]
- [July 2017 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2017/06/july-2017-gig-calendar.html) - Still in catchup/hibernation mode this month, but I will emerge briefly for a long-awaited return to DJing at Bluesy Tuesy, my blues and fusion dance home, and a Regency dance class. Otherwise, find me online or not at all...[almost no gigs behind the cut! summer hibernation!]
- [The Three-Slide Racket](https://www.kickery.com/2009/06/threeslide-racket.html) - Era: 1880s into very early 1900s The three-slide racket extends the two-bar repeat pattern of the one-slide racket previously described into a four-bar pattern which has a more galop-like feel and is somewhat easier to initiate. It is described in the major dance late-nineteenth-century dance manuals of M.B. Gilbert and Allen Dodworth and in two minor compilation manuals, one of which (Cartier's Practical Illustrated Waltz Instructor) names it "The Wave."The instructions below are for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite. The dancers start in a normal late-nineteenth-century ballroom hold with joined hands angled forward at a diagonal along the line of dance. Like the one-slide racket, the three-slide racket follows a zig-zag track along the line of dance; there is no turning involved....[more]
- [Alternating the One- and Three-Slide Rackets](https://www.kickery.com/2009/06/alternating-the-one-and-threeslide-rackets.html) - Era: 1880s into very early 1900s Combining the one-slide rackets and three-slide rackets previously described creates an interestingly varied dance which is referred to by the prominent late-nineteenth-century dancing master Melvin B. Gilbert simply as the Racket, with no further descriptor. The unadorned term is used by other writers to refer to several different variations in both 2/4 and 3/4 time, however, leaving us with unwieldy labels such as Allen Dodworth's "Alternating the One Slide and Three Slide to Galop." Whatever one may call it, the sequence is not difficult once both the one-slide and three-slide rackets have been mastered. Conceptually, one simply alternates two bars of one with two bars of the other to build an eight-bar sequence. For the one-slide racket, two bars will be moving to the left and right (in whichever order); for the three-slide racket, two bars means moving either to the left or to the right. So sequences may be built as follows: 2b three-slide to left2b one-slide to right, one-slide to left2b three-slide to right2b one-slide to left, one-slide to rightThe sequence may be commenced at any of the two-bar moves given above, though since one generally leads off a sequence with the left foot either the first or last pair of bars are the logical starting points. Broken down into steps (given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite), the sequence in the order given above would be...[detailed breakdown behind the cut]
- [The Galop Racket or One-Slide Racket](https://www.kickery.com/2009/06/galop-racket-or-oneslide-racket.html) - Era: 1880s into very early 1900s The galop racket or one-slide racket is the simplest of the various rackets and is described under both names in different sources. In one Parisian manual it is simply "La Raquette," though most other sources agree that "the" racket is a compound sequence mixing two different racket rhythms. Prominent New England dancing master M.B. Gilbert explained it simply as "Pas de Basque sidewise" in 2/4 time.The instructions below are for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite. The dancers start in a normal late-nineteenth-century ballroom hold with joined hands angled forward at a diagonal along the line of dance. The dance follows a zig-zag track along the line of dance; there is no turning involved....[how to do it behind the cut]
- [An 1830s Galop Pattern](https://www.kickery.com/2009/12/1830s-galop-pattern.html) - Era: 1830s England This new and fashionable dance, which it appears is of Russian origin, was first introduced into this country at His Majesty's ball, St. James Palace, on the 11th June, 1829, when the Princess Esterhazy, the Earl of Clanwilliam, the Duke of Devonshire, and some of the foreign ministers exerted themselves in teachings its novel movements to the company, and was danced alternately with Quadrilles and Waltzing during the whole of the evening. -- J.S. Pollock, Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (2nd ed), London, c1830 In an earlier post, I described the basic galop of the mid- to late 19th century as a series of slides and "chasing" steps with half-turns interspersed, commonly found in the pattern of four-slide galops, performed as follows: 2b Slide-close-slide-close-slide-close-slide (half-turn) (count: 1 & 2 & 3 & turn)2b Slide-close-slide-close-slide-close-slide (half-turn) (count: 1 & 2 & 3 & turn) All slides are performed along the line of dance. The default turning direction is clockwise, though counter-clockwise turns are also possible. The first set are performed with the first foot (gentleman's left, lady's right) with the second foot then closing behind in order to again slide with the first foot. The second series is then performed by sliding with the second foot and closing with the first. The galop sequences may also be extended to four bars per set, i.e. "eight-slide" galops. This description is consistent with most galop sources from the mid-century onward. But oddly enough, that's not how it's described in the source from which the quotation above was drawn....[interesting variant behind the cut]
- [Famous Last Words](https://www.kickery.com/2009/09/famous-last-words.html) - On the lighter side of dance research...There's plenty of silliness in historical dance manuals, ranging from mythological origins of dancing in general to apocryphal stories about the origins of particular dances. But none of that makes me laugh quite so much as a couple of lines in Foulsham's Modern Dancing, by Maxwell Stewart, published in London around 1925 and ambitiously subtitled "A guide to everything the dancer old and young, skilled and unskilled, wants to know." That was rather optimistic of Stewart; this particular dancer wishes he had included a lot more detail about some of the moves he described. But the following has got to be one of the most risible lines I've ever found in a dance manual...[more behind the cut]
- [On the Exclusive in Dancing, 1834](https://www.kickery.com/2014/07/on-the-exclusive-in-dancing-1834.html) - The English and French seem never to have been shy about taking sly little pokes at each other. In 1834 a New York newspaper reprinted from an unnamed London paper an article, "On the Exclusive in Dancing", which took aim at French ballroom etiquette. Apparently the French were questioning the propriety of the country dance: [The French] appear to be growing fastidious in their amusements, and have learned to be English enough to question certain minor points of propriety and etiquette in their public balls; as, for instance, whether it be proper for a gentleman to resign the hand of his partner to contact with strangers for the mere preservation of a figure in a country dance, and had in fact discarded country dances completely, in favor of some more conjugal kind of movement, either waltzes, mazurkas, or galopes, that rivet a couple together for a whole evening till (we would fain hope) they were sick of one another and themselves. Note the implications of "conjugal" there. In their sudden concern for "propriety", the French were abandoning the relatively innocent country dance in favor of dances like the waltz and galop that kept the dancers in each others' arms and had thoroughly scandalized the English in the early decades of the century. The above alone would be an interesting tidbit about the changing popularity of particular dance forms in the 1830s, the tradition of partner-changing (or not), and the differences between the ballrooms of France and England. But the author then goes on to smugly insult the French by implying that the reason for these "contracts of fidelity" was some "internal weakness" of upper-class French ladies, who had to be protected from the least temptation, to which they would presumably succumb: Their constancy to their partner would appear but a poor offering when they fear to endanger it by interchanging it with another. The English were not exactly in a position to criticize the morals of the French in this area, but underneath the geopolitical sniping, there is an interesting point of ballroom etiquette...[which I discuss behind the cut]
- [Another Country Dance Gallopade](https://www.kickery.com/2013/08/another-country-dance-gallopade.html) - Era: 1830s, England This dance is one of a pair of country dance gallopades published in London dancing master J. S. Pollock's c1830 manual, A Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (Second Edition). They have no names or specific music, just numbers. I've previously discussed the second one; now here's the first. It's a very straightforward reconstruction...[directions behind the cut]
- [A cautionary tale, 1837](https://www.kickery.com/2016/09/a-cautionary-tale-1837.html) - The short story "Lyddy!", by Thomas Egerton Wilks, was published in a London journal, The Young Lady's Magazine, in 1837, its first year of publication, the works from which were collected in a single volume published in 1838. Though its title is similar to that of other ladies' magazines of the era, The Young Lady's Magazine actually had much loftier ambitions: ...to concentrate every energy in the production, not only of such matter as may amuse the fancy, but at the same time tend to expand the mind, elevate the morals, refine the intellect, and awaken, -- not the morbid sensibilities, too often produced by ill-selected fictions -- but those pure, unhacknied feelings of the youthful heart, which are in themselves a mine of inexhaustible treasures, and which, by their development, shed a halo of enchantment around. --- Preface, p. iii Referring to fashion as "that universal enslaver" which it believe should be "far removed from those pages where the young and guileless are taught to seek for intellectual improvement", the editors declared that even their "light productions" (entertaining fiction) ...may sparkle and be redolent of mirth, but their wit shall never inflict a wound, and their humour shall never be tainted with aught offensive to the chastest delicacy. --- Address, p. 2 I don't generally spend a lot of time reading uplifting moral tracts, but I tripped over "Lyddy!" in one of my regular searches for nineteenth-century women's fiction with ballroom scenes...[waltz offends against decency behind the cut]
- [Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Polka Dot Waltz](https://www.kickery.com/2013/10/polka-dot-waltz.html) - The Polka Dot Waltz was either a sequence dance or waltz variant described by Melvin B. Gilbert in Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and later by [George] Washington Lopp in his translation-plus of Gilbert's book, La Danse (Paris, 1903), in which it is listed as Polka Dot (Valse). Both Gilbert and Lopp credit it to Herman Strassburg, presumably the same dancing master who was the author of the Call Book of Modern Quadrilles (Detroit, 1889). The pattern of the Polka Dot, its imaginative name, and the way Lopp formats the title make me suspect that this was not a variation for normal waltzing but instead was intended as a choreographed sequence dance matched to a particular piece of music. I've only been able to find one piece of sheet music by that title, "The Polka Dot Waltz", by Edward A. Abell, (San Francisco, 1873), which is archived on the Library of Congress website. It does not include dance instructions. It is possible that Strassburg wrote this as choreography to go with it, or with a different waltz by the same name, but in the absence of proof one way or the other, it is also possible to dance it to any waltz music with even eight-bar phrases, either by the entire room dancing it in unison or by individual couples using it (carefully!) as a variation...[details behind the cut]
- [Late Victorian Waltz Variations: Diagonal Waltz](https://www.kickery.com/2010/08/late-victorian-waltz-variations-diagonal-waltz.html) - By the end of the nineteenth century, American dancing masters such as M.B. Gilbert were coming up with long lists of little waltz variations of dubious utility and doubtful popularity. Many of these are minor variations on a few simple themes, often interpolating sideways slides and chassé steps between measures of waltz. I'm going to do a short series on some of the more useful and leadable of these variations this month, all taken from the pages of Gilbert's immense manual, Round Dancing, published in Maine in 1890 and incorporating many variations from the 1870s and 1880s. Calling them "Victorian" is a bit of misnomer, since these are essentially American variations. The Diagonal Waltz does not actually involve anything other than the normal step of the "new" waltz (step-side-close pattern) of the late nineteenth century. It is really just a sequence incorporating natural and reverse turns in such a way as to never make a complete turn in either direction. This is so basic a waltz skill that similar sequences are incorporated into most twentieth century versions of the box-step or Viennese waltz as well. Gilbert considers a leaping version of the waltz (leaping-side-cut) to be the basic, but the Diagonal Waltz will work either leaping or simply gliding. ..[details of the Diagonal Waltz behind the cut]
- [A 3/4-time grapevine sequence, 1914](https://www.kickery.com/2014/10/3-4-grapevine-1914.html) - I've had sequence dances on my mind recently after some discussion earlier this week, which reminded me of this little sequence from the the second edition of F. Leslie Clendenen's 1914 compilation Dance Mad. It appears there under the name "American Grapevine Dance" by Anthony J. Giaconia of Springfield, Massachusetts. I know nothing about Mr. Giaconia except that on June 24, 1912, he was quoted on the front page of The Indianapolis News as one of a convention of dancing masters appalled by dances like the Grizzly Bear and Bunny Hug. He found some dancing in a park there so disgraceful that it ought to be stopped "for the sake of decency"...[simple sequence behind the cut]
- [Simonet's Parisian Quadrilles, Third Set, c1820](https://www.kickery.com/2012/12/simonet-third-set.html) - There are many, many sets of early nineteenth-century quadrilles, most of which are simply new music for the First Set or include only minor variations on the standard figures. While I don't normally publish reconstructions of the figures for random sets of quadrille music, this set is of particular interest because a high-quality recording of it is available on The Regency Ballroom CD by Spare Parts. The music is from the first series of T. Simonet's Fashionable Parisian Quadrilles, Performed by the Bands of Messrs. Michau, Musard and Collinet, with their appropriate Figures as danced at Almack's, the Argyll Rooms and at the Bath & Cheltenham Assemblies. The manual is undated, but in February, 1823, the fashionable magazine La Belle Assemblée reported the publication of "Nos. 42 and 43" of the series, commenting positively: This is really an elegant little work both in its contents and its typography. We recognize many of the quadrilles as being great favorites in the French metropolis, and the whole of them are composed in a very characteristic and original style. The typography of this edition is certainly eye-popping by modern standards of design; the front cover alone features a dozen different fonts. The first series includes only sets one through six and presumably is dated somewhat earlier...[an entire quadrille lies behind the cut! all of it!]
