Drawing Room Dances by
Henri Cellarius Chapter 6
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VI.
STEPS OF THE POLKA.
The polka is danced in two four time to a march movement, and rather slow.
I shall now endeavour to give an idea of the step, but I must again pray
my readers to excuse the dryness
of these details, as of all others of the same kind. Here, more than ever,
I must lay aside all pretensions to elegance of style, and attend only to
clearness and exactitude.
The step of the polka is divided into three measures.
For the first, the left heel should be raised to the side of the right
leg without passing it behind, and so as to slightly touch the calf.
In this position you jump upon the right foot, in order to give the
spring to the left, which makes a glissade forward, in the fourth position.
The second and third times are composed of two short steps made lightly
by either foot, care being taken that both feet should find themselves
nearly in the same line.
At the second short step, the right leg is raised, the heel being near
the lower part of the left calf, and the fourth bar is suffered to pass,
which occasions three bars only to be marked. You then recommence with
the other foot, and so on with the rest.
The gentleman should always begin with the left foot, and the lady
with the right, as in the ordinary waltze.
The polka presents in execution many peculiar evolutions, which contribute
much to vary it, and which a skilful dancer will not fail to be thoroughly
master of. He must in every sense turn his partner, sometimes to
the right, sometimes to the left, and make her retreat from, or advance
upon him, in a straight line, by help of that well-known movement,
which in the language of the waltze is called a
redowa; he must even in certain cases, and when the crowded state of the
ball-room scarcely leaves space for each couple to move, make his
partner pivot on the same spot, shortening the step so as to form
it entirely under him. I need scarcely observe that these variations
are entirely left to the gentleman, who introduces them according
to his fancy or the exigencies of the locale.
In the first movement of the polka, that, which is termed
the figures, was executed. The gentleman sets out, holding the lady by the
right hand, as in the old allemande, and then turning towards hers,
alternately turned his back to her. With the ordinary step was also
mingled the step termed Bohemian, or double polka, which was executed
with the left leg in the second position, the heel on the ground,
and the toes pointed upwards precisely as in the
pas de polichinelle.
The small size of the ball-rooms, and perhaps also the good taste of
the French, which always maintains its rights, has suppressed these
various accessories of the polka, upon which I have not insisted,
since from the beginning they have fallen into desuetude. The only
figures of the polka, that are executed, consist in the final cotillon,
and we shall see, when on that subject, what are those which are proper
to it. This dance
preserves all the foreign paces of the waltze, with which as we have
seen, it has more than one point of resemblance, or even of fraternity,
as regards the direction and the attitudes.
The polka, presented at first to the French ball-room under the
auspices of fashion, has seen its success confirmed from day to day.
We may affirm without hesitation, that it is now thoroughly established,
since it has descended to inferior assemblies, and been travestied and
disfigured by unfaithful interpreters, without losing any of its name
for distinction and elegance. At the time when I now write, some
celebrated waltzers indeed affect somewhat to despise the polka, and
to look upon it as a dance already well nigh antiquated, the execution
of which they would leave to novices. But this, I imagine, is only a
transient prejudice, the almost certain forerunner of a great re-action.
Without having the fascination of the waltze à deux temps, nor the
fire and variety of the mazurka, the polka possesses other advantages peculiar
to itself. By its easy, graceful movement, the nature of its step which readily
accommodates itself to every fancy of the dancer, the character of its airs
inspired for the most part by so happy a musical feeling, it is sure to maintain
its place in the ball-room, where it procures for the waltzers a time of repose
that is absolutely indispensable amidst the fevers of the waltze.
The imagined facility of the polka had perhaps by
vulgarizing it, produced, if not its complete fall, yet its banishment from a
certain class; but people soon abandoned the notion that in five or six lessons
they could rank amongst its skilful executors. In this dance, as in so many others,
there are shades of peculiar delicacy to be seized, and even real difficulties
that are only to be surmounted by constant practice. Whoever pretends to execute
the polka in a ball-room without being sufficiently prepared, will almost to a
certainty appear ridiculous, or at least awkward, constrained, and in any case will
be quite incongruous with more accomplished dancers. The polka in bad taste is the
only one which can be extemporized; the polka of good society will ever require teaching and study.
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Drawing Room Dances by
Henri Cellarius Chapter 6
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