Capering & Kickery

South Indian "Harem Tango"

And here it is: the last of the tiny Dance Mad tangos!  

The South Indian "Harem" Tango, like the others in this series of posts, is an American tango which appeared in both the first and second editions of Dance Mad (St. Louis; both editions compiled by F. Leslie Clendenen and published in 1914).  It is a very short sequence, only six measures (twelve steps or beats), and rather silly.  Clendenen attributes it to W. T. Kaserman, a dancing master who does not appear on Clendenen's lists of contributors in either edition.  Perhaps he was embarrassed?

I should state outright that there is nothing even slightly South Indian or harem-like about this sequence; it's utterly ordinary.  The name is pure exoticism.

While I haven't looked into Kaserman in depth, I believe he was from the Cleveland area.  He seems to have taught with his wife, since both of them appear (circled in red) in the picture at left of the "New Officers of International Asociation [sic] of Masters of Dancing for Season of 1906-1907 Just Chosen in Fort Wayne." taken from the June 13, 1906, edition of the Fort Wayne [Indiana] Weekly Sentinel.  Also in the picture: Montréal dancing master Frank H. Norman, at top right, whose Rocker Hesitation and Rag-Time Crawl I have previously discussed.  Click to enlarge the photo.

Zebley's Tango

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.

"Mixed Pickles" Tango

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.

The starting position for the dance is a regular ballroom hold with both dancers turned to face forward along line of dance, moving more-or-less side by side to start.  The gentleman starts on the left foot, the lady on the right.  Steps below are given for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.  

"Mixed Pickles" Tango (sixteen measures/thirty-two beats)
1234    Four walking steps along line of dance, LRLR
5678    Cross left foot over right and do four walking steps against line of dance (over elbows), LRLR

12        Facing partner, point left foot along line of dance
3          Close left foot to right, rising on toes
4          Sink onto heels
5678    Grapevine along line of dance, LRLR (see performance notes below)

1234    "Scissors": Cross left foot over right, step side right, cross left over right, and point right (movement and point are against line of dance)
5678    "Scissors": Cross right foot over left, step side left, cross right over left, and point left (movement and point are along line of dance)

1234    Draw steps: slide left along line of dance, close right to left, repeat
5678    Spin turn clockwise, rocking left back/twice

"Tango No. 1"

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 wall
5678    Draw steps: side-close-side-close

1234    Grapevine: side-cross behind-side-cross in front (lady does opposite cross, not mirror!)
5678    Repeat grapevine

1234    Repeat draw steps
5678    Repeat clockwise fast spin turn, ending with gentleman's back to line of dance

The 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!

Two-Step Tango

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.

The Two-Step Tango is basically a promenade, performed with both partners facing line of dance, side by side, holding inside hands.  The gentleman begins on the left foot, the lady on the right.  The gentleman's steps are given below; the lady dances opposite.

Two-Step Tango (eight bars/sixteen beats of tango music)
1        Forward left
2        Forward right, turning slightly outward
3        Back left, making a slight dip (against line of dance, back to back with partner)
4        Side right (along line of dance, still back to back with partner)
5        Side left (along line of dance, swinging to face partner)
6        Back right, making a slight dip (against line of dance) 
7        Side left (along line of dance, facing partner again)
8        Forward right

1, 2    Forward left, slowly
3        Close right to left
4        Forward left
5, 6    Forward right, slowly
7        Close left to right
8        Forward right

The Butterfly Tango

The Butterfly Tango is an anonymous sixteen-bar sequence published in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad, or the dances of the day (St. Louis; both editions 1914).  It not named after a piece of music or colorful insect, but rather after the position of the dancers.  A rather confusing illustration, shown below, accompanies the dance in the first edition of Dance Mad: 

The only one of these positions which actually appears in the dance is the center one, which is described very precisely:

The partners stand side by side, the gentleman taking the lady's left hand in his left and the fingers of her right hand in his right, over her right shoulder.

This is more usually called sweetheart or varsovienne position.  The dancers also shift to holding only right hands and to waltz position, but never actually take either the left- or right-hand positions in the illustration.  

A "Butterfly Tango No. 2" appears in the index of both editions, but not in the text, so perhaps these illustrations go with some other Butterfly Tango that somehow slipped out of the final version.

The Butterfly Tango is an anonymous sixteen-bar sequence published in the first and second editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad, or the dances of the day (St. Louis; both editions 1914).  It not named after a piece of music or colorful insect, but rather after the position of the dancers.  A rather confusing illustration, shown below, accompanies the dance in the first edition of Dance Mad: 

The only one of these positions which actually appears in the dance is the center one, which is described very precisely:

The partners stand side by side, the gentleman taking the lady's left hand in his left and the fingers of her right hand in his right, over her right shoulder.

This is more usually called sweetheart or varsovienne position.  The dancers also shift to holding only right hands and to waltz position, but never actually take either the left- or right-hand positions in the illustration.  

A "Butterfly Tango No. 2" appears in the index of both editions, but not in the text, so perhaps these illustrations go with some other Butterfly Tango that somehow slipped out of the final version.