- [The Hesitation Undercut](https://www.kickery.com/2013/12/hesitation-undercut.html) - 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....[sequence and performance tips behind the cut]
- [The Très-Chic](https://www.kickery.com/2009/01/tres-chic.html) - Era: late 1890s-early 1900s "The Très-Chic is a dance for couples in six-eight time, and is of very animated and lively character."With these words, William Lamb introduces "A new Round Dance for the Ball-Room." Lamb was a noted English dance teacher and writer who served as president of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing. The Très-Chic appeared in his book Saxon's Everybody's Guide to Ball-Room Dancing (London, c1898-1900; it is listed in the 1901 English Catalogue of Books for those years), from which it was blatantly plagiarized by two dance writers publishing in the American Midwest in the first few years of the twentieth century, including A.C. Wirth in his Complete Quadrille Call Book (Chicago, 1902) and D.F. Jay in his ABC Guide to Ballroom Dancing (Chicago, c1900), both using Lamb's language to describe the dance. (Some biographical information about Wirth may be found in my earlier post on the Rye Waltz...[more]
- [Lamb's Waltz Two Step](https://www.kickery.com/2009/03/lambs-waltz-two-step.html) - Here's an easy waltz variation from English dance teacher William Lamb's Everybody's Guide to Ball-Room Dancing (London c1898-1900). The Waltz Two Step is a short sequence of two-step done in waltz time which can be used as a variation in a late 19th-century waltz or as a short standalone sequence dance. Because the movements are quite slow-paced, it is best suited to extremely fast music. This sequence represents the an early form of "hesitation waltz" from before that term came into use in the 1910s. In this case the normal two-step movement (briefly described in a previous post here) rather than being counted "1&2" in 2/4 rhythm, as is more typical in this era, is danced in 3/4 rhythm with each two-step stretched over two full bars of music, so that the slide-close-slide happens on the first, third, and fourth of the six beats...[more]
- [Mr. Newman's Two-Step Variations](https://www.kickery.com/2009/01/mr-newmans-twostep-variations.html) - Era: circa 1900 Given the popularity of the two-step in the early years of the 20th century, it is surprising how few variations were recorded for the dance. But in his 1903 dance manual, A Complete Practical Guide to Modern Society Dancing, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman included two short and easy two-step sequences, the "Glide Two Step" and the "Military Two Step."The basic turn of the century two-step (not the same as either today's country western "Texas Two-Step" or today's "Nightclub Two-Step") is a slide-close-slide, similar to the polka but performed smoothly with no hop, turning to the left or right as desired. Newman specified that the "close" of the feet should be to third rear position, which happens fairly naturally if the leading foot is turned so that the toe points along the line of dance. The steps are described below for the gentleman; the lady dances on opposite feet....[variations behind the cut]
- [Mr. Scott's Two-Step](https://www.kickery.com/2013/01/mr-scotts-two-step.html) - The two-step of the 1890s and early 1900s was so simple to dance, and so aggressively condemned by many dancing masters, that it's actually fairly unusual to find a good description of it in a dance manual, though minor variations and sequences of dubious originality and debatable utility abound. English dancing master Edward Scott, in How to dance and guide to the ball-room (London, c1902), provides a rare overview of the basic dance as performed in Edwardian England. Steps and timingScott specifies that the music for the two-step should be in 6/8, and explains that it is "practically our old friend the galop performed with figures, in regulated sequences, and to a different rhythm," though Americans, he claims, apply the name two-step to "any dance founded on the chassé movement, or that in which one foot appears to be chasing the other." The basic movement of the two-step is a simple slide-close-slide done in 6/8 time. Scott describes it in detail: The gentleman slides his left foot forward, his weight thrown thereon, and rests for two counts. At the third count he brings his right toe lightly up to the heel of the left, and at the fourth count immediately slides his left foot again forward, stopping on it for the second three counts of the bar. For the next bar he slides his right foot forward, sustaining his balance, while the left toe is brought lightly to the right heel, and the right again slid forward to rest and carry the weight for the next half bar. The rhythm will be somewhat as if you said “right and right, left and left, etc., the and corresponding to the quick chasing step made with the toe of the opposite foot. Scott calls this the chassé à trois pas or simply the "chassé movement". The rhythm is typical of jig-time dances and can be charted thus: * * * * * * 1-&-a-2-&-a 1-&-a-2-&-a It's generally unnecessary to break down the exact timing of each step in detail; dancers with any ear for rhythm will pick it up instinctively from the accenting of the music...[how-to behind the cut]
- [Ripple, Ripple, Jersey](https://www.kickery.com/2017/04/ripple-ripple-jersey.html) - The Ripple Galop and the Jersey are two galop variations found in both M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903), a French translation of Gilbert with some additions and changes. Both variations use the late nineteenth-century American waltz-galop technique of a leap along the line of dance followed by a side step and a cut (or close of the feet) in the rhythm "1&2" rather than the slide-chassé of the galop, extending it into the "Newport" pattern of a leap along the line of dance followed by a series of side-closes, stretching the basic step-unit from one to two measures. The key difference is where the side steps and closes fall relative to the strong beats of the music: galop: 1 (side) & (close) 2 (side)waltz-galop: 1 (back/forward) & (side) 2 (cut/close) The galop pattern ends in an open position. The waltz-galop normally does as well, but it can also be ended elegantly at the end of the music by a close of the feet rather than a cut. This alteration of the relationship of movements to music in dances of the "new waltz" family is what makes these variations interesting to me. Please see my original posts for a little more information about the waltz-galop (here) and the Newport (here)...[Ripple and Jersey galops behind the cut]
- [Three Tiny Galop Variations](https://www.kickery.com/2019/04/three-tiny-galop-variations.html) - Wrapping up my impromptu miniseries of posts on galop variations found in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and G. W. Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903), here's a trio of galop variations which I don't feel warrant sufficient time or analysis for individual posts: Two of the three are short "do something, then some galop" sequences; the other is even shorter and rather dull None of them are very challenging to perform, and two have repeated leaps from a complete stop, which, as a dancer, I don't really enjoy. None of them have any conflicts between sources. One has a reconstruction problem, but it's minor and easily resolved. I fully expect that all of them have matching sheet music and that the names of the variations are actually the names of the tunes to which they were choreographed, but I haven't been able to locate any of it, and none of them are sufficiently attractive to inspire me to spend much time searching. So, in the interest of efficiency, here's the trio together with brief notes about each...[easy but not terribly exciting variations with brief notes behind the cut]
- [Round Two Step: A 1903 Dance Mixer](https://www.kickery.com/2009/06/round-two-step.html) - Mixer dances, where all the participants shift partners at intervals, are useful icebreakers at dance events. In A Complete Practical Guide to Modern Society Dancing (1903), Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman offers a simple mixer for use with the then-fashionable two-step, asserting hopefully thatThis dance is rapidly gaining popularity, as it is most enjoyable....[more]
- [Paine's Quadrilles, Twelfth Set, 1819 (2 of 4)](https://www.kickery.com/2018/01/paines-twelfth-2.html) - (This is second in a series of four posts covering Paine's Twelfth Set. The introductory post in the series may be found here.) All right, let's move on to the actual figures! I've transcribed the original descriptions in both French and English. Capitalization, spelling, punctuation, and lack of accents over the French vowels are all as printed in the original. No. 1, tune "La Belle Flamand"Figure de la Pantalon -- orQuatre demie chaine Anglaise, les 4 autres demie chaine Anglaise, demie Promenade tous les 8, et tour de mains a votre place, chaine des dames celles qui ont commencez [sic], balancez 8 et tour de mains. Contre Partie. Four half right and left, the other four the same, half Promanade [sic] all 8 to your place and turn your partners round, Ladies chain by those who began the dance, balance 8 and turn your partners round. The same again the other 4...(reconstruction and notes behind the cut)
- [Paine's Quadrilles, Twelfth Set, 1819 (3 of 4)](https://www.kickery.com/2018/01/paines-twelfth-3.html) - (This is third in a series of four posts covering Paine's Twelfth Set. The introductory post in the series may be found here and figures one and two here.) Continuing on with Paine's Twelfth Set, the next two figures... No. 3, tune "L’Aimable"Figure de La Poule. -- orLe 4 dames font le moulinet pendant que les 4 Cavaliers font la grand Promenade a droite, ils donnent les mins a leurs dames et balancez tour de mains pour se remettre a sa place, les tiroirs a quatre et restez à la place opposee, de meme les 4 autres demie Promenade tous les 8, Jusqua [sic] votre place et tour de mains en place. Contre Partie. The 4 Ladies moulinet while the 4 Gent: do grand Promenade to the right, the 4 Gents: give their hands to their partners, balancez and turn them round to their places, the tiroirs 4 and stop at the opposite place the other 4 the same, half Promenade all 8 to your places, and turn your partner round to your place. The same again...[reconstructions, problems, and notes behind the cut]
- [Paine's Quadrilles, Twelfth Set, 1819 (4 of 4)](https://www.kickery.com/2018/01/paines-twelfth-4.html) - (This is fourth in a series of four posts covering Paine's Twelfth Set. The introductory post in the series may be found here, figures one and two here, and figures three and four here.) Concluding my series on Paine's Twelfth Set, the final figure! No. 5, tune "La Nouvelle Fantasia"Figure.Chassez croisez huit, les quatre Cavaliers en avant 4 mes, les quatre dames de meme, balancez tour de mains, la Cavalier seul en avant et en arriere 8 mes, la dame seul de meme. La Grand Promenade. All 8 chassez across and back again, the 4 Gent: advance and retire 4 bars, the 4 Ladies the same, balancez and turn your partners, one Gent: advance and retire twice 8 bars, the opposite Lady do the same. Promenade all 8...[I argue with myself about reconstructing this figure, behind the cut]
- ["Tango No. 1"](https://www.kickery.com/2018/07/tango-no-1.html) - Continuing on with the tiny traveling tango sequences from 1914, here's one that's a bit less tiny than the Two-Step Tango. "Tango No. 1" is listed in both editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914) with the note "As taught in our classes.", which presumably meant the classes of F. Leslie Clendenen's own academy. That means that this is as much a class practice sequence as a social dance. As I reconstruct it -- and see the reconstruction notes below -- it is a reasonable sixteen bars (thirty-two beats) in length, and suitably easy for a class, as it only involves four basic moves - walking, a spin turn, draw steps, and grapevine. The starting position is a closed ballroom hold with the gentleman's back to line of dance and the lady facing line of dance. The gentleman starts on the left foot, the lady on the right. Steps are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite. Tango No. 1 (16 bars/32 beats of tango music)1234 Walk backward four steps(half-turn counter-clockwise)5678 Walk forward four steps 1234 Fast clockwise spin turn, ending with gentleman facing wall5678 Draw steps: side-close-side-close1234 Grapevine: side-cross behind-side-cross in front (lady does opposite cross, not mirror!)5678 Repeat grapevine1234 Repeat draw steps5678 Repeat clockwise fast spin turn, ending with gentleman's back to line of danceThe overall mnemonic: back, forward, spin, draw; grapevine, grapevine, draw, spin. It would be nice if it were perfectly regular, with each half ending with either spin-draw or draw-spin. But, alas, it is not, so the dancers must pay attention...[reconstruction and performance notes behind the cut]
- [A Leap Year Ball, Wyoming, 1888](https://www.kickery.com/2020/02/leap-year-wyoming-1888.html) - Continuing to roam around the late nineteenth century American frontier, where a surprising number of newspaper descriptions of leap year balls originate, here are some excerpts from a burbling account of a ball in the small town of Douglas, Wyoming. Like Sun River, it was founded in 1867 and was probably extremely small. The 1890 Wyoming census recorded only 2,988 people in all of Converse County. The ball was described on page five of Bill Barlow's Budget on Wednesday, February 8, 1888, as having taken place the previous Friday evening. The newspaper title is interesting; more about the paper and its colorful founder, Merris C. Barrow, may be found at the Wyoming Historical Society's Wyohistory site. The ball was held at the Douglas opera house and was described as "the most successful and enjoyable affair of its kind in the history of Douglas." Balls are generally described in newspapers as successful unless some sort of disaster occurs, but in a town whose history stretched back only two decades, it might actually have been true. Leap year elements: the committees were all-female: five married women for invitations, five for reception, three unmarried and two married women for "floor", and two married women for finance (the ball had a $5 surplus) invitations were issued to ladies for "yourself and gentlemen" ladies "attended to every detail of the ball and supper" no gentlemen ("male biped") was allowed unattended on the floor a gentleman suggesting refreshments for his lady was given a "stony stare" ...[full dance program behind the cut]
- [A Leap Year Ball, Providence, 1892](https://www.kickery.com/2020/02/leap-year-providence-1892.html) - Moving from the American frontier back to the east coast and into increasingly amusing descriptions of leap year events, here's a very upscale event held in Providence, Rhode Island, on Monday, February 29, 1892, and reported in The Providence News on Tuesday, March 1. This was a much more glittering affair than the frontier balls in Montana and Wyoming. According to the article, subscriptions to the ball cost $25 for eight invitations, and the German (cotillion) favors cost an estimated $900. In today's terms, that is around $700 for the tickets and an eye-popping $25,000 for the favors, which were always an opportunity for conspicuous consumption among upper-class society. The ball was held at the brand-new Trocadero (1891), which, according to Providence's inventory in 1980 for the National Register of Historic Places, was a restaurant and dancing parlor owned by local businessman Lloyd Tillinghast, who also provided the ball supper, served on "small and beautifully decked tables" by waiters brought in from Boston and New York. The Trocadero no longer stands, alas. Two bands were engaged: Reeves' Band and the "Hungarian band of New York", who alternated playing. Sadly, no dance list was included in the article, but the cotillion was described briefly: Miss Goddard and Miss Gammell, who arranged the ball, led the cotillon. At least eighty couples participated and the figures and the favors were greeted with equal admiration. Flowers, ribbon bows and streamers, bells, odd bits of jewelry and bright-hued balloons were among them....[leap year elements behind the cut]
- [Double Quadrille (cotillion figure)](https://www.kickery.com/2018/02/double-quadrille-cotillion-figure.html) - Double Quadrille is a cotillion (dance party game) figure from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912), though the "game" element is extremely limited. The original setup is not even a standard cotillion opening with couples dancing and then separating to find new partners; instead, each couple seeks another couple. The language and timing of the figure are ambiguous, and I've found no other source to clarify things. So I've had to make some guesses and minor tweaks in order to create something that actually works. Here's the original language from Walker: DOUBLE QUADRILLE.Four couples perform a tour de valse. Each couple selects another couple and they form a double quadrille; the head couples right and left; half sides the same. Ladies chain; all the ladies forward four steps, turn and face partners; gentlemen take the right hand of partners and left hand of lady on their left; all balance; the ladies facing outward, gentlemen inward; turn partners to places. The figure is danced over to regain places. Signal for all to waltz to places...[interpretation and notes behind the cut]
- [Double Grand Chain (a march or cotillion figure)](https://www.kickery.com/2017/11/double-grand-chain.html) - I first came across Double Grand Chain when flipping through Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) for interesting cotillion (dance party game) figures. Like Winthrope, Double Grand Chain is not terribly game-like beyond the basic cotillion setup of dancing with one person and then finding a new partner, but it would make an interesting addition to a grand march for a group of reasonably skilled dancers. Double Grand Chain was not original to Walker; it also appeared in all the editions of Allen Dodworth's Dancing and its relations to education and social life running from 1885 to 1913 (the link is to the 1900 edition), which puts it firmly in the "late Victorian" category. Since it did reappear in 1912 separately from the Dodworth reprints, I'd still consider it legitimate for a ragtime-era event, and it is sufficiently innocuous in style that I wouldn't be bothered by its use at a mid-nineteenth-century event either. Here's the version I found in Walker: DOUBLE GRAND CHAIN.Six couples dance and select other partners and the twenty-four form six lines of two couples each; one line behind another. The lines march forward and when the first reaches the end of the room the right hand couple turns to the right and the left hand couple to the left, and the following lines divide in the same way. The two columns march down the sides of the room to the other end, and when they meet each file in one column performs a grand chain with the opposite file in the other column. When one column has thus passed entirely through the other, partners join for a general waltz....[details and variations behind the cut]
- [Advancing & Retiring Sequences for Regency-Era French Quadilles](https://www.kickery.com/2008/10/advancing-retiring-sequences-for-regency-era-french-quadilles.html) - For the fourth in my series of posts (previously: setting, crossing over, and chassez-dechassez) on the step-sequences usable for various Regency-era French quadrille figures, I've pulled together three easy sequences which may be used for the figure En avant et en arrière (advance and retire or, more colloquially, forward and back), in which some number of dancers move forward to the halfway point of the quadrille set and then backward to places...[more]&nbsp
- [Eight Easy Setting Sequences for Regency-Era French Quadrilles](https://www.kickery.com/2008/10/eight-easy-setting-sequences-for-regency-era-french-quadrilles.html) - I rarely have the opportunity to teach a wide range of Regency-era setting sequences, but there are dozens of them extant and suitable for use in French quadrilles such as the first set. Using variant setting sequences when setting to one's partner is one of three ways to jazz up the oft-danced first set (the other two being using more exotic sequences for the other figures and changing the figures themselves) as well as in other French quadrilles for the setting part of the omnipresent "Balancez et un tour de mains" (set and turn your partners) figure.The following selection of eight four-bar setting sequences is drawn from two sources in particular: the Scottish manuscript Contre Danses à Paris 1818 and the useful Elements of the Art of Dancing by Alexander Strathy (Edinburgh, 1822). Curiously, the best sources for quadrille steps other than the actual French manuals come from Scotland -- the Auld Alliance revived in dance! [more...]
