Lancers & Other Quadrilles
by Cathleen Myers
with music by Bangers & MashThe quadrille, the aristocratic early 19th century ancestor of the modern square dance, Irish set dance, and Irish "polka set," is English Country Dance at its most elegant, shaped and refined by the French.
The dashing Lancers’ Quadrille (first introduced in London at the ultra-exclusive dance club, Almack's, in 1817) was the most popular set dance of the 19th century and is making a comeback in historical and vintage dance circles in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this class we will teach Hillgrove’s 1865 version of the dance with optional footwork.
Time permitting (since you folk dancers are so quick to learn!), we will also dance the one-movement Sociable Cotillion, Richard Powers' delightful reconstruction of a simple19th century quadrille mixer, and an excerpt from the French Quadrille.
Cathleen Myers is the Dance Director of the Dickens Fair and Artistic Director of PEERS (the Period Events & Entertainment Re-Creation Society), which produces full-scale historical costume balls and dance classes almost every First Saturday (for details of PEERS' 2007-2008 Season, see her website at http://www.peers.org). A dancer since childhood, she has researched and taught historical and vintage dance in the Bay Area since 1988. In her copious spare time, she also performs with the Alameda Vintage Dancers and with her own group, the PEERS Flying CirCUS, a historical music, dance and theater performing group, most notorious for their recurring Peerless Music Hall and Le Theatre des Vampires.Bangers & Mash started playing together in 1994 and have been performing music for English country and historical couple dancing ever since. They are regulars at events for PEERS as well as for BACDS (the Bay Area English Country Dance Society), They've done a number of formal balls, a well as playing for innumerable dance series. For the past four years, they've performed at Fezziwigs' Warehouse, the community dance stage of the Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco. See their website at http://www.well.com/user/cwj/bangersandmash/