Mr. Newman's Tangos: "Walking" and the Fan Tango

To conclude my little survey of short tango sequences published in 1914 by Albert W. Newman of Philadelphia, here are the final two: "Walking" and the Fan Tango.  The quotes around "Walking" are Newman's.  Previous posts in this series covered the Minuet Tango and the "Argentine" and Tango Two-Step.

Neither "Walking" nor the Fan Tango follow the pattern of the earlier sequences, though "Walking" has similar elements in a different order, including cross steps and a rocking turn.  Fan Tango is a short, eight-measure sequence, with a faster, two-measure rocking turn. As with the previous three sequences, these two may be strung together with each other or with some combination of the earlier sequences to make a longer dance.  

Mr. Newman's Tangos: "Argentine" and Tango Two-Step

Continuing my survey of Philadelphia dancing master Albert Newman's short tango sequences, here are the next two: the "Argentine" and the Two-Step Tango.  The quotes around "Argentine" are Newman's, but I approve of them, since I feel these sequences are very American in style, despite Newman's use of Argentine steps.

These sequences can be paired with each other or one or both can be attached to Newman's Minuet Tango for a longer sequence.  No particular music beyond "Tango (slow)" is suggested; any period tango piece will do.

Mr. Newman's Tangos: The Minuet Tango

In 1914, Philadelphia dancing master Albert W. Newman created a set of five tango sequences which were published both in his own book, Dances of To-Day, and in both editions of F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914), for which Clendenen solicited contributions from other dance teachers. 

Newman seems to have felt that the tango needed a little fixing up for American dancers:

This adaptation of the Tango is most practical for ballroom use, as it enables the dancers to move around the room in a progressive manner just as in the Waltz and Two-Step.  It does not obstruct the way of the other dancers.  After one has acquired the steps of the Minuet Tango it is very easy to avoid collisions.

Along with progressing politely around the room, unlike the randomly-wandering tangos of Argentina and Paris, the Minuet Tango has the gentleman start on his left foot, rather than on the right, as seems to have been more traditional for tango. 

It has no connection either musically or choreographically to the minuet proper.

I suspect Newman was engaging in some optimistic self-promotion in claiming that his choreography was "approved and accepted by polite society throughout the world".  I can't claim to have made an exhaustive survey, but I've never seen it anywhere except in the two American books mentioned above. 

I wouldn't consider the Minuet Tango a good representation of sophisticated tango practices of the 1910s, and certainly not typical for either Argentina or Paris.  But it is an interesting illustration of the American tendency to turn tango into a sort of slow one-step and makes an easy entry dance for tango beginners.  Just keep in mind that although some of the individual steps are perfectly reasonable for a more authentic tango, as a sequence, its overall style is very, very American!

The Tango Burglar, 1914

I'm sure it's as much a function of having a surfeit of presses, and thus newspapers and magazines aplenty, as a surfeit of stuffiness, but it does feel like I can always rely on Massachusetts publications to put moral panic about dance into print.  This 1914 warning about the dangers of tango seems to have originated in the New Bedford Standard and was reprinted in various other papers, including The Cincinnati Enquirer (October 31, 1914) and The Washington Post (November 1, 1914).  I can't tell whether it was based on any actual incident or was just a fictional piece of alarmism, but it doesn't really matter.  What I find interesting are the social anxieties it reveals about the tango fad.

Who are the tango burglars?  Lower-class men, of course: "[dance] professionals, ex-chorus men, tenderloin habitues and worse".  Women whose husbands, brothers, and sweethearts do not have sufficient time and skill to dance with them meet these men in "trotteries" and restaurants.  And then they invite them home for more, ah, dancing:

In this way intimacies sprang up that in ordinary times would have been imposssible -- intimacies that resulted, now and then, in the admission of the dancing partners to the home.

And what do these men do there besides dance?  In between "promiscuous intimacies" on the dance floor -- and doesn't that phrasing hint at activities that presumably would not be discussed on the pages of a newspaper? -- they burgle the home!

It's a variation of the classic complaint about dance all the way from the Renaissance to From the Ballroom to Hell to Dirty Dancing:

popular dance -> association with the lower classes -> moral corruption/crime/bad end

I expect the intended message was more that tango was a dangerous lower-class habit leading to moral and financial ruin (particularly for women) than that men should keep their dance skills up lest their home be burgled and their wives, sisters, and sweethearts enjoy "intimacies" with better dancers, but from my twenty-first century perspective, the latter is something to keep in mind. 

I can't help but think that a Tango Burglar would be a fun Halloween costume, though when I mentally combine, say, Rudolph Valentino and a classic little black burglar mask I come out with something a bit too much like Zorro!

The full text is below.