- [Thoughts on stepping the Grand Chain in Regency quadrilles](https://www.kickery.com/2012/07/grand-chain-regency-quadrilles.html) - It's not unusual for new sources to turn up that make me go back and reconsider a reconstruction. It's a little irritating for it to happen less than a month after I finally get around to publishing one here on Kickery, and doubly irritating for it to be not a new source but old sources I simply hadn't looked at recently. Fortunately, this is less a change in my reconstruction than further background and options. In reconstructing the fourth figure of the Mid-Lothians, an early 1820s quadrille, I wrote in my reconstruction notes that "I've never found any description of what step sequence to use for this figure," referring to the grand chain. Actually, I had come across such, many years ago, and they had simply slipped my mind. But I was looking through quadrille sources for a different project and found them again, so here is a little more information about performance options for the grand chain...[ambiguous primary sources behind the cut]
- [Two Easy Mixer Games, 1912](https://www.kickery.com/2017/08/two-easy-mixer-games-1912.html) - I recently had a request to teach 1910s-era dance games, so I went digging through early twentieth-century books of cotillion (or "German") figures looking for some easy mixers that could be explained in a few sentences. I found two that fit the bill in Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912). That book is one of my favorite sources for the silliest and most extreme figures, but it has plenty of simpler ones as well. Neither of these figures require any props or preparation, and they can be taught in moments on the dance floor, a practice actually recommended in the description of the second...[incredibly simple dance games behind the cut]
- [Scotch, Hungarian, whatever (cotillion figure)](https://www.kickery.com/2018/02/scotch-hungarian-chain.html) - H. Layton Walker's Grand Scotch Chain, published in Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures, by (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912), is only moderately interesting as a figure, but tracing its progress from a figure that was neither "grand" nor "Scotch" when it started out is an interesting illustration of how cotillion figures were transmitted across time and international borders in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The figure itself is quite simple: Two couples separate and select new partners They form a four-couple quadrille set Head gentlemen turn by right elbows once and a half round, then give left elbows to opposite ladies and turn to place with her Side gentlemen repeat Head ladies repeat Side ladies repeat All take partners and waltz Not mentioned is that the two couples probably danced at the beginning before separating. As is usual with cotillion figures, the music might be waltz or, for the early 1910s, two-step. The timing of the figure is not given, but I would suggest allowing a generous eight bars for each of the four figures rather than trying to squeeze a turn and a half plus at least a half-turn into four. It's easier to stretch the figures out than rush them that much. This makes it a thirty-two bar figure, not counting the setup and the final waltz (or whatever)...[details behind the cut]
- [Ten Years](https://www.kickery.com/2018/01/ten-years.html) - At midnight on January 1, 2008, after a couple of weeks of fussing with a name and site design, I nervously clicked "Post" and officially launched Capering & Kickery with a discussion of how many times one needed to play a country dance to dance in historical style and a plan to slowly write out everything I knew about historical dance. It's hard to believe it's been ten years...[some brief thoughts behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: a bit of maxixe](https://www.kickery.com/2021/06/foxtrot-maxixe.html) - 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 Sawyer's illustration of the "very first motion of the Maxixe-glide", shown at left (click to enlarge), is missing the characteristic heel lead of the maxixe, but it does hint at the body sway in the bend of the dancers toward their lead feet. I would expect them to bring their joined hands up during the remainder of the first two-step and ended it with their bodies bent the opposite way, then swaying the other way as they two-step "over elbows" toward their second foot, ending in about the position shown in the illustration. Following four two-steps forward (counted 1&2 each) for four bars total, the dancers then do eight trotting steps (counted 1&2&3&4&) for two bars total. The entire six bars is then repeated, making a twelve-bar sequence. This is really a very standard mix of two-step and trotting steps, very much in the pattern of other two-step combinations in the foxtrot. Its only point of distinction is the maxixe styling. Similarly, the figure standardized by the New York Society Teachers of Dancing and eventually published in the proceedings of their convention is a very ordinary combination, though at least it includes turning...[easy sequence behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: The Zig-Zag](https://www.kickery.com/2023/11/early-foxtrot-zig-zag.html) - 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. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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...[is behind the cut]
- [Early foxtrot: the drag step](https://www.kickery.com/2017/02/early-foxtrot-drag.html) - 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...[easy little foxtrot move behind the cut]
- [Wrestling with Belle Brandon](https://www.kickery.com/2008/08/belle-brandon-u.html) - Recently my English friend and fellow dance teacher/reconstructor Colin Hume asked on the English Country Dance mailing list for help on some American dances he plans to teach later this month at a festival. He posted his notes (the final version is now up here) and asked for advice, since he's not a specialist on historical American dance. I do a lot with quadrilles (French, American, English, Spanish, etc.) so I pounced on the challenge of the 1858 set he proposed to use, the Belle Brandon Set. This five-figure quadrille is drawn from Howe's Ball-Room Handbook, attributed to Elias Howe (Boston, 1858). The first four figures were fairly straightforward, with the first three being pretty much the usual figures of the "First Set" of quadrilles that had been popular for nearly half a century when the manual was published. Interestingly, they were a more old-fashioned version than those which were popular in the mid-century and which Howe prints elsewhere in the same manual. Tell-tales include the use of "balance and turn partners" instead of a long balance figure and, in Figure 3, two people crossing back and forth and forming a line rather than four crossing back and forth and going into a basket formation. It had been common practice from the 1810s onward to use three of the standard figures and then vary the last two, so this set is well within the quadrille tradition. But the fifth figure proved a real challenge to reconstruct...
- [Susan's Sociables](https://www.kickery.com/2017/03/susans-sociables.html) - When I first wrote about the quadrille figure called the Sociable almost seven years ago, I noted that some sources offered slightly different sets of figures, and at least two suggested that the choice of figures was up to the caller: "No positive rule as to what figure shall be called in the Quadrille Sociable. The choice is left entirely to the prompter." (Brookes, L. De G. Brookes on Modern Dancing. New York, 1867) "Prompters often call figures in the 'Sociable' to suit their fancy, introducing the 'Star Figure,' 'Grand Chain,' etc." (De Garmo, William. The Dance of Society. New York, 1875) I rarely exercise the option to call variant figures; my habit has been to do the most common four-figure sequence twice over, once for the ladies to progress and once for the gentlemen, with an eight-bar "All chassez" and honors coda at the end. Including introductory honors, this calls for a structure of 8b + 32bx8 + 8b. Working with live musicians, I can have music played to fit this pattern exactly. Or, if I am using the Sociable as the final figure of a quadrille, the short version with the progressive figures done only once (ladies progressing) is plenty, and since 8b + 32bx4 + 8b is a common finale structure, if necessary, it is easy to find a recording with that pattern. But recently, I've been faced with the dual problems of calling the Sociable as a freestanding figure, meaning I prefer to call a longer figure to balance the time spent forming sets, and using recorded music, which is rarely to be found in the simplest long-Sociable pattern of 8b + 32bx8 + 8b. This means either spending time editing a recording to fit the dance or changing my calling to fit the recording. Editing music is a pain, so, since I have the option, historically speaking, of changing the figures, that is the approach I prefer...[sample calls behind the cut]
- [Seeking the North Pole...](https://www.kickery.com/2016/12/seeking-the-north-pole.html) - In honor of the freezing cold winter weather, I'm returning to H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) for a pair of cotillion figures themed around the then-current news of the attempts by explorers Robert Peary and Frederick Cook to be the first to reach the North Pole in 1908-1909. At the time Walker's book was written, there was a lively conflict going on between the two men as to who could claim the polar laurels. Since then, both accounts have been discredited to varying degrees, but it seems to still be something of an ongoing debate among scholars. There's an interesting account of the two expeditions and the contemporary debate at the Smithsonian Magazine website, which I recommend for anyone wanting more historical perspective. What interests me about these figures, along with generally appreciating ballroom silliness, is how, as with Admiral Dewey and the Spanish-American War, current events were turned into ballroom party games. It's also worth noting for general timeline purposes that, in a book published in 1912, so many of the figures specify the use of the two-step, which was then on the verge of being swept away by the new dances of the 1910s. On to the figures...[fun'n'games behind the cut]
- [Boarding House](https://www.kickery.com/2016/10/boarding-house.html) - Final cotillion figure for the month! Boarding House straddles the line between comedy and horror, making it perfect for Halloween. Along with being probably the single weirdest cotillion figure I've ever seen, which is saying a lot, it's also the most elaborate, requiring the construction of a special trick table along with props and costumes for some of the dancers. The figure is taken from St. Louis dancing master Jacob Mahler's 1900 compilation Original Cotillion Figures, in which it was attributed to Brooklyn dancing master William Pitt Rivers. After reading through this figure, I'm not sure I'd have wanted to have him as my dancing master! I'll include the full original description below, but since it is rather lengthy, I'll start with the requirements and process for the figure...[slightly deranged cotillion figure behind the cut]
- [Red Ear Party, 1919](https://www.kickery.com/2016/10/red-ear-party-1919.html) - The description of the Red Ear Party, or Harvest Home Party, appears in Emily Rose Burt's Entertaining Made Easy (New York, 1919). It was not a full-scale fancy dress ball, but an autumn/harvest-themed ball put on by, according to the book, a group of high school seniors as the opening event of their final year. Along with normal dancing of the era, it featured a series of novelty dances which were effectively low-key cotillions. Did the event really take place or was it imagined by Ms. Burt just for the book? Hard to say. But I'm impressed with the imagination and industry either displayed by the actual students or expected by Ms. Burt to be achievable by high school kids. I wish my teenage school dances had been like this! The red ear of the title was not a body part but an ear of corn. The significance is said to go back to a colonial tradition in which whoever found the red ear at a corn husking party would get to kiss the girl of his choice. (You can see an example of one red ear among a lot of normal ones here.) In this case, finding the (faked) red ear was used to select a "queen" for the party. Following this theme, the invitations read: “Oh, this time o' the year You'll recall the red ear (It will never go out o' date); So the members of "twenty" Have planned fun a-plenty At a regular Harvest Home fête— You're invited!” The decorations were autumn-themed (leaves, ears of corn, red and orange balloons and lanterns, etc.), the dance cards were shaped like red ears of corn, and the light supper "consisted merely of peach ice cream with sugared popcorn on top, served on grape leaves, nut macaroons, tiny pumpkin tarts and fruit punch.” The real area of interest for me, of course, was the dancing, and how a series of mini-cotillions ("novelty dances") could be adapted to a particular event and worked into a normal dance program of the late 1910s, even by a group of teenagers with modest resources....[novelty dance details behind the cut]
- [Snowball fight!](https://www.kickery.com/2015/01/snowball-fight.html) - In honor of tonight's incoming blizzard, and because I've been thinking lately about cotillion figures that scale up well for large groups, let's talk about Les Boules de Neige. For those who don't speak French, that would be...The Snowballs!...[ballroom snowball fight behind the cut!]
