Wonderful post, with one quibble: you left out the best sentence! "The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.” ;) On 2/24/20, John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > For those who have asked about the style of the early quadrilles, please > see > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSD37PF2_Dw > > Thomas Wilson documented the standard stepping for country dances in the > early 19th century as being three chassées, jeté, assemblé. You can see > that being performed, complete with pointy toes, in this video. In modern > terminology: three polka steps and a jump. Note: this is how ALL country > dances were done then! Don't believe what you see in Jane Austen movies! > > Note also the arm shape for a hand turn. The smooth downward curve was > believed to look best, rather than the elbow-down-hand-up W shape that we > use now. > > Each sequence is only danced once by each pair of couples. But there are > many sequences. Very different from a modern dance with multiple > repetitions of one sequence. > > For lots more detail see the papers listed at > https://www.regencydances.org/paper000.php > > People have referenced quadrilles as being sometimes done in a sort of > Becket formation, by pairs of couples. As it says at > https://www.regencydances.org/paper011.php, "Most early Quadrilles were not > the 8 person Sets that arose in the 1810s (most notable amongst which was > the First Set), but rather a variation of the Cotillion usually arranged > for > just four dancers." > > = = = = = = = = > > Colin referenced La Russe as having derived from a quadrille; indeed when > the EFDSS published it in 1948 it was titled "La Russe Quadrille": > http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/EFDS4806-LaRusse.html > > = = = = = = = = > > I think that we have to accept the fact that "Quadrille" has joined the > ranks of words such as Allemande, Swing and Dosido which all have multiple > different meanings depending on the country, century and dance genre. > > 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it > means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.' > > 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many > different things.' > ... > 'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I > always pay it extra.' > https://sabian.org/looking_glass6.php > >             Happy dancing, >                    John > > John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 > 940 574 > http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html for Live Music Ceilidhs > > http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent > http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive DVDs > > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net >