Category Archives: Steps & Figures

Dancing the cotillon: Gherardi’s figures, from his Second Book of Cotillons

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In his Second Book of Cotillons, Gherardi told his readers ‘The Figures the most in vogue, & of which all French Country Dances are Compos’d, are the following’. His list runs through twelve basic figures:

Les Chaines

Les Pirouettes

Les Carrés

Les Allemandes

Les Passes

Les Courses

Les Ronds

Les Mains

Les Moulinets

Les Poussettes

Les Enchainements

Les Chassés

He adds ‘from these Figures are derived all the others that are made use of in these Dances’. Gherardi’s list is not the same as Gallini’s, although there is considerable overlap.

He chooses to explain only five of these figures: Les Pirouettes, Les Carrés, Les Courses, Les Poussettes and Les Chassés – ‘those which hitherto have not been properly explained’ (presumably also the ones that, in his opinion, ‘seem the most difficult’).

Whereas Gallini gives only a brief explanation of how to perform a half-turn pirouette on both feet, Gherardi describes a number of different pirouettes, indicating how they may be incorporated into figures. Pirouettes are performed using the third position:

‘ … some-times turning only half round, & sometimes whole, either to the Right or Left: or sometimes two whole turns round, of the same side; accompanied, frequently, with turning under the Partner’s Arm.’

He also describes a pirouette in an over-crossed fifth position, and the use of a ‘Chassé en tournant’.

Gherardi uses diagrams to help explain some of these basic figures. He says, waspishly, of the Petit Carré à quatre Personnes that ‘This Figure is by some, very wrongly termed Back to Back, but it is not the same as Back to Back’.

Gherardi, A Second Book of Cotillons. London, [1768?], p. 4.

Gherardi, A Second Book of Cotillons. London, [1768?], p. 4.

As the diagram shows, the four dancers (two men and two women) who perform the Petit Carré dance around the other four, who stand still.

When he turns to Les Courses, Gherardi again hints at some of the squabbles between rival dancing masters.

Le quart de Course

‘Is only when each Couple perform a quarter of la Course, by which means the first Couple take the Place of the fourth, the third of the second, & the fourth of the third. This figure is frequently, though improperly called, la Promenade, la Procession.’

Gherardi elaborates on Gallini’s simple Poussette, with a Poussette en tournant and a Chaine en Poussette.

Gherardi, A Second Book of Cotillons. London, [1768?], p. 9

Gherardi, A Second Book of Cotillons. London, [1768?], p. 9.

Gherardi, A Second Book of Cotillons. London, [1768?], p. 10.

Gherardi, A Second Book of Cotillons. London, [1768?], p. 10.

Similarly, where Gallini only describes how to perform the chassé step, Gherardi explains a series of Chassé figures which make use of it. He has Chassé Simple, Chassé dessus et dessous, Chassé ouvert and a Chassé double which ‘Is a Chassè with the lady: if towards the right, the Lady leads, if towards the left, the Gentleman; having hold of hands’.

This introduction to the most fashionable figures ends with descriptions of some basic moves:

Aller Figurer devant un Couple

Defaire une Figure

Faire une Figure en sens contraire

Contre partie d’une Figure

After all this advice, he is careful to add:

‘Although Mr. Gherardi has endeavoured to be as explicit as possible in the direction for the Figure of each Dance, yet if any Lady or Gentleman does not fully comprehend it, Mr. Gherardi will be very ready to give all farther explanations that may be necessary, as well by Practice as Theory, on application to him for that purpose.’

He finishes the introduction to his second collection with a lengthy advertisement for his Cotillon Academy.

 

 

Dancing the cotillon: Gallini’s figures

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In his New Collection of Forty-Four Cotillons, Gallini makes clear that figures are made up of specific steps, fitted to floor patterns traced by the dancers as they move. He puts steps and patterns together into one list and describes the figures for each of his cotillons in terms of these elements.

Rather than trying to analyse the figures for individual cotillons in the various English collections, I will look only at the patterns forming part of those figures which are explained by the dancing masters. I am definitely not an expert on country dancing, so the obvious may occasionally elude me as I work through these.

In his ‘General Rules’ at the beginning of his collection Gallini lists the following:

Allemande: ‘This Figure is performed by interlacing your Arms with your Partner’s, in various ways’.

Les Chaines: he gives three – La Grande Chaine or Las D’Amour, ‘by forming a Love-knot’, the Vis-a Vis, ‘done by two opposite Couple with Right-hand and Left’,  and a Chaine ‘performed by two Couple Right-hand and Left, side-ways’. The second sounds like the chaine anglaise, but what is the third?

Moulinet: ‘the same as Hands cross’, and ‘the Grand, or Double Moulinet’ performed by all the dancers.

La Poussette: ‘performed by holding the Lady’s hands, and making her Retreat, then She does the same by her Partner’.

La Course, or La Promenade: ‘performed by taking hold of your Partner’s hands, and walking with her’, through a quarter, a half, three-quarters or the whole of the set.

Les Quarrés: Le Grand Quarré has all the dancers moving, whereas Le Petit Quarré has only four dancers.

La Queue du Chat: ‘performed by two Couple [sic] changing places, beginning at the Right, and then returning to their own places’.

Les Ronds: ‘performed by taking hold of each others hands, and going round with the Chassé’. Le Grand Rond is performed by all the dancers.