- [Waltzing Around](https://www.kickery.com/2017/01/waltzing-around.html) - A recent mailing list discussion centered on how to quickly teach people to do a "waltz-around", the style of country dance progression in which two couples waltz around each other once and a half times. This is most famously part of the mid- to late-nineteenth-century Spanish Dance, as well as other American waltz contra dances (such as the German Waltz and Bohemian Waltz). It dates back at least as far as the late 1810s to early 1820s in England, when Spanish dances were an entire genre of country dances in waltz time, and both they and ordinary waltz country dances featured this figure, sometimes under the names "poussette" or "waltze". I expect it goes even further back on the European continent, but I haven't yet pursued that line of research. As a dancer, the waltz-around has always been one of those figures that I just...do. I'd observed that it's difficult for beginners to master the tight curvature of the circle and making one and a half circles in only eight measures, but as an experienced waltzer, I've long been able to do it instinctively. And I'd never broken down precisely what I did or worked out how to explain it to others. So I suppose it's about time...[details and lightly-suppressed geometry behind the cut]
- [Light Dragoon](https://www.kickery.com/2008/11/light-dragoon.html) - "Light Dragoon" is an easy mid-19th century American country (contra) dance, one of a lengthy list of contra/country dances given in two manuals written by Elias Howe. In one of the two, it is cryptically labeled "Pinkerton;" possibly this is the name of the choreographer of the dance. It is performed in a longways set of any length, though four to six couples is easiest. All couples are "proper," with the men standing to the left of their partners when all are facing the top of the room. ...[dance instructions after the cut]
- [End-of-fellowship thoughts](https://www.kickery.com/2014/06/end-of-fellowship-thoughts.html) - I wrapped up my New England Regional Fellowship at the end of May, and other than a few loose research ends that I will be making more library trips this summer and fall to wind up, I've mostly completed the initial stage of my cotillon project: gathering lots and lots of cotillons so that I have enough of them to make some meaningful analysis of the genre....[general summary and some personal dithering behind the cut]
- [New England Regional Fellowship](https://www.kickery.com/2013/06/new-england-regional-fellowship.html) - Much obliged for the quadrilles, which I am grown to think pretty enough, though of course they are very inferior to the cotillions of my own day. --- Jane Austen, letter of February 20, 1816, to her niece Fanny A formal announcement has at last been made: I will be spending the next year (June 1, 2013-May 31, 2014) as one of the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium research fellows. I'm very excited and honored to have received a research grant which more typically goes to those with a conventional academic career path. And I'm thrilled that this will enable me to devote months of intense research time to the complicated topic of cotillions, which I've been looking into off and on over the past year or so....[details and research geekery behind the cut]
- [Hollywood Line Hustle](https://www.kickery.com/2013/02/hollywood-line-hustle.html) - It's been quite some time since I did any disco line dances, but here's one for the folks who love these session at the Dance Flurry. Sadly, I'm not teaching there this year, but you can do this one on your own! Unusually for one of these dances, I actually have it in two different sources: The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979) by Ann T. Kilbride and A. Algoso, and The Complete Guide to Disco Dancing (1978) by Karen Lustgarten. The sequence is almost exactly the same in both books. Kilbride and Algoso mention alternate names: the L.A. Line Dance or L.A. Line Hustle and note that it was popular in a particular area of the country, presumably southern Califoria. Lustgarten calls it "one of the most popular line dances" and suggests disco hits to dance it to: Boz Skaggs' "Lowdown" for a slow version, and Vickie Sue Robinson's "Turn The Beat Around" for a faster one...[sequence behind the cut]
- [New Scotia Quadrille](https://www.kickery.com/2013/09/new-scotia-quadrille.html) - A while back I discussed the wonderful dance CD Music for Quadrilles, by the English band Green Ginger (with Kevin Smith). At the time, I skimmed over the tracks for five modern Scottish (RSCDS) dances, since I didn't have any way to check the ones with historical sources against the originals. Since then, I've come across a copy of one of the editions of D. (David) Anderson's Ball-Room Guide, a "New, Enlarged, & Complete Edition", which the liner notes of Music for Quadrilles cite as the source for one of the historical dances, New Scotia Quadrille. According to J. P. (Joan) and T. M. Flett in Traditional Dancing in Scotland, David Anderson taught in Dundee and in a number of other towns from c1850-1911. His Ball-Room Guide seems to have gone through at least five editions, with the "New, Enlarged" versions appearing between the mid-1880s and late 1890s. Since the one I examined is not dated, and I have no others to compare it to, I cannot date it precisely. New Scotia Quadrille is a single-figure quadrille, one of several in Anderson. No author is given, but it presumably was not Anderson himself, since he was not shy about putting his name on several other dances of his own creation in his book. For the most part, it has very standard figures, much like other single-figure quadrilles of the late nineteenth century. The RSCDS version follows the original instructions fairly closely. But it has one interesting quirk at the end that did not make it into the modern version, and Anderson includes information on quadrille performance in (presumably) at least the Dundee area of Scotland during this era that is also of interest to me in showing regional variation. I'll give the figures first and then discuss these details...[which may be found behind the cut]
- [The Line Hustle](https://www.kickery.com/2009/08/line-hustle.html) - Line dances don't really get all that difficult, but there are a few longer ones with more complicated and less repetitive step sequences. One of these is the Line Hustle. These instructions are taken from Carter Lovisone's The Disco Hustle (1979) and claim to be "the original form used as the basis for all variations of the Line Hustle." I would take this claim with a grain of salt, since Lovisone's book came out several years after the dance's first wave of popularity in the mid-1970s.This version of the Line Hustle is a fifty-two beat dance. My favorite music for it is Van McCoy's 1975 hit, "The Hustle," a snippet of which is included below. The song is available on several different compilations, including The Hustle & The Best Of Van McCoy. I like to wait out the intro and start at the "do the hustle!" verbal cue. But as usual with line dances, the Line Hustle will also work to just about any disco tune. Note that the so-called "Charleston" section below bears no relation to the Charleston in its 1920s form....[more]
- [Harvest Home](https://www.kickery.com/2011/11/harvest-home.html) - In commemoration of the American Thanksgiving holiday, here’s a seasonally appropriate dance from the American Civil War era, a country dance for a set of six couples. While I have not done a comprehensive search, I appear to have instructions for "Harvest Home" only in a pair of dance manuals by Elias Howe: Howe's Complete Ballroom Handbook (Boston, 1858) and American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862), which include far more country dances than is typical of other dance manuals of the time period. New England to this day retains a stronger country dance tradition, in the form of modern contra dance, than most other parts of the United States...[more behind the cut]
- [Late 19th Century Jig-Time Dances: The Pasadena](https://www.kickery.com/2012/11/pasadena.html) - The Pasadena, a would-be replacement for the two-step, appears in the 1900 reprint of New York dancing master Allen Dodworth's 1885 tome, Dancing and its relations to education and social life, but can be dated back to at least 1898. It appears to have been created as a dancing school dance, as Dodworth's nephew, T. George Dodworth, discussed in his introduction to the new edition of his uncle's manual: In order to bring the work up to date, I have been requested to write an introduction which will include a list of dances that have come into fashion since my uncle's book was originally published. As a matter of fact, however, society dances have decreased, rather than increased, during this interval. When this work first appeared most of the round dances described in its pages were fashionable. But Dame Fashion is fickle, and, owing to some unaccountable change in taste, we now have only the Two Step, the Waltz, occasionally a Saratoga Lancers, and the Cotillion. In the dancing-schools the old dances are still taught, but with numerous new combinations, which are composed to improve the pupil and keep alive the interest. From these combinations we have the Tuxedo Lancers, the Amsterdam, Gavotte der Kaiserin, Minuet de la Cour (for four persons), and the Pasedena...[behind the cut: how to dance the Pasadena]
- [Bits of <i>Bijou</i>: The Missing Middle of Durang's 1848 Manual](https://www.kickery.com/2008/02/bits-of-bijou-o.html) - Research on social dance history does not always involve direct work on specific dances, and occasionally I get diverted to detective work on related historical mysteries in different fields - music, language, biography, etiquette, publishing history, and more. Over the last few weeks, I have pursued a successful quest for some pages missing from an
- [Wandering around in the dark, 1912](https://www.kickery.com/2020/10/wandering-around-in-the-dark-1912.html) - Since wandering around with small lanterns in a dark room looking for people to dance with also seems like a suitable spooky, or at least entertaining, activity for Halloween balls and cotillion parties, here are another pair of cotillion figures from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912) that feature that very activity! These are both simple mixer figures in which pairs of ladies and gentlemen must find their designated match, either by number or by name. 1. LANTERN FIGURE. Original description...[darkness, lanterns, and pairs of names behind the cut]
- [A 1920s Medley Paul Jones](https://www.kickery.com/2010/02/1920s-paul-jones.html) - 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. In the mid-1920s English manual Foulsham's Modern Dancing, by Maxwell Stewart, however, a more elaborate version is described....[details behind the cut]
- [Marching Medications](https://www.kickery.com/2016/10/marching-medications.html) - Coming back to cotillion figures, and sliding even further down the weirdness scale, here's a figure that combines playing doctor and still more wacky costumes! The source, once again, is the ever-delightful Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures by H. Layton Walker (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912). Like the Garden Figure and Stocking Auction figures, Sanitarium is a partner-choosing mixer, but with a much more elaborate setup. Here's Walker's description...[details behind the cut]
- [Half & Half: Seven Steps](https://www.kickery.com/2017/12/half-half-seven-steps.html) - "Seven steps" is actually something of a misnomer for this variation, which actually involves eight steps taken over two measures of half and half (5/4) time. Its original source, Frank H. Norman's Complete Dance Instructor (Ottawa, 1914) lists it only as step "No. 2" (out of two) for the half and half. The Half and Half section of Norman's book is credited to George E Rutherford. The basic principle of the step is to take a single slow hesitating step, lasting three counts as usual (1-2-3), and then take seven quick steps on the last two beats of the first measure and all five beats of the second (4-5-1-2-3-4-5). Like the five-step variation, this is a very "busy" step that is best done to a very gentle tempo of half and half music. Rutherford's description has the gentleman starting on the right foot and going forward along line of dance while the lady goes backward. He describes the seven quick steps as "Beginning l. take seven short running steps forward, forcing the Lady backward count 4-5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5." That's clear enough, but not much fun to do repeatedly, even if one reverses the genders and has the man run backward. But Rutherford gives three possible variations, one of which I want to cover here: "The running steps may be taken -- four forward -- and three back...[details behind the cut]
- [Trips to Paris](https://www.kickery.com/2015/09/trips-to-paris.html) - This post is for Allison, Graham, and Alan, who know and care. If I expect to get anything done in my life, I cannot spend my time wandering around the net getting irritated by the dance history errors. But I do pay attention when they arrive by email. So I noticed when a mailing list query about how best to dance "A Trip to Paris" at a Jane Austen ball appeared in my inbox. Happily, I was neither the first nor the last list member to jump in with some version of "That dance is from Walsh, from 1711, and does not belong at a Jane Austen ball!" (Jane Austen lived from 1775-1817, and her dancing days would have started in the early 1790s.) I did get intrigued by one comment in the ensuing discussion: that the dance had been "republished by Thomas Cahusac in 24 Country Dances for 1794" and therefore might have been danced by Jane Austen. That's a terrifically specific citation -- hurray! -- but I instantly doubted it, since (1) very few dances or tunes of the earlier style were reprinted that late (young people, then and now, not being particularly into dancing their great-grandparents' dances), and (2) I already knew there were other tunes called "A Trip to Paris" and other dance figures printed with them. As another list member pointed out, it's a very generic sort of title. My immediate thought was that the 1794 publication would be a different tune and different figures and that the person who threw that comment in hadn't actually seen Cahusac and was being tripped up by the modern concept that dances and tunes are specific combinations with a unique name. (Applying modern concepts backward in time is a great way to produce bad history.) I'd have bet money on it, but it's hard to find anyone who'll bet against me on a dance history question. Still, me being me, it was worth looking into. I've been wrong before. And in the process I made an interesting discovery: we were all wrong! Come with me on a little research odyssey to see how! [not-so-little odyssey behind the cut]
- [Half & Half Variations: The Scissors](https://www.kickery.com/2014/03/half-half-variations-the-scissors.html) - 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 scissorsThe 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. Like all half & half moves, the scissors are made much more graceful if the dancers rise on the toe on the first step and hold there, raising the trailing foot, during the hesitation on the second and third counts...[more performance notes behind the cut]
- [Fruit and Stockings](https://www.kickery.com/2016/10/fruit-and-stockings.html) - Moving on from fancy dress balls, here are a pair of cotillion figures which actually involve some degree of costuming, at least for loose definitions of the concept. Both figures are taken from H. Layton Walker's Twentieth Century Cotillion Figures (Two Step Publishing Company, Buffalo, New York, 1912), source of an endless supply of delightfully weird figures. There are actually Halloween-themed figures in Walker's book, but they're quite dull by comparison with these two! Both figures are simple mixers, with either the ladies or the gentlemen selecting partners from a group of opposite-sex dancers. Dozens of figures of this sort were published over the years, but these two take the concept to a whole new level by having the dancers put on some sort of silly costume during the ball itself, presumably right over their normal evening dress. You wouldn't actually want to use figures like these at a fancy dress ball, where the dancers are already in masquerade-type costumes, but they would add some interesting variety at a ball or cotillion evening with dancers in normal 1910s eveningwear...[details behind the cut]
- [Battle Confetti](https://www.kickery.com/2014/10/battle-confetti.html) - One hundred and sixteen years ago today, the magazine Harper's Bazaar published a brief blurb predicting fashionable dances for the winter would be of "military tone", no doubt influenced by the burst of patriotic fervor occasioned by the brief Spanish-American War, which by the autumn of 1898 had moved into peace negotiations. The article gives a quick peek at what dances interested Americans (or, at least, American dancing masters) in the second-to-last winter of the nineteenth century...[confetti behind the cut!]
- [Half & Half: Pivot Turns](https://www.kickery.com/2017/12/half-half-pivot-turns.html) - "If you wish to spin you must do so on the slow step, continuing forward on the last two counts." -- from Modern Dancing by Vernon & Irene Castle, 1914 One of the basic half and half steps which I did not cover in my long-ago post on basic traveling steps for the dance was the pivot turn, as distinct from turning waltz in half and half time. There aren't all that many sources for half and half, so it's mildly (very mildly) significant that this step is mentioned three different times. There's the Castles' succinct description quoted above. There's a mention of it in a list of steps, or possibly a choreography, where it is given without any detail as "No. 3. pivot turn, right and left, 8 measures." (from "Half and Half" by J. E. Miles, in Dance Mad or the Dances of the Day, 2nd edition, F. Leslie Clendenen (editor), 1914.) And there's a full description as part of a mini-sequence which doesn't actually work. Here's the relevant part: THE PIVOT TURN is made by stepping L. to side. C. 1.Pivot 1/2 on ball of L. C. 2. 3. Walk forward. 4. 5. (from "Half and Half" as taught by Castle Assistants, in Dance Mad or the Dances of the Day, 2nd edition, F. Leslie Clendenen (editor), 1914...[details behind the cut, with reverses and helpful cheats!]