------------------------------------------------------

THE TANGO BURGLAR
| New Bedford Standard |

We have had the tango dance, the tango shade or color, the tango tea, the tango shoe, the tango pantalettes, and now we have the tango burglar.  His chance has come through the letting down of social barriers which has characterized the present dancing mania.  Because they have had more time to devote to it, women have learned the new dances faster than their husbands, brothers and sweethearts, who have been engaged in such sordid pursuits as earning money to keep the concern going.  The proficient male dancers have been professionals, ex-chorus men, tenderloin habitues and worse, whose social, not to say moral, antecedents would have borne very close scrutiny.  Being good dancers, however, they have been in demand at the trotteries and restaurants that have made a specialty of dancing.  If they danced well that was all that was required.  In this way intimacies sprang up that in ordinary times would have been imposssible -- intimacies that resulted, now and then, in the admission of the dancing partners to the home.  Where terpsichorean skill was the only test, with no questions asked about morals or respectability, it is not surprising that such promiscuous intimacies should have opened an easy way to a burglar to ply his trade.  One such has already been caught in New York, and, while the police are trying to fasten a series of burglaries upon him, the women who were robbed are trying hard to hush the matter up less they be subjected to unpleasant notoriety.

Dixie Swirl

The Dixie Swirl is a short tango-ish sequence found in F. Leslie Clendenen's compilation Dance Mad (St. Louis, 1914).  While it is not actually in the tango section and doesn't really have much of a tango feel, the brief description states that it is to be done to tango music.  It is attributed to Mrs. Nantoinette Ohnmeiss, about whom I've not been able to discover any information.

The sequence appears at first glance to be eight bars, which is really too short to be interesting:

2b    Gallop four times along line of dance (slide-close x4)
2b    Two-step (presumably a full turn)
4b    Swirl (the spin turn described here)
Repeat from the beginning

I've interpreted the "gallop four times" rather literally, as a repeating slide-close, but it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to interpret it as a four-slide galop, which gives the dance one and a half turns, meaning the repeat starts on the opposite foot and is "over elbows" for the gallop steps.  That makes the pattern of the first half the equivalent of the old Esmeralda or the more contemporary Glide Two-Step (published by Albert Newman in 1903), which seems reasonable. 

That gives us a more interesting sixteen-bar sequence with a typical repeat pattern of altering the lead foot on the repetition.  I've written it out in detail below, giving the steps for the gentleman; the lady dances opposite.  The dancers start facing each other, joined hands pointing along the line of dance.

Dixie Swirl (sixteen bars of tango music)
2b    Four-slide galop, ending with half-turn (LRLRLRL, 1&2&3&4)
2b    Two-step, full turn (RLR LRL, 1&2 3&4)
4b    Spin turn (R fwd/L back x4, 12345678)
(End with R side toward line of dance)

2b    Four-slide galop "over elbows", ending with half-turn (RLRLRLR, 1&2&3&4)
2b    Two-step, full turn (LRL RLR, 1&2 3&4)
4b    Spin turn (L back/R fwd x4, 12345678)
(End with L side toward line of dance, ready to restart from the beginning)

A note on the "swirl", as the spin turn is generally referred to in Dance Mad: 

The first time, the gentleman's first step is right foot along line of dance, then rock back left to the center of the room, right toward the wall, left back against line of dance, right against line of dance, left back toward the wall, right toward the center of the room, and left back against line of dance.  This leaves the dancers making a quarter turn to the left (or just underturning slightly) to be ready to proceed "over elbows" for the second iteration.

The second time, because the gentleman's left foot is free, it starts with left back against line of dance, right toward wall, left back toward center, right against line of dance, left back along line of dance, right toward center, left back toward the wall, right along line of dance, and making a quarter turn to the right to repeat from the beginning.

It is possible to do two complete spin turns in eight counts with enough momentum, but that doesn't seem to be in keeping with the leisurely feel of the sequence.

The entire sequence would work equally well as a one-step.

Some Swell New Tangos

"There may be one hundred and sixty different Tango steps, but I doubt it. I have never seen so many, and Mrs. Castle and I do not dance anything like that number."
                    -- Vernon Castle, in Modern Dancing, 1914

I certainly don't dance anything like that number myself, but it's always interesting to look at the myriad variations that one finds in different manuals of the 1910s, and today I'll spotlight some of the more unusual ones found in Bert Milton's How to Behave in a Ballroom, published in Boston in 1914.  Along with a fascinating history of the tango and many useful etiquette tips, Milton includes twelve genuinely unique moves which truly reflect the joyful spirit of pre-World War I American culture. 

Fans of animal dances will be pleased to note their intrusion into the tango via moves such as the Shrimp Wiggle and the Kitten Kuddle, while those familiar with the Lame Duck will find a fascinating new version herein.  Enjoy!

Corte Mad

• 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 true, it is a dance of great variety of movements…The Argentine of today embraces about as many varieties as there are dancers, owing perhaps, to the natural desire of our American dancers to be “inventors.”
    F. Leslie Clendenen, Dance Mad, or the dances of the day, St. Louis, Missouri, 1914

The Overlooked Eight Step

• 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 the tango, half and half, and hesitation waltz.  And yet somehow I'd neither danced it nor reconstructed it until late 2007 when I was looking for interesting one-step moves for some new dance students.