Tom Willson wrote: > Does anyone have the directions for the Boulanger, the dance Jane Austen > mentions in P&P? I've tried to Google it, but while there are numerous > references to it, I have yet to find danceable instructions. ---------------------------------------------------- From: American Dancing Master, and Ball-Room Prompter Elias Howe Boston [ca. 1862] Page 91 LA BOULANGERE La Boulangère is a French dance of great antiquity; in the present day it usually forms the concluding dance of a ball, in the same way that Sir Roger de Coverley does in England. The gentlemen and their partners place themselves in a circle, and join hands, the gentlemen facing inwards, and the ladies outwards of the circle. They dance once round still keeping hands, and when they come back to their places, the leading couple begin the figure. The gentleman with his right hand takes his partner's right hand, turns once round with her, and then leaves her. After which, with his left hand he takes the left hand of the lady next in rotation, turns once round in like manner with her, and then returns to his partner, to whom he gives his right hand as before, then his left to the lady standing next in the circle, and so on to the end, always alternately dancing with his partner, who in the meantime when he leaves her, is to continue to turn by herself inside the circle, and keeping as far as she can from him. When this couple arrive at their own place again, the whole number join hands as before, turn once round, and the next couple to the right dance the same figure. When the party is very large, two couples may begin at the same time, one at the top and the other at the bottom of the room. After which the ladies dance the same figure. ---------------------------------------------------- I read this as: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- LA BOULANGERE Single circle, Identify a leading couple. For each round: Circle left, circle right. Leading man and woman turn right hands; man goes left to turn a woman while leading woman goes into the set alone and comes back to meet partner; repeat with next left-hand woman until all women have been turned. (Kind of like the "single strip" figure, although I'd take these to be hand turns rather than arm turns, and the partner of the active turner goes as far away as possible, while in strip-the-willow the partner just tries not to run into the the turning pair.) Repeat all that until each man has danced the whole cycle. Then repeat, swapping "man" and "woman" above, until each woman has danced the whole cycle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This has always struck me as something modern dancers would find incredibly tiresome, so I haven't tried it. It's not bad for the currently active couple, but if you have a ball with 60 people (30 pairs) at it, each of 30 active men makes 58 turns (29 with his partner, 29 with other women), and then 30 women the same. You could fix it in various ways: - make small sets - have a big set but make a lot of couples active in each round (which would mean that the non-turner partner would have to keep scrambling home to be turn some other turner) - Make it some kind of snowball progression - have incredibly hot music to mix with the other solutioins but in general this is one of those closing dances that goes on forever and mostly provides an opportunity for the inactives to chat. (And would at least be better for the chat bit than Roger de Coverly with the same number of couples, since you don't have to keep an alleyway clear between you and your partner. There's a fix for _that_, too, which I saw in a 'teens book, which makes RdeC into essentially a Becket/Rifleman formation dance.,) -- Alan -- =============================================================================== Alan Winston --- WINSTON@SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: 650/926-3056 Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025 =============================================================================== _______________________________________________ ECD mailing list ECD@bacds.org http://www.bacds.org/mailman/listinfo/ecd