- [Half & Half Variations: A Complex Hesitation](https://www.kickery.com/2014/03/half-half-variations-a-complex-hesitation-1.html) - 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. There are also some ambiguities in the original wording: Glide left foot to 4th position front (1): draw right to 3rd position (2); elevate left in 4th position front and carry in a semi-circle to 4th position back, still elevated (3); step back on left, bending left knee slightly (4); point right toe in 4th position front (5). 1 measure. Step forward on right (1); forward on left (2); on right (3); step on left making half-turn to right, left toe pointing in 4th position front, both facing new line of direction (4 and 5). 1 measure. Repeat above 2 measures...changing line of direction on 4 and 5 of each second measure. The instructions are to the gentleman; the lady dances opposite. The bolding is mine, highlighting the two problem spots...[reconstruction and performance tips behind the cut]
- [Half & Half Variations: The Scroll](https://www.kickery.com/2010/07/half-half-variations-the-scroll.html) - 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...[scroll details behind the cut]
- [Half & Half: Varying the Promenade](https://www.kickery.com/2014/03/half-and-half-varying-promenade.html) - 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...[which are given behind the cut]
- [Half & Half: Switching the Lead Foot](https://www.kickery.com/2014/03/half-half-switching-the-lead-foot.html) - 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....[details behind the cut]
- [The Half & Half: Basic Traveling Steps](https://www.kickery.com/2008/04/half-half-bas.html) - 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
- [Five Steps in the Half and Half](https://www.kickery.com/2010/07/five-steps-in-the-half-and-half.html) - 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....[and the details of the five-step variation are behind the cut]
- [California Reel](https://www.kickery.com/2017/04/california-reel.html) - There's the famous Virginia Reel. There's a Kentucky Reel. Why not a California Reel? Unlike those other two reels, which are full-set dances, the California Reel is a normal progressive contra dance in the "Spanish Dance" format: couple facing couple, either down a longways set or in a circle. For this particular dance, a line of couples will work better. I have five sources for California Reel, though two of them are simply later editions of other sources: The ball-room manual, containing a complete description of contra dances, with remarks on cotillions, quadrilles, and Spanish dance, revised edition, presumed to be by William Henry Quimby (Belfast, Maine, 1856; introduction signed W. H. Q) The ball room guide : a description of the most popular contra dances of the day, (Laconia, New Hampshire, 1858) The ball-room manual of contra dances and social cotillons, with remarks on quadrilles and Spanish dance, vest pocket edition, presumed to be by William Henry Quimby (Belfast, Maine, and Boston, 1863) (later edition of first source above, again signed W. H. Q.) Howe's New American Dancing Master by Elias Howe (Boston, 1882) Howe's New American Dancing Master by Elias Howe (Boston, 1892) All of them have the same language in the description, varying only in punctuation and spelling. I am reasonably sure that the text in most of these sources was copied from either the 1856 source or some earlier source...[reconstruction and notes behind the cut]
- [Holly Berry](https://www.kickery.com/2008/09/holly-berry.html) - “Mrs. Henderson has introduced this dance in compliance with the request of pupils and friends, who were at a loss for a cheerful country dance in which all might join without previous instruction in the fashionable dances.”Holly Berry is a short set dance apparently composed by London dance teacher Mrs. Nicholas Henderson in the 1850s. Its first known appearance is in the second edition of her Etiquette for Dancing, published in the 1850s. The dance was also included in Elias Howe's American dancing master and ball-room prompter, published in Boston in 1862, which appears on the Library of Congress website here. Howe's manual, unusually, includes a specific credit to Mrs. Henderson. The dance is reminiscent of the galopade country dances of the 1830s and was perhaps seen as too old-fashioned in style by the mid-19th century. It does not appear to have been commonly reprinted and probably was not wildly popular. But it makes an interesting change of pace in a Victorian or American Civil War-era reenactment ballroom....[more]
- [On evening parties with dancing, 1860](https://www.kickery.com/2015/11/dancing-evening-parties-1860.html) - The most fashionable as well as pleasant way in the present day to entertain guests is to invite them to evening parties, which vary in size from the "company," "sociable," "soiree," to the party, par excellence, which is but one step from the ball. The entertainment upon such occasions may vary with the taste of the hostess or the caprice of her guests. Some prefer dancing, some music, some conversations. Small parties, called together for dramatical or poetical readings, are now fashionable, and very delightful. --- The Ladies' Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness I first came across Florence Hartley's The Ladies' Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness (G. G. Evans: Philadelphia, 1860) via the July, 1861, issue of Godey's Lady's Book, which excerpted the section on the etiquette for a lady hosting an evening party. There is a matching section for the (female) guests at an evening party as well as sections for ladies hosting or attending balls. I have spent a great deal of time over the years reading about mid-nineteenth century ballroom etiquette, but considerably less on that for more informal events. I thus found Mrs. Hartley's thoughts on the subject quite interesting. It would be fun to host smaller events such as these, if one had both the sizable rooms and the servants that Mrs. Hartley assumes will be available or hired for the night. Since the book is available online (see below), I am not going to review all of Mrs. Hartley's general advice on the conduct of evening parties. She discusses everything from the wording of invitations to the arrangement of dressing rooms to why one should take one's leave in the parlor rather than the hall. Here, I'd like to look more narrowly at the useful tidbits of information she provides about dancing at such small and informal (by mid-nineteenth-century standards) events. Most quotations below are drawn from "Etiquette for the Hostess" section, with those from "Etiquette for the Guest" marked as such...[quotes and discussion behind the cut]
- [Displeased by dancing, 1852](https://www.kickery.com/2022/02/displeased-by-dancing-1852.html) - "Pleasing the Parish; or, The Minister's Wife", and its sequel, "Intervention", appeared in the January and July, 1852, issues of Godey's Lady's Book, probably the most prominent women's magazine of mid-19th century America. The author remained anonymous, offering only a list of their previously published stories. The first story is the sad tale of the overwhelming demands made upon Mrs. Stone, the wife of a theologian who accepts a position as rector of a large parish in New York City. Her inability to fulfill all the demands on a rector's wife and her refusal to yield in all areas to the leading female parishioners makes her increasingly unpopular and, as a result, miserable. In the second story, she has the temerity to attend a gathering of friends rather than the organizational meeting. Both the gathering and its consequences offer brief insights into the practice and perception of dance in mid-nineteenth-century America...[Mrs. Stone's problems behind the cut]
- [Mrs. Walker's Masqued Ball, 1804](https://www.kickery.com/2018/10/mrs-walkers-masqued-ball-1804.html) - Jumping from the mid-eighteenth to the early nineteenth century: I first came across a description of Mrs. Walker's Masqued Ball as it was published in a Philadelphia journal, The Port-Folio, on January 19, 1805, with a credit to the The Morning Post, a noted London newspaper which famously covered the social activities of the upper classes in Regency England. For several years, I had the article filed under the date 1805, but with a suspicious note attached because the outdoor party described (with a hostess concerned about the possibility of the heat being "oppressive") didn't sound likely to have occurred in January, even in England. I still haven't found the original Morning Post article, but I did turn up a shorter version of the same description (minus all the costume information) that was published in The Lancaster Gazette (of Lancaster, England, not Lancaster, Pennsylvania) on Saturday, July 14, 1804, with one critical word present: on Wednesday se'nnight [emphasis mine] In the longer piece in The Port-Folio, this line was altered to "on Wednesday evening", presumably because it was being reprinted seven months later. I believe that "se'nnight" would make the date of the ball Wednesday, July 4th, 1804, a much more sensible date for an outdoor event. British newspapers covered many masqued balls, but most of the descriptions weren't quite as detailed as this one. I've included a transcription of the entire article (Port-Folio version) below. I'll just pick out a few of the points that really caught my eye....[thoughts and transcription below the cut]
- [Flower Girl's Dance](https://www.kickery.com/2017/04/flower-girls-dance.html) - Flower Girl's Dance is an American Civil War-era contra dance that I remember dancing way back in the early 1990s when I first started doing mid-nineteenth-century dance. But the version we did does not actually match that found in any source I've ever seen. And it's easy to see why: the versions given in the sources don't actually work very well. And now that I've reconstructed the California Reel, I have a little theory about why that is. The earliest sources I have for Flower Girl's Dance are Elias Howe's two 1858 books, the Pocket Ball-Room Prompter and the Complete Ball-Room Handbook. I strongly suspect that all the later sources were copying to some degree from Howe. So let's look at Howe's instructions: FLOWER GIRL'S DANCE.(Music: Girl I left behind me.)Form as for Spanish Dance. All chassa to the right, half balance--chassa back, swing four half round--swing four half round and back--half promenade, half right and left--forward and back all, forward and pass to next couple (as in the Haymakers). There are some minor differences of spelling and punctuation, but the wording is essentially the same across almost forty years of Howe publications. Taken at face value with the hash marks setting off eight-bar musical strains, this yields a 40-bar dance: 8b All chassé to the right, half balance8b Chassé back, swing four half round8b Swing four half round and back8b Half promenade, half right and left8b Forward and back, forward and pass through 40 bars is an unusual length, but not unheard of. But there are worse problems here...[problems and possible solutions behind the cut]
- [The Hewitts' Plant Party, 1898](https://www.kickery.com/2018/10/plant-party-1898.html) - Originally posted in substantially similar form on September 24, 2010, at Historical Fancy Dress. Jumping forward in time, from The New York Times on February 18, 1898 comes a full description of a very successful themed fancy dress event: a "Plant Party". The ladies were asked to dress in some "representative" costume, while the gentlemen were expected to appear in ordinary evening clothes and were given something like a vegetable boutonniere at the door. Supposedly, this was copied from something that Louis XVI did it at Versailles. I'd certainly like to see a description of that! Sadly, very little information is given about the dancing: there was some, informal, after supper, and with no cotillion. No full list of costumes was published, but there are some excellent examples at the end of how the ladies trimmed their gowns to match the theme. I've transcribed the entire article below...[behind the cut]
- [Un jeu d'échecs (a game of chess), 1810](https://www.kickery.com/2017/10/chess-quadrille-1810.html) - Another themed quadrille described by Laure Junot, the Duchess of Abrantès, was the "game of chess" danced, or at least presented, at a masked ball in Paris in the February of 1810. The quadrille was also described in her Memoires de Madame la duchesse d'Abrantes, which were published and republished in multiple volumes in a variety of editions. The French text below was taken from an 1837 fourth edition published in Brussels, which may be found online here. A contemporary (1833) English translation is online here, but it is not a close enough translation and omits some lines, so I've done my own, with reference to it. Junot spent more time in her memoirs complaining about the costumes and rehearsal time required for this quadrille than she did on the actual performance, but from her description, it seems like very few of the pieces (dancers) actually got to do much, unless perhaps they danced as they entered the board. But what little she describes does mention steps, and the costume descriptions give us a fairly good idea of how the dancers must have appeared: vaguely Egyptian pawns with tightly-wrapped skirts and sleeves like mummies and sphinx-like hairstyles, knights like centaurs with horse rumps made from wicker, rooks wearing wicker towers, and fools (bishops) in caps with bells...[dancing chess pieces behind the cut]
- [One for the ponies!](https://www.kickery.com/2015/06/one-for-the-ponies.html) - 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! [details behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: the St. Denis Spiral](https://www.kickery.com/2021/06/foxtrot-st-denis-spiral.html) - 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....[details behind the cut]
- [New York Bus Stop](https://www.kickery.com/2010/01/new-york-bus-stop.html) - I always end up reconstructing line dances when I have a relevant gig coming up. This time it's the Dance Flurry, where I will be teaching an entire session of disco line dances a month or so from now. This is another short line dance, only twenty-four beats long. There are many, many dances called some version of "Bus Stop" -- it seems every city or perhaps every club had its own special one. This is not the only dance I have found that's called the New York Bus Stop! [step sequence behind the cut]
- [The Disco Duck](https://www.kickery.com/2009/02/the-disco-duck.html) - Yes, here I go again with another easy line dance from The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979). I actually like these dances (which date back to my childhood), though I don't usually do them in batches. The immediate excuse for this extended excursion into the 1970s is that I'm going to be teaching an entire session of disco line dances a week or so from now at the Dance Flurry. This one is twice as long as Hot Chocolate/Bonaparte's Retreat (described here and here) and has slightly harder steps and "quick-quick-slow" rhythm sections which make it a more interesting dance.The obvious music is the song "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees, which was a top Billboard hit for a couple of months in 1976, but it will work to any piece of lively disco music. Happily, the dance does not include any arm-flapping or other duck-like miming....[more]
- [The Line Walk](https://www.kickery.com/2009/02/line-walk.html) - Here's another very basic line dance; any Kickery readers planning a 1970s-theme party are going to be all set this week. This one is also from The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979). It's thirty-eight beats long, but very easy, though the odd length means it will cross the phrase of the music.
- [Bonaparte's Retreat](https://www.kickery.com/2009/02/bonapartes-retreat.html) - No, this has nothing to do with the Regency era! This is one of a trio of easy line dances I've drawn from The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979). It's only sixteen beats long; line dances don't get any easier than that. The name supposedly derives from the floor pattern of the dance:...first the dancers mobilize, as they move in a line down the side, then they "retreat" backward and perform a "holding" action, before wheeling to the left and "defending" in another direction.I find it's best not to think too deeply about this...[more]
- [California Bus Stop/California Hustle](https://www.kickery.com/2009/03/california-bus-stopcalifornia-hustle.html) - Still working my way through my collection of 1970s line dances, here's another one from The Complete Book on Disco and Ballroom Dancing (1979). The California Bus Stop, a.k.a. the California Hustle, is an easy thirty-six-beat dance. It's most notable characteristic is that it features claps and stamps on every fourth beat throughout the first two parts of the dance...[more]
- [Hot Chocolate](https://www.kickery.com/2008/01/hot-chocolate-1.html) - I try to remember that history (dance or otherwise) didn't actually stop sometime before I was born, so today I'm flashing back to 1978 and the era of disco line dances and, happily, a flood of disco dance manuals. I still find disco music very danceable, so ever so often I play around with reconstructing
- [The New Yorker](https://www.kickery.com/2008/01/the-new-yorker.html) - Another guilty-pleasure disco-era line dance! This is one I've actually used regularly as an easy cool-down dance at the end of my own practices for the last couple of years. The source is The Official Guide to Disco Dance Steps by Jack Villari & Kathleen Sims Villari, 1978. There's no special music for this or
- [The Castles' Paul Jones](https://www.kickery.com/2014/06/castles-paul-jones.html) - 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"...[directions for simple mixer and cotillion free-association behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: The Castle Favorite](https://www.kickery.com/2015/07/early-foxtrot-the-castle-favorite.html) - 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...[how to, behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: The Newburgh](https://www.kickery.com/2014/06/early-foxtrot-the-newburgh.html) - 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...[details of sequence behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: Slides & Glides, 1916](https://www.kickery.com/2014/06/early-foxtrot-slides-glides-1916.html) - 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...[details of nice, easy sequences behind the cut]
- [Hop, hop, foxtrotters!](https://www.kickery.com/2014/07/hop-hop-foxtrotters.html) - 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...[hoppy things behind the cut!]
