I should have asked for more detail about the dance instructions, in order to figure out if my interpretation made sense in the context of the rest of the dance.  

I'm not very familiar with nineteenth century quadrilles, but I am somewhat familiar with eighteenth century cotillions.  There are directions for some of them which sound similar.

In John Griffiths' 1794 "A Collection of the Newest Cotillions ... ", the dance "The Convention" contains the line, "chasse all eight and turn the lady to your right quite round".  This is similar to the dance "Little Wood" in J.T. Buckingham's 1808 "Selection of Cotillions and Country Dances", which says, "All chasse across their partners and rigadoon; every gentleman turns half round with the lady at his right hand".  In those cases, the instruction "all chasse" seems to mean "ladies chassee left and gents chassee right until each gent meets his right-hand lady at the corner of the set".

Does the quadrille that you're reconstructing work well when all four couples chassee across the set to the opposite couple's place?  What's the name and the source of the quadrille?

Jacob


On Sat, Feb 25, 2017 at 6:05 PM, 'Mo Waddington' mjw@mowaddington.plus.com [trad-dance-callers] <trad-dance-callers@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 



It may work, but it is what they meant by it?
Dance instructions have changed so much even within our lifetime that I wonder how we can dare to guess what earlier instructions meant
E.G. Early editions of the Community Dance Manual say 'right hands across', and it might seem reasonable to think it means 'give right hands and change places', but it means R hand star. Plus the 'half way' or 'there and back' in ladies chains etc.
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2017 10:13 PM
Subject: Re: [trad-dance-callers] chassee across

 

I also teach Irish, and the chassee is very different from house around. That said, Jacob's advice worked great. Thanks!




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