As Gallini indicates, several of these patterns are also used separately as changes. The dancers would have been guided by the music, since the changes were danced to the first strain and the figure to the second and any subsequent strains. In his instructions for each cotillon, Gallini was careful to specify which musical strain accompanied which section of the figure.

Dancing the cotillon: the changes

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In his A New Collection of Forty-four Cotillons Gallini stated ‘At the beginning of every Cotillon, the dancers must perform Le Grand Rond, and Return to their Places’. He then listed ten changes beginning ‘Each Couple join their Right hands and turn, then back with the Left’.

  1. Each Couple join both hands and turn to the Right, then back to the Left.
  1. The Ladies Moulinet to the Right, then to the Left.
  1. The Gentlemen Moulinet to the Right, then to the Left.
  1. The Ladies join hands and go Round to the Right, then to the Left.
  1. The Gentlemen join hands and go Round to the Right, then to the Left.
  1. Each Couple Allemande to the Right, then to the Left.
  1. La Grande Chaine.
  1. La Course, or La Promenade, to the Right.
  1. Le Grand Rond.

Gallini specifies Le Grand Rond at the beginning of all but one of his cotillons.

Gherardi listed nine changes in his Fourteen Cotillons or French Dances of 1768. Like Gallini, he omitted Le Grand Rond (which he calls ‘All Round’) from the beginning of his list. He also left out Gallini’s first change, right and left hands.

1st. Turn your partner with both hands

2d. Four ladies hands across

3d. Four gentlemen hands across

4th. Four ladies hands round

5th. Four gentlemen hands round

6th. L’Allemande

7th. La Chaine

8th. La Promenade

9th. All Round

Gherardi specifies ‘All round’ at the beginning of all but one of his cotillons (the odd one out begins ‘Ballance & Rigadoon Step then all round’).

Villeneuve listed the same changes as Gherardi in his 1769 Collection of Cotillons and he begins all of his dances ‘All round’.

Thomas Hurst, whose The Cotillons Made Plain and Easy also dates to 1769, was apparently determined to anglicize the cotillon. His list was longer, with fourteen changes, although he did include many from Gallini and Gherardi.

First Change, called Swing Partners.

Second Change. Turn Partners.

Third Change. Ladies Hands across.

Fourth Change. Gentlemen Hands across

Fifth Change. Ladies Hands round.

Sixth Change. Gentlemen Hands round.

Seventh Change. Ring Top and Bottom.

Eighth Change. Ring on each side.

Ninth Change. Hands across Top and Bottom.

Tenth Change. Hands across on each side.

Eleventh Change. Right and Left all round.

Twelfth Change. The Promenade, or Walk.

Thirteenth Change. Beat all round.

Fourteenth Change. The Great Ring

Hurst’s first, third to sixth, eleventh to twelfth and fourteenth changes can be found in Gallini and Gherardi, but he added five changes not found in other cotillon collections of this time. In his ‘Method of performing one dance throughout’, two pages before his list of changes, Hurst makes clear that all his cotillons begin with the ‘Great Ring’.

In his A Third Book of French Country Dances or Cotillons, published about 1770, Gherardi revised his list of changes although he still specified nine.

1st. All round.

2d. Turn your Partner with your right Hand to your own Place, then with your left.

3d. Turn your Partner with both hands.

4th. The 4 Ladies hands across.

5th. The 4 Gentlemen the same.

6th. The Ladies hands round.

7th. The Gentlemen the same.

8th. L’allemande two and two.

9th. All round.

He left out La Chaine and La Promenade. He also begins all the cotillons in this collection with ‘All round’.

Siret, whose A Set of Cotillons, or French Dances may also date to 1770, listed the same nine changes as in Gherardi’s third collection. He specifies ‘All round as usual’ at the beginning of all but one of his cotillons.

Were these variations in the Changes part of the development of the cotillon in England? Were they influenced by fashion, as the cotillon became familiar and dancers sought more variety, or (in these collections at least) did they reflect the preferences of individual dancing masters?

Gallini’s cotillons

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The first, and best-known, of the manuals on the cotillon published in London seems to have been Gallini’s. His A New Collection of Forty-Four Cotillons, appended to his Critical Observations on the Art of Dancing, appeared around 1765. Most of the book is taken up with music and written instructions for the cotillons themselves, but Gallini begins with ‘General Rules’. These aren’t as helpful as they might be since he assumes that would-be dancers are already familiar with the square formation and the numbering of couples around the set. (I write here as a relative newcomer myself to this dance).

He begins by explaining that every cotillon begins with a Grand Rond and that any of another 8 changes may be danced after the figure. Gallini assumes that his readers know the basic structure of the cotillon. He then lists and explains a number of figures and steps – but ‘only those which are used in the following Cotillons’. These are the ones he includes.

Allemande; Assemblé; Balancé; Chaines; Chassé; Contretems;

Moulinet; Pirouette; Poussette; Course or Promenade; Quarrés;

Queue du Chat; Ronds; Rigaudon

It is not surprising that the terminology is entirely French. Indeed, the ‘Frenchness’ of this dance probably added to its appeal in London.

In his instructions for each cotillon (all of which have appealing French titles), Gallini specifies only the opening Grand Rond and then describes the Figure. He does explain the musical structure. In some cotillons, he specifies the use of minuet steps. Some knowledge and interpretation is needed to actually perform these dances.