- [Cross Steps in the Early Foxtrot](https://www.kickery.com/2014/05/cross-steps-in-the-early-foxtrot.html) - 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....[more easy foxtrot variations behind the cut]
- [Two Easy Foxtrot Hesitations](https://www.kickery.com/2014/05/two-easy-foxtrot-hesitations.html) - 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)...[easy, and I do mean EASY, variations behind the cut]
- [Another Note on the Early Foxtrot](https://www.kickery.com/2008/05/another-note-on.html) - 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
- [The Western Normal Newport](https://www.kickery.com/2017/04/western-normal-newport.html) - The Western Normal Newport was named after the Western Association Normal School Masters of Dancing, a professional organization for dancing masters in western North America. "Normal school" sounds odd to modern ears, but historically, it didn't mean what we'd imagine today. A normal school was a teacher-training school, where the "norms" of teaching and subject material were taught; more information on normal schools in general may be found here. The Western Association Normal School was founded in 1894 under Canadian dancing master John Freeman Davis, its first president. My only source for the Western Normal Newport is George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903). Lopp was from the northwestern USA and may have been a member of the Normal School or at least aware of it. The variation's name, as given in French by Lopp, was Le Western Normal Newport, attributed to l'Association de l'École normale des Maîtres de danse de l'Ouest. Given that the school was founded in 1894, the Western Normal Newport was obviously created too late to appear in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing, published in Portland, Maine, in 1890, from which Lopp cribbed so much of his own book. In my long-ago original post on the Newport, I noted that, like other nineteenth-century turning dances, it could be done turning to the right or left (natural or reverse turns, respectively) or along the line of dance without turning. This variation makes the left and right turns quite explicit, mixing them with simple walking steps, the gentleman moving forward along the line of dance and the lady backward. The variation takes eight bars of 3/4 music (see note below), and the reconstruction is very straightforward. The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances opposite. The overall scheme is three bars of right-turning Newport, three walking steps, three bars of left-turning Newport, and three more walking steps...[reconstruction behind the cut]
- [No "Secesh", 1862](https://www.kickery.com/2023/10/no-secesh-1862.html) - On January 25, 1862, a dramatic little story appeared in a column in The Philadelphia Inquirer, "The New York Letter", which covered news from New York City. The United States was eight months into the Civil War against the Confederacy (formally, the Confederate States of America, or C. S. A.), and New Yorkers were on the alert for Confederate spies, or "Secesh" (secessionists). So it was quite alarming for a gentleman to notice, in a paint shop, several suspicious looking bundles, boxes, etc., marked "C. S. A. Sutler's Department," "C. S. A. Medical Department," etc. He reported the items to the police, and detectives were duly assigned to watch the shop, where, on the evening of January 23rd (going by the date of the column), they noticed someone leaving the premises, enwrapped in a long cloak and scarf, carrying the suspicious bundles under his arm Suspicious indeed! The detectives followed him to a house, which he and dozens of other cloaked men entered. Was it a secret meeting of spies? Smugglers? Terrorists? Police surrounded the house, but after sending one policeman inside to reconnoiter, they abruptly retired from the scene. Why did they leave? And what does this have to do with dance, anyway?...[reveal behind the cut]
- [Thinking in Fives](https://www.kickery.com/2014/07/thinking-in-fives.html) - I spent a lot of time thinking about quintuple-meter (5/4 or 5/8 time) dances earlier this year, though not much of it showed up on Kickery at the time. Since historical dance description and terminology are not standardized, there's an important distinction to keep in mind for all dances with some association with the number five: Five steps (or movements) in a dance do not necessarily imply 5/4 or 5/8 time....[and I will discuss this in detail behind the cut]
- [Fancy Little Foxtrot](https://www.kickery.com/2008/05/fancy-little-fo.html) - 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
- [A Polka Quadrille (1893)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/11/polka-quadrille-1893.html) - By the end of the 19th century, many quadrilles were being published that didn't follow the earlier form of having multiple separate figures. Although this short dance does have two distinct parts, they are treated as one long figure. The source of the dance is The Prompter’s Handbook by J.A. French, published in Boston in 1893. The original instructions may be seen here. There are significant similarities in the figures to the Waltz Quadrille from the same source, which I described in an earlier post, as well a a generic similarity to other one-figure quadrilles of the late 19th century, which typically involve a mix of very simple figures interspersed with the entire set dancing in couples (waltz, polka, galop, etc., depending on the type of quadrille)....[more]
- [A Waltz Quadrille (1893)](https://www.kickery.com/2008/06/a-waltz-quadril.html) - By the end of the 19th century, quite a number of quadrilles were being published that didn't follow the earlier form of having multiple separate figures. Although this dance does have two distinct dance parts, the original instructions (which may be seen here) are clear that they should be treated as one long figure: Play
- [Le Triangle](https://www.kickery.com/2010/09/le-triangle.html) - Subtitled Nouveau Quadrille, the Triangle is not actually a quadrille in the literal sense of a dance involving facing couples. It was composed by F. Paul and published in his manual, Le Cotillon, in Paris in 1877 and is danced by three couples rather than four, arranged in the form of a triangle. Paul composed it to address the difficulty of finding four couples for the quadrille croisé of the time. He adds modestly that he does not intend to impose it upon dancers, but gives the description only as a proposal. I have never seen the Triangle in any other source; it may never have been danced outside of Paul's immediate circles...[entire dance behind the cut]
- [Respect the box step](https://www.kickery.com/2015/10/respect-the-box.html) - I've been thinking a lot over the last few years about the underlying skills needed for various forms of social dance. A critical one is the ability to shift steps between time signatures, as I discussed a couple of months ago. And one of the best examples of that is what happened with the much-maligned "box step" in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The box step doesn't get a lot of respect among historical dancers in America because it is strongly associated with modern ballroom dance studio practices. That's unfortunate, because I'm increasingly convinced that its historical incarnation, the "new waltz" (in contrast to the older valse à trois temps with its pirouette), is extremely important to know for anyone studying American social dancing of the 1880s-1910s. Despite this, it often gets pushed aside in favor of the older style, which is usually taught first and thus becomes the default social waltz in modern reenactment. That's not wrong, exactly; it's not like the older waltz vanished in favor of the new. But I think that we ought to be spending a lot more time on the new waltz, because it appears to be one of the fundamental building blocks of the social dance of the entire late Victorian/Edwardian/ragtime era. Let's look at how the box step got used historically...[box-steps box-steps everywhere behind the cut!]
- [A Fancy Dress Ball, Singapore, 1884](https://www.kickery.com/2018/10/fancy-dress-singapore-1884.html) - As can be seen from my other posts about fancy dress and masquerade balls, newspapers from the eighteenth century well into the twentieth often published lists of the costumes worn by the guests. The lists were often provided in advance of the actual event, so it's possible not all of the costumes worked out, as anyone who's ever tried to finish a costume at the last minute before a ball will understand. The costumes were evidently more important than the dancing; while lists of outfits are routine in these writeups, full dance programs are rare and any information at all is not very common. This apparently held true even halfway around the world. The excerpts and costume lists below are from a fancy dress ball held by British expatriates in Singapore (!) in 1884. The sole mention of dancing is the opening quadrille...[lengthy costume lists behind the cut]
- [An Incident of Parisian Society, 1885](https://www.kickery.com/2018/10/incident-parisian-society-1885.html) - ...or, at least, a story about an incident. I don't have any way to prove that it actually occurred. But true or not, the story illustrates something I've been noticing about fancy dress balls over the course of the last month. The story was published in issue #40 (March, 1885) of The Nassau Literary Magazine, which was and is associated with Princeton University and is fully indexed online. The author was John Cass (J. C.) Mathis, Princeton class of 1886, the author of twenty-eight pieces for the magazine from 1884 to 1886. These appear to have included fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, so it's hard to say from his publication record whether this story was memoir or fiction. I lean toward thinking it was the latter, but even as fiction, it's an interesting example of what was seen to be realistic at the time. The story was supposedly related to Mathis by a friend who had just returned from a tour of Europe. While there, this nameless friend and become close to Victor, son of a prominent family. It was ball season in Paris, between New Year's and Lent, and Mathis' friend was invited to a fancy dress ball at the home of Victor's mother, Madam de Brissac. Apparently masks were worn as well as costumes. Details are given only of one: a lady in Spanish costume with whom Mathis' friend was quite taken: There was one face and form that was especially attractive from amongst them all. She was of a southern type of beauty, dark, tall and graceful. She wore a Spanish costume of rich black good, cut low in front, and sleeveless, with diamond ornaments. I approached her. We strolled into the conservatory, we promenaded, we danced. I was struck with her beauty and many charms; but, in the whirl of excitement, soon found myself at the side of another. Throughout the evening, however, I kept my eyes upon this lady in black. She was always prominent, always surrounded by admirers, always smiling, always pleasing those around her. I was deeply interested, and that night I dreamt of sunny Spain. Mathis' friend left out a few pertinent details here, presumably for storytelling effect...[and they are behind the cut, along with a full transcription]
- [Prince Leopold's Birthday Ball, 1859](https://www.kickery.com/2016/10/prince-leopolds-birthday-ball-1859.html) - One of the most charming descriptions of a fancy dress ball in my collection is that of the event held at Buckingham Palace in honor of the sixth birthday of Queen Victoria's youngest son, Prince Leopold, on April 7, 1859. This was a juvenile, or children's, ball, but, as we know from descriptions of the dancing lessons given to Victoria's children, the level of dancing skill even at young ages was considerably higher than one would expect from children today. That said, it's not clear to me whether the youngest children really danced all the dances or whether that was left to the older ones, or perhaps the parents. The description I have was printed in The Albion, A Journal of News, Politics and Literature, on April 30, 1859. The Albion was a weekly New York newspaper that covered British matters extensively and was read by expatriates. The description was probably copied directly from a London newspaper.
- [The Way it Ended, 1855](https://www.kickery.com/2020/10/way-it-ended-1855.html) - I came across this story in a California newspaper, The Weekly Placer Herald, and didn't find it particularly believable. But it was not original to the Herald; the attribution at the end is to the Albany Dutchman, which seems to have been more of a weekly humor publication than a newspaper. Per the Library of Congress's Chronicling America website, it described itself in 1849 as "A weekly newspaper-devoted to fun, literature, good advice, women and other luxuries." I don't have any way to check the attribution at the moment, as the Albany Dutchman doesn't seem to be online, but that fits with my impression that this is a tall tale, not an actual incident. It nonetheless makes a light-hearted ending to my month of masquerades! In the story, two friends, Bob and Frank, lie to Bob's wife about his having to help a sick uncle. In reality, they are sneaking off to a masquerade ball. While Bob is a married man, Frank is "a roue, and as a matter of course is a great favorite with the ladies—roues always are...[a twist and a moral behind the cut]
- [Mr. Palmer comes of age, Yarmouth, 1831](https://www.kickery.com/2019/10/palmer-fancy-dress-ball-1831.html) - Moving a bit forward in time, the coming of age ball of Mr. Samuel Palmer, junior, on Tuesday, March 1st, 1831, was accorded detailed coverage the following Saturday, March 5th, in The Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette. The family seems to have been a prominent one, since they convinced then-Mayor Edmund Preston to lend them a hall and the whole town to deck itself out in celebration of their son's birthday. And, of course, they were wealthy enough to throw a ball for several hundred guests. Piecing together public records, I am reasonably certain that the birthday boy's full name was Samuel Thurtell Palmer (c1810-1850), whose parents were probably Samuel and Susanna (Thurtell?) Palmer. Most of the article was, as usual, devoted to lengthy lists of guests and their costumes, but there were some interesting tidbits here and there. The transcriptions below include all of the article with the exception of the lists that just named the attendees and their outfits...[costumes and a country dance, Miss Burton and blackface, all behind the cut]
- [Not just "Harvest Home"](https://www.kickery.com/2025/09/not-just-harvest-home.html) - Long, long, ago I published a reconstruction of the mid-19th century American contra (country) dance published as "Harvest Home" in some of Elias Howe's dance compilations. I have nothing new to add to that reconstruction, but as I've collated more and more contra dances of that era, I've found the same figures under a couple
- [February 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/01/february-2023-gig-calendar.html) - February starts gently for me with an online lecture that is a sort of sequel to one I did in Moscow eight (!!) years ago and one of my regular trips to Boston to DJ before I head off to Europe at the end of the month for a teaching trip to Belgium and Germany that will also take me briefly through Dublin and Amsterdam for research, art, and reunions...[details behind the cut]
- [January 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/01/january-2023-gig-calendar.html) - Happy new year! I wasn't planning to travel for anything but library research this month while I wait out the post-holiday Covid surge and polish a bunch of old and new reconstructions for my European trip in February-March. But it seems I'm going to Boston to DJ again. Tomorrow! Whee!...[nothing but Boston behind the cut]
- [December 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/12/december-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Winding down for the year after a busy late autumn with a final trip up to Boston. Then home for a few weeks to attempt to catch up on writing projects...[couple of small gigs behind the cut]
- [November 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/11/november-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Things are getting lively again! Online and in-person workshops, two balls, and a DJ gig, plus at least two library visits, and I'm hoping for four...[gig info behind the cut]
- [July 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/07/july-2023-gig-calendar.html) - For the first time in four years we have a non-gig calendar! Previous July plans have been postponed, so I will be hibernating quietly at home this month, getting things prepared for later in the year (autumn will be lively!) and taking care of non-dance business...[no gigs behind the cut!]
- [April 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/03/april-2023-gig-calendar.html) - As April begins I'll still be on my March Chicago trip, now extended to Wisconsin. Then after a couple of weeks at home, I'll be on the road again to the amazing New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) and a Civil War ball in Pennsylvania, with a bit of DJing tucked in between. I'm looking forward to a fabulous and eclectic month...[details behind the cut]
- [March 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/03/march-2023-gig-calendar.html) - March for me will come in like the proverbial lion as I wrap up my little European tour with a weekend of workshops in Munich and go out, err, still like the lion with a trip to Chicago for research and an evening of country dancing (loosely defined). In between, I'll be in Boston for DJing (and more research). Updated: the DJing and Boston trip are canceled, conveniently replaced by a class at a local university! Whee!...[details behind the cut]
- [May 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/05/may-2023-gig-calendar.html) - Tra la...it's May! Waltz workshops and DJing a waltz afternoon in Boston early in the month, then I'll be taking a break from travel for some needed time at home for research and writing...[waltz details behind the cut]
- [June 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/06/june-2023-gig-calendar.html) - June feels a bit like May, Take II: a quick trip to Boston early in the month to DJ and do a bit of library research, then holing up at home for research and writing...and yardwork and home renovations and all those little things I do when I'm not working....[one lonely little gig behind the cut]
- [August 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/07/august-2023-gig-calendar.html) - We are now on May, Take III, and I have nothing original to say about it except that I am really looking forward to autumn. I'll make a short trip to Boston for DJing and library research, then back at home again for research and writing and all the mundane life stuff....[exactly one thing behind the cut]
- [October 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/09/october-2023-gig-calendar.html) - Life and dancing return! October is going to be filled primarily with a two-week trip to Europe for a conference and a very special dance workshop, then home to Connecticut to prepare for a crazy late November...[details behind the cut]
- [November 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/11/november-2023-gig-calendar.html) - This month will be very, very quiet for sixteen days. Then it will be very, very busy for ten days as I ricochet from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to London, England, leading balls and teaching. Whee! After my London weekend I will be wandering around the UK for a few days doing research. Dorset, here I come...[details of balls and stuff behind the cut]
- [January 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/01/january-2024-gig-calendar.html) - Happy new year! Since I didn't really get a holiday break in December, and I'm traveling overseas again the first week in January for a conference, the rest of January will be my Official Post-Holiday Break -- the first time in several months I won't be preparing a gig, preparing a paper, preparing to travel, or recovering from some/all of the above...[link to the conference for which registration is already closed behind the cut]
- [September 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/08/september-2023-gig-calendar.html) - To sleep, perchance to actually get rested? Once again, I have a non-gig calendar for the month, though I will be making a couple of personal trips, including an Actual Vacation for the first time since 2018. See you in October, when things get lively again...[absolutely nothing of importance behind the cut!]
- [December 2023 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2023/11/december-2023-gig-calendar.html) - It feels like November is going to stretch for two more days as I wind up an intense trip to the UK that has so far involved two days of teaching and visits to three different libraries and archives in three different cities/towns. Today and tomorrow will be library #4 in yet another town. On Saturday I fly home and have one entire day there before turning around and heading to Boston for my last public event of the year: DJing once more for Bluesy Tuesy! I'll be sneaking in some research there, too. Weather permitting, this may include a cemetery stroll...[link to Bluesy behind the cut]
- [February 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/02/february-2024-gig-calendar.html) - The end of winter is in (distant) sight. and I am slowly ramping up travel again as we hopefully pass out of peak-respiratory-illness season. But I still expect to spend most of February quietly at home muttering over translations from several languages...[minimal schedule behind the cut]
- [March 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/03/march-2024-gig-calendar.html) - March is...Massachusetts month! Two trips to Boston (well, Cambridge and Concord) for DJing, researching, and teaching a weekend of waltz and more, plus an online lecture for a Lowell group. Woo hoo!...[Massachusetts things behind the cut]
- [November 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/10/november-2024-gig-calendar.html) - My November has two main events: a weekend of waltzing in which I travel up and down I-91 from Connecticut to Massachusetts and back, and the big Remembrance Day Balls in Gettysburg. In between, another Bridgerton class. Afterward, rest and catching up on life...[details behind the cut]
- [December 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/12/december-2024-gig-calendar.html) - December is usually a quiet month for me, but this year it's hopping! I'll be off to New Jersey twice, Boston once, and then at the end of the month Florida for an entire weekend of dance and fun that is FREE for attendees...[details behind the cut]
- [January 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/01/january-2025-gig-calendar.html) - Happy new year! After completely failing to have a restful holiday break in December, I am more-or-less doing that in January before everything gets crrrrrrazy in February....[one small class behind the cut]
- [October 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/09/october-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Writing time! I have a huge backlog of papers and articles to get written, so I'll be spending most of October home doing that, with one trip at the end of the month to the UK for an academic conference...[details, not many, behind the cut]
- [September 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/08/september-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Finally, a month that begins to look like normal for me, with workshops and DJing and lots of research time. On the road again...[gigs'n'stuff behind the cut]
- [June 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/05/june-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Another month full of exciting travel, this time to Germany, and then on to precepting a Civil War ball in Pennsylvania. In-person teaching and dancing, hurrah...[in-person events behind the cut!]
- [July 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/06/july-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Well, now I have two months of a fairly long, hot summer ahead of me without much going on before things kick back into gear again in the autumn. I've been making a project for the last month or so of organizing and cataloguing my rather enormous collection (and, um, backlog) of research photos from various libraries, so I expect I'll continue with that, and I have plenty of writing to do! But first, one more online lecture...[and, indeed, behind the cut is one lecture]
- [August 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/08/august-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Onward goes the hot and quiet summer! I am still consolidating and collating and cataloguing my research collection, with interesting results, especially in the "collating" area, with my only event this month a reunion with my pandemic group of online cotillion students...[one private online event behind the cut]
- [May 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/05/may-2022-gig-calendar.html) - IN-PERSON EVENTS. That pretty much sums it up. See you on the real, live dance floor...[two real, live events behind the cut]
- [March 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/02/march-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Well. The major possibility I was expecting for March was to move back to Moscow and resume teaching dance in Russia and Ukraine, so I didn't plan much of anything else. As anyone who has not been living under a rock for the last few days is no doubt aware, that is probably not happening this month, and it's hard to say whether it will happen in the foreseeable future. Or at all....[not much behind the cut because I thought I was going to be occupied moving]
- [April 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/03/april-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Spring has sprung, I'm still in the USA, and I have one more month of online events before transitioning back to primarily in-person teaching in May and June...[a few online events behind the cut]
- [February 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/01/february-2022-gig-calendar.html) - As we come out of the Omicron surge, I'm starting to plan actual, in-person events for later this spring (May/June), hoping they will actually take place this year. Meanwhile, I'm back with the California-based Historical Tea & Dance Society again this month for another Zoom lecture and will have a research trip or two as well...[three things behind the cut, three things behind the cut, three little things, all behind the cut!]
- [January 2022 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2022/01/january-2022-gig-calendar.html) - Happy new year! It's got to be better than the last one, right? Did I say that last year, too? (Nope.) This month I'm back (online) with the California-based Historical Tea & Dance Society for another lecture and will have a research trip or two, but we're in the midst of the Omicron surge, so not much else is happening, alas...[and thus not much is behind the cut, but there's that lecture!]
- [February 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/01/february-2025-gig-calendar.html) - Busy, busy: that's February for me. Two weekends in California followed by an eclectic set of sessions at The Flurry Festival, then a relatively light last weekend with another Dances of Bridgerton class...[details behind the cut]
- [March 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/03/march-2025-gig-calendar.html) - March is weird. Two weeks of absolutely nothing, then eight days of gigs in two weeks. Whee! Technically, that is four teaching days (including a three-day weekend), one evening of DJing, one morning and one evening of calling, and an academic conference, with trips to Boston and New York as well as two other parts of Connecticut. Plus at least one day of library research. The time periods jump from the Renaissance to the early 19th century to the present; it's almost as insane a mix as February. I love it, but I wish things could be spread out a little bit more evenly...[links and all behind the cut]
- [May 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/05/may-2025-gig-calendar.html) - Another month of compare-and-contrast events, this time with relatively minimal travel involved! It'll be nice to sleep in my own bed for most of the month. I start off out on Long Island with comparative workshops in Bridgerton dance and actual Regency dance, DJ blues in the Boston area and retro-twentieth-century music in Connecticut, and then flip over to 1910s for a short lecture at the opening of a small local case exhibit for which I am lending materials from my own collection! Whee!!!...[details behind the cut]
- [June 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/05/june-2025-gig-calendar.html) - The big trip this month is right at the end: the annual Dance Studies Association conference in Washington, D. C. This will be the first time I have attended in many years, and I have a paper to present! Other than that, I'll be sticking fairly close to home, or at least to the tri-state area, this month as things start to calm down for the summer....[details behind the cut]
- [August 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/07/august-2025-gig-calendar.html) - Summer is winding down! This month's big trip is to Seattle for a cluster of dance workshops and two balls at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon). Before that, a couple of small classes. After that, a final two quiet weeks at home before things get rolling for autumn. As always, events and workshops past the present month may be found on my overall gig calendar....[August details behind the cut]
- [September 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/09/september-2025-gig-calendar.html) - Rescuing all my data from the Typepad shutdown was not what I had been planning to do this month! I'm going to have to spend a significant chunk of time this month downloading data and teaching myself WordPress so I can bring it all back on a new platform. This is not going to be
- [July 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/06/july-2025-gig-calendar.html) - Summer has come in, and my main work now is writing and catching up on my personal life. I'll be in and out of New York City, New Jersey, and Boston, for research, rehearsal, dancing, and DJing, but otherwise more-or-less invisible! As always, events and workshops past the present month may be found on my overall gig calendar....[very little behind the cut]
- [August 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/08/august-2024-gig-calendar.html) - I'll be starting out August with a couple of weeks in Scotland. The first weekend, I'll be teaching a dance workshop and leading a tea dance in Edinburgh, both with a general theme of Scottish dances influenced by or connected to those of Continental Europe and Continental dances that appeared in Scottish sources. The second weekend, I'll be having a very eclectic time at the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, which for me will include giving a popularly-oriented paper, leading a masquerade ball for which I've been reconstructing some truly terrifying dances from video, and DJ'ing a blues dance. In between: library time and perhaps a bit of tourism! Later in the month I'm looking forward to a reunion with a group of my most dedicated online students from pandemic times....[details behind the cut]
- [July 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/07/july-2024-gig-calendar.html) - I was expecting to spend July quietly at home, but it looks like I'll be making a quick DJing-and-research trip to Boston before returning home to prepare for my trip to Scotland in August...[Bluesy links behind the cut]
- [October 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/09/october-2024-gig-calendar.html) - I'm going to be bouncing around geographically in October, both physically and virtually: first, a quick trip to Boston to do research and DJ for Bluesy Tuesy and a virtual appearance at an Oregon event focused around the composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Then I'm off to Scotland once more (wasn't I just there?) for the European Association for Dance History's annual conference, complete with a workshop on the double quadrille by the not-nearly-notable-enough Mrs. Nicholas Henderson. The workshop is free, if anyone happens to be in Scotland...[links and stuff behind the cut]
- [September 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/08/september-2024-gig-calendar.html) - This month is going to mostly be personal time for me: a family visit and an Actual Vacationtm. I'll be squeezing a few days of library research (three different sites) in around these, but mostly I'll be quietly traveling around doing non-dance things. Then, at the very end of the month, something new: Bridgerton dance! This is specifically dance from the television series which -- news flash! -- is not intended to be historically accurate. I regard the show as speculative fiction (alternate history) and the dances as fantastical, not historical. You can read some of my thoughts about this here. I taught a couple of these dances in Scotland last month, but this will be the first time teaching them in the USA....[link to the class behind the cut]
- [June 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/05/june-2024-gig-calendar.html) - Summer is a-coming in, and it's likely to be hot. I want to spend my time in nice, cool libraries doing research instead of hot, sweaty dance spaces with no air conditioning! I'll be DJ'ing in the Boston area early this month and spending at least five days reading in various libraries. And doing yardwork. Lots and lots of yardwork. Sigh. Stay cool...[Djing details behind the cut]
- [April 2025 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2025/03/april-2025-gig-calendar.html) - This month is going to feature some mental whiplash: two classes of fantasy-Regency (meaning, totally bogus from a historical perspective) Bridgerton dance classes, then haring off to England to immerse myself in serious academic dance history at Oxford University! Plus sneaking in some research time and exciting extra excursions while I'm in the neighborhood...[details behind the cut]
- [May 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/04/may-2024-gig-calendar.html) - I'm going to start off May with a long trip to England to teach and call at a folk festival and then do some research in London, where the British Library is finally semi-functional again after last autumn's cyberattack. I have a lengthy "shopping list" of sources to look at and a list of museum exhibitions to visit while they are paging them! After that, and April's travel insanity, I'm going to spend the rest of the month at home recovering and hopefully catching up on processing and cataloguing my research photos all the way back to February...[Hey Days link behind the cut]
- [April 2024 Gig Calendar](https://www.kickery.com/2024/03/april-2024-gig-calendar.html) - April is going to be fun! I'll be heading to Chicago to run dance workshops and a ball for a Regency-themed LARP and an evening of 18th and 19th century French dance, to Massachusetts for the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA), and then down to Staten Island (NYC) for an 1824 Lafayette Ball. I don't put library days on my schedule, but I'll have time this month at both the New York Public Library and the Newberry. In between I'll try to keep catching up on cataloguing material from previous library trips...[event links behind the cut]
- [The Invention of the York?](https://www.kickery.com/2010/07/invention-of-the-york.html) - A couple of months ago I described the late 19th-century waltz-time move known as the York, which incorporated mazurka-style heel-clicks and was considered a variation of the polka mazurka. At the time, the earliest source I had located was M.B. Gilbert's Round Dancing, published in 1890, where the dance was included "by permission of E.W. Masters," possibly its creator. An interesting article from The New York Times, dated September 9, 1885, both brings the date of the dance back a few years and provides an amusing anecdote about the dance's possible origin...[Mr. Spink's tale, behind the cut]
- [The Newport](https://www.kickery.com/2010/10/newport.html) - A new waltz or redowa variation pops up in a few of the manuals of the very late nineteenth century. Presumably named after the wealthy resort town, the Newport appears in slightly different versions in different manuals, but the common element appears to be a series of quick sliding steps...[detailed description behind the cut]
- [Revisiting La Russe](https://www.kickery.com/2024/06/revisiting-la-russe.html) - Twelve years ago, I wrote a brief post explaining how to dance "La Russe", a redowa/mazurka variation I found, like so many others, in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890) and [George] Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903). I remain confident in my reconstruction, but in the intervening years I've discovered the official music for it, which clarifies that it was intended as an independent dance rather than merely a variation, and a bit of background. So it's time to revisit La Russe! First, I'd suggest going back and reading my original post on La Russe, since I am not going to go back through the details of how to perform it. The choreographer of La Russe remains unknown, but apparently that was intentional: La Russe was created and promoted by the American Society of Professors of Dancing, which had a policy of not crediting the choreographer(s) for the dances they published as their own. La Russe was established among them by early 1882, as their proceedings record that at their thirty-eight meeting, on April 2, 1882, they voted to publish original music for the dance by George W. Allen and noted that the step would be practiced at their next meeting....[music, background, and intriguing speculation behind the cut!]
- [La Russe](https://www.kickery.com/2012/05/russe.html) - I picked La Russe out some time ago while looking for easy late nineteenth century waltz-time variations. The name means "the Russian woman", and I recently had the pleasure of teaching it in Moscow to a very talented group of Russian dancers. No specific choreographer is known for La Russe, but we can date it with unusual precision to just over 130 years ago. Dancing master M. B. Gilbert, in his Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890), noted that it was "introduced by the American Society of Professors of Dancing, New York, May 1st, 1882," and it turns up in a couple of other American dance manuals of the 1880s. All the descriptions are quite consistent, though the terminology used varies....[details and reconstruction behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: The Pavlowa Extension](https://www.kickery.com/2020/06/early-foxtrot-the-pavlowa-extension.html) - 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...[details, and exceptions, behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: Quick Dips](https://www.kickery.com/2019/06/early-foxtrot-quick-dips.html) - 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...[details and notes behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: The Minuet Turn](https://www.kickery.com/2020/06/early-foxtrot-the-minuet-turn.html) - 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...[details behind the cut]
- [Professor Webster's Masquerade Party, 1876](https://www.kickery.com/2020/10/webster-masquerade-delaware-1876.html) - On March 18, 1876, the Morning Herald of Wilmington, Delaware, published a short blurb covering a recent "masquerade party" given by one Professor Webster at the Dancing Academy Hall. Unusually, the newspaper coverage says nothing about the costumes other than that there were enough of them to "have exhausted a first class costumer’s establishment, and have taxed the ingenuity of an artist." Instead, we get an actual dance program, consisting entirely of quadrilles, Lanciers, and glide waltzes, and accompanied by names which might be masquerade costumes, though I'm not certain of that. Professor Webster was a long-time Wilmington dancing master - he was still teaching as late as June 4, 1899, when the Sunday Morning Star reported on the closing reception of his current series of dance classes (see about two-thirds of the way down the first column here.) Here's the list of dances, in order. A promenade of 15 minutes, presumably the Grand March, followed by a polka.1. Quadrille, plain, Des Layton, No. 100, Thatcher2. Waltz Glide, Flag of Truce, White3. Quadrille, Lanciers, Tin Fiddle, Hildreth4. Quadrille, plain, Jigiana, Cleland5. Quadrille Polka, Mary’s Lamb, Osborne6. Waltz, Glide, Old Mother Goose, McIntire7. Quadrille, Robinson, Fandango, Aiken8. Quadrille, blain [sic], Auld Lang Syne, Burk9. Quadrille, Polacca, breakdown, Stidham10. Waltz, Glide, Timber Heels, Simmons11. Quadrille, Mazourka, Red, White and Blue, Grant12. Quadrille, plain, Lunatic, Pierson13. Quadrille, varieties, La Manayunk14. Waltz, glide. Spring Chicken, Vanderbreak15. Quadrille, plain, Piccodilly [sic], Mose15. [sic] Lanciers, Shoddy, McCall17. Waltz, glide, Go, Lang...[breakdown and confusion behind the cut]
- [A Masked Ball in Heidelberg, 1840s](https://www.kickery.com/2016/10/masked-ball-heidelberg-1840s.html) - A lengthy, lively description of a masquerade in Heidelberg may be found in Meister Karl’s Sketch-book, by the American humorist, journalist, and folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland, who described the book in his Memoirs as ...an odd mélange, which had appeared in chapters in the Knickerbocker Magazine. It was titled Meister Karl’s Sketch-Book. It had no great success beyond attaining to a second edition long after; yet Washington Irving praised it to everybody, and wrote to me that he liked it so much that he kept it by him to nibble ever and anon, like a Stilton cheese or a paté de foie gras; and here and there I have known men, like the late Nicolas Trübner or E. L. Bulwer, who found a strange attraction in it, but it was emphatically caviare to the general reader. It had at least a style of its own, which found a few imitators. It ranks, I think, about pari passu with Coryatt’s “Crudities,” or lower. (p. 206) The Sketch-Book (1855) was a fictionalized travel journal based on Leland's experiences studying and traveling in Europe as a young man. In the preface, he explained that it had been written primarily between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five, which would have been from 1840 to 1849. Leland spent three years during this period studying in Heidelberg, Munich, and Paris. He mentioned the various masked balls in Heidelberg in his Memoirs: There were four great masked balls held in Heidelberg during the winter, each corresponding to a special state of society. That at the Museum or great University Club was patronised by the elite of nobility and the professors and their families. Then came the Harmonie—respectable, but not aristocratic. Then another in a hotel, which was rather more rowdy than reputable; not really outrageous, yet where the gentlemen students “whooped it up” in grand style with congenial grisettes; and, finally, there was a fancy ball at the Waldhorn, or some such place, or several of them, over the river, where peasants and students with maids to match could waltz once round the vast hall for a penny till stopped by a cordon of robust rustics. We thought it great fun with our partners to waltz impetuously and bump with such force against the barrier as to break through, in which case we were not only greatly admired, but got another waltz gratis. We had wild peasant-dancing in abundance, and the consumption of wine and beer was something awful. (p. 154) It's difficult for me to determine exactly how fictionalized the specific experiences he described were without doing detailed biographical research, but the tone is generally realistic, and I've no reason to believe that his description of the masquerade ball would have been wildly outside the norm for its place and time. I first came across this description in one of the excerpts from the Sketch-Book, published in The Knickerbocker in September 1851, which I believe to be its earliest publication. The full Sketch-Book is available online at archive.org; the masked ball is described in Chapter Eight, starting here. I will quote the most interesting and significant tidbits below...[very interesting tidbits indeed behind the cut]
- [Newport Fancy Dress Ball, 1850](https://www.kickery.com/2016/10/newport-fancy-dress-ball-1850.html) - The final fancy dress of the Newport summer season of 1850 occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. It was covered by The Boston Herald on September 5th ("Grand Fancy Ball at Newport", p. 4) and more extensively by The New York Herald on September 6th ("The Grand Fancy Dress Ball at Newport", p. 1). The bulk of the coverage was devoted to lists of attendees and their costumes, as is typical for fancy dress balls, but there are some other tidbits of useful information as well. The New York Herald article is extremely lengthy, so I have not transcribed all of it. The article from The Boston Herald is quite short, but not nearly as interesting. The ball was held at the rebuilt Ocean House, the original of which had opened in 1844, burned down, and been rebuilt. This Ocean House was not the same as the modern Ocean House in Newport. A different hotel by the same name opened in 1868, was demolished in 2005, and then rebuilt again in 2010. At the RhodeTour website, Dr. Brian Knoth writes about the first two Ocean Houses, with specific mention of the 1850 Fancy Dress Ball: When the original Ocean House opened on Bellevue and East Bowery in 1844, it instantly rivaled the most luxurious European hotels. The Ocean House offered summer visitors topnotch accommodations, fine-dining, and a variety of attractions. A Newport Mercury article in 1884 reminisced about "Old Time Newport" highlighting the new Ocean House and the hundreds of people assembling daily and nightly to the music of the "celebrated Germania Band." Although the original Ocean House burned down one year after its opening, a larger and grander replacement was ready for the summer season of 1846 to host masquerade balls, cotillions, and Saturday night dances known as “hops.” At the time, fashionable dances like the polka, redowa, and cotillion were all the rage: “morning noon and night the whirl went on.” In 1850, following their very successful first summer in Newport, the Germania helped close out the season with a “Fancy Ball” at the Ocean House. The Germania opened the ball with a late-evening march, dinner was served at midnight, and dancing continued through sunrise the next morning. Germania conductor Carl Bergmann’s composition “Fancy Ball Polka Redowa” was published the following year. Other than being fancy dress, the overall organization and format of the ball (as well as the band, music, and attendees) were quite similar to a similar end-of-summer ball held in Newport the following year. Quotes below are labeled (NYH) and (BH) for The New York Herald and The Boston Herald, respectively....[and there are many quotes below!]
- [A Calico Ball, British Columbia, 1885](https://www.kickery.com/2018/10/calico-ball-british-columbia-1885.html) - As described by Lucie Armstrong in The Ball-Room Guide (London and New York, c1880): The Calico Ball is a fancy ball at which the dresses are made of calico. Sateen, chintz and velveteen are allowable, and any other material which is made of cotton. The invitation, of course, states the nature of the ball. It really seems to have been primarily about the fabric rather than any costume theme, though obviously some costumes will work better when made out of cottons than others. She goes on to make some suggestions. For ladies: a dairymaid, a charity girl from St. Giles', or a Dresden shepherdess. For gentlemen: a Maltese peasant, Albanian costume, Saxon dress, or an Italian peasant. The anonymous author of Masquerades, tableaux and drills (New York, 1906) added more details: Gloves are mitts are seldom used at calico balls, although they are permissible. Regarding materials for calico-ball costumes -- there are, besides calico, many dainty fabrics, cotton crêpes and the like, which may be made up most artistically; however, there is most fun when all the costumes are made of the old-fashioned calico. Ribbon, net, and tinsel trimmings are allowable. Among the costumes most generally chosen for calico balls are peasant and shepherdess dresses, and those for fish girls, flower girls and charity girls; poudré and watteau costumes and those for Cinderella, Mother Hubbard, waiting-maids, Bo-Peep, Dolly Varden or almost any of those suggested and pictured throughout these pages. The men at such balls wear simply made character costumes or dress suits made of "calico"; or sometimes ordinary dress suits faced with bright cambric or flowered fabrics. So how did they do in Victoria, British Columbia, on the evening of Wednesday, December 9th, 1885? As reported by the Daily Colonist on the morning of the 10th, at the calico party held by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Dunsmuir...[some costume comments behind the cut]
- [A Fancy Dress Party (from <em>A Few Friends</em>), 1864](https://www.kickery.com/2020/10/fancy-dress-few-friends-1864.html) - A Few Friends, by Korman Lynn, was serialized in nine parts in Godey's Lady's Book during the year 1864. The serial doesn't have a lot of plot; it describes eight evenings of a group of friends gathering together to, for the most part, play parlor games. It's great for anyone who wants to research mid-nineteenth century parlor games, which are described in elaborate detail, but the only section of any real interest to me is the final one, in which the friends gather for a fancy dress party. To pick up the story at this point, it is only necessary to know that the kind and generous Ben Stykes has been quietly pursuing the lively Mary Gliddon from the beginning of the story, though a certain Mr. Hedges, a young man from Liverpool, is also interested in her. Even a single part of the story is too long for me to transcribe here, but I'll quote the costume descriptions, some of which are detailed and unusual, and the resolution of the romance...[costume descriptions and mistaken identity behind the cut]
- [A Louisville Masquerade, 1843](https://www.kickery.com/2020/10/louisville-masquerade-1843.html) - Here's a lively account of a jolly and slightly drunken masquerade held in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1843. This account has a little of everything: costumes, bad puns, a bit about the dances, and the effects of alcohol on the revelers. It's too long a report to comment on every bit of it, but the entire thing is transcribed at the bottom of this post. The report starts out with a lot of philosophy about the joys of masquerades, but the first really useful bit is that as in A Few Friends, the unmasking is done at supper-time, which was probably around midnight: The unmasking at the supper table is often a great source of laughter and surprise, when it discovers the faces of numerous acquaintances who have been playing off their wit and raillery against each other all the evening, under their various disguises. All sorts of people attended masquerades, which is part of what made them scandalous. In Kentucky, at least, this mixing was not to be feared, though I suspect the upper classes might have differed on this point: A masquerade is an unsorted class of society, it must be admitted; but are you not liable to mix with bad persons in the best regulated companies? Even robberies have frequently been committed in churches; and if you keep aloof from mankind on that account, you may soon become a crying philosopher, afraid to stir from your own fireside, in order to prevent contamination, and be devoured by hypochondria the remainder of your days. The writer had a few drinks before arriving and is thus in a good mood: It was at a late hour that I entered the room, and I was in a right good humor for fun and frolic, and the scene before me, having taken a glass or two of Walker’s rich old wines, the vivifying qualities of which would almost make the dumb to chatter. Remember "vivifying". The extra "life" provided by alcohol recurs later...[a bit about dance, a bit about costumes, and more drinking behind the cut]
- [Early Foxtrot: Catch Steps](https://www.kickery.com/2017/06/foxtrot-catch-steps.html) - 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)...[easy foxtrot variations behind the cut]
- [Aladdin Quadrille](https://www.kickery.com/2017/11/aladdin-quadrille.html) - Like the New Scotia Quadrille, the Aladdin Quadrille is one of several single-figure quadrilles found in the "New, Enlarged, & Complete Edition" of D. (David) Anderson's Ball-Room Guide (Dundee, this edition undated but probably c1886). This is a simple, fun figure that would fit easily into a Scottish-themed ball. Despite there being various quadrille sets called the Aladdin Quadrilles, Anderson doesn't seem to have had any specific music in mind. He notes only that it can be danced in 2/4 or 6/8. Aladdin Quadrille (8 bars introduction + 64 bars x4)8b Introduction/honors (not repeated)8b All promenade round4b Ladies advance to the center and retire4b Gentlemen advance to the center and retire8b All set to partners and turn by the right hand8b Head couples advance and retire, then half right and left8b Side couples advance and retire, then half right and left8b Grand chain half round to places16b All waltz (in duple time) around (see performance notes below) The figure is danced four times, with the head couples leading on the first and third iterations and the side couples leading on the second and fourth...[brief notes behind the cut]
- [Sliding Along in the Foxtrot](https://www.kickery.com/2009/08/sliding-along-in-the-foxtrot.html) - 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.'" [what's in the film, behind the cut]
- [Basic Foxtrots from Edna Lee](https://www.kickery.com/2014/10/basic-edna-lee.html) - 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...[easy sequences behind the cut]
- [Fox Trot Hats](https://www.kickery.com/2014/12/fox-trot-hats.html) - 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 Hatis like joy riding on a steam roller. How do I follow up a line like that?...[ad and dance tie-in behind the cut]
- [Foxes in Boxes](https://www.kickery.com/2009/08/foxes-in-boxes.html) - 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....[details behind the cut]
- [<b><i>How</b></i> Many Times Do We Play That Tune?](https://www.kickery.com/2008/01/how-many-times.html) - One of those questions I get asked all the time by musicians and others is "how many times through the tune for this dance?" The reference is to progressive longways country dances, which were the dominant social dance form in Europe and America from the mid-17th century through the early 19th century and are still
- [Quick-Quick-Slow: The Two-Step Infiltrates the Foxtrot](https://www.kickery.com/2008/04/quick-quick-slo.html) - 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
- [Basic Walking & Trotting Patterns in the 1910s Foxtrot](https://www.kickery.com/2008/04/basic-walking-t.html) - "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

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- [Regency dancing](https://www.kickery.com/tag/regency-dancing)
- [Victorian dancing](https://www.kickery.com/tag/victorian-dancing)
- [Victorian dance](https://www.kickery.com/tag/victorian-dance)
- [one-step](https://www.kickery.com/tag/one-step)
- [Civil War dancing](https://www.kickery.com/tag/civil-war-dancing)
- [Elias Howe](https://www.kickery.com/tag/elias-howe)
- [George Washington Lopp](https://www.kickery.com/tag/george-washington-lopp)
- [Regency dance](https://www.kickery.com/tag/regency-dance)
- [Spare Parts](https://www.kickery.com/tag/spare-parts)
- [finishing dance](https://www.kickery.com/tag/finishing-dance)
- [hey for four](https://www.kickery.com/tag/hey-for-four)
- [reel for four](https://www.kickery.com/tag/reel-for-four)
- [Jane Austen dance](https://www.kickery.com/tag/jane-austen-dance)
- [Walter Humphrey](https://www.kickery.com/tag/walter-humphrey)
- [quadrilles](https://www.kickery.com/tag/quadrilles)
- [Historic Tea & Dance Society](https://www.kickery.com/tag/historic-tea-dance-society)
- [schottische](https://www.kickery.com/tag/schottische)
- [Roger de Coverley](https://www.kickery.com/tag/roger-de-coverley)
- [Thomas Wilson](https://www.kickery.com/tag/thomas-wilson)
- [John Freeman Davis](https://www.kickery.com/tag/john-freeman-davis)
- [Moscow dancing](https://www.kickery.com/tag/moscow-dancing)
- [Scotch Reel](https://www.kickery.com/tag/scotch-reel)
- [Belle Epoque](https://www.kickery.com/tag/belle-epoque)
- [ragtime dancing](https://www.kickery.com/tag/ragtime-dancing)
- [Regency reels](https://www.kickery.com/tag/regency-reels)
- [Regency Scotch Reel](https://www.kickery.com/tag/regency-scotch-reel)
- [Western Normal Newport](https://www.kickery.com/tag/western-normal-newport)
- [Western Association Normal School Masters of Dancing](https://www.kickery.com/tag/western-association-normal-school-masters-of-dancing)
- [William Lamb](https://www.kickery.com/tag/william-lamb)
- [Victorian dance music](https://www.kickery.com/tag/victorian-dance-music)
- [Scottish reels](https://www.kickery.com/tag/scottish-reels)
- [Vernon Castle](https://www.kickery.com/tag/vernon-castle)
- [Irene Castle](https://www.kickery.com/tag/irene-castle)
- [Paul Jones](https://www.kickery.com/tag/paul-jones)
- [Victor Records for Dancing](https://www.kickery.com/tag/victor-records-for-dancing)
- [circle mixer](https://www.kickery.com/tag/circle-mixer)
- [quadrille](https://www.kickery.com/tag/quadrille)
- [Grandview Victorian Orchestra](https://www.kickery.com/tag/grandview-victorian-orchestra)
- [Elegant Music from Times Gone By](https://www.kickery.com/tag/elegant-music-from-times-gone-by)
- [Scottish dancing](https://www.kickery.com/tag/scottish-dancing)
- [Regency reel](https://www.kickery.com/tag/regency-reel)
- [reel of four](https://www.kickery.com/tag/reel-of-four)
- [reel](https://www.kickery.com/tag/reel)
- [Victorian quadrille](https://www.kickery.com/tag/victorian-quadrille)
- [Rats Quadrille](https://www.kickery.com/tag/rats-quadrille)
- [Les Rats](https://www.kickery.com/tag/les-rats)
- [Les Rats Quadrille](https://www.kickery.com/tag/les-rats-quadrille)
- [J. Redler](https://www.kickery.com/tag/j-redler)
- [G. Redler](https://www.kickery.com/tag/g-redler)
- [Les Rats Quadrilles](https://www.kickery.com/tag/les-rats-quadrilles)
- [Musician's Omnibus](https://www.kickery.com/tag/musicians-omnibus)
- [quadrille calls](https://www.kickery.com/tag/quadrille-calls)
- [American dancing master](https://www.kickery.com/tag/american-dancing-master)
- [ball-room prompter](https://www.kickery.com/tag/ball-room-prompter)
- [Returning Heroes](https://www.kickery.com/tag/returning-heroes)
- [American Schottische](https://www.kickery.com/tag/american-schottische)
- [Pan-American Glide](https://www.kickery.com/tag/pan-american-glide)
- [ragtime](https://www.kickery.com/tag/ragtime)
- [1914 dance](https://www.kickery.com/tag/1914-dance)