Historical SourcePublic DomainStep Figures Available
A Guide and Illustrated Ball Room Book: Being a Complete Compendium of the Etiquette of Dancing. With the Figures of all the Quadrilles, Galopades, Polonaises, Waltzes, New Mazourkas, Redova Valse, Valse à Deux Tems, Valse Mazourka (or La Cellarius), Polkas, etc. etc. ('By a Man of Fashion'; C. Mitchell, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, London, c.1848; 'Corrected and Improved Edition')
Publisher: 'By a Man of Fashion' (anonymous) / C. Mitchell, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, London; Dublin, J. M'Glashan; Edinburgh, J. Menzies; Glasgow, J. M'Leod. Source: Richard Powers collection (POWERS/ABBYY TXT/c1848_Mitchell_Polka.txt — 907 lines OCR). Post-1842 expanded edition of Mitchell's Ball Room Guide (author claims 'a demand for nearly 60,000 copies'). Five-part structure: (I) Essay on Dancing — As an Art / Characteristics of Various Countries / Learning to Dance; (II) Etiquette of the Ball Room; (III) All the Dances (the 1842 quadrille corpus, with minor edits: First Set, Lancers, Caledonians First & Second Set, First Set with Old Finale, Second/Third/Fourth/Fifth Set Quadrilles, Albert Quadrilles with Victoria Finale, Queen's Own, Spanish Dance / Saraband of Spain, Waltz Quadrille First & Second Set, Waltz Cotillion, La Galopade, Galopade Quadrilles, The Mazourka / Mazourkas à la Devonshire (Kolo Polish Set / Right and Left Polish Set / Grand Chain / Finish with Kolo), The Polonaise, Highland Reel as danced at Blair Athol); (IV) THE POLKA LESSON BOOK — ten-figure general Polka (Promenade, Waltz, Waltz à rebours, Whirling Waltz/Valse tortillée, Bohemian Step, Changing Arms, Bohemian Step Changing Arms and Waltzing, Moulinet of One Hand, Moulinet Following the Lady, Double Pass), Drawing-Room Polka (Introductory Step + 5 figures), five-figure Royal Polka Quadrille (Pantalon, L'Été, La Poule, Trenise, Finale — performed with Polka step and 'toe-and-heel' accent), Valse à Deux Tems; (V) Redova Valse, First New Mazourka Quadrille (Coulon / Mrs. Nicholas Henderson, 4 figures), Second New Mazourka Quadrille (Coulon; first danced at Almack's; 5 figures with Introduction), Valse Mazourka / La Cellarius (M. Cellarius of Paris), Sir Roger de Coverley as danced at the Palace; plus Hints on Social Politesse and Glossary of French Terms. Documents the 1844-1848 Polka-mania and the 1847-1848 Cellarius Mazourka-Valse craze in English ballrooms, including the 'Mazourkas à la Devonshire' attribution that traces the Polish-Russian Mazourka's English introduction to the Duke of Devonshire's 1820s+ embassy to St. Petersburg. Has_Step_Detail = Partial (detailed Polka chorography of step + bar counts for many Mazourka-Quadrille figures; narrative step prose elsewhere; pre-Silvester).Year: 1848Family: powers-c1848-mitchell-polkaCatalog: local
Dance manual/reference by 'By a Man of Fashion' (anonymous) / C. Mitchell, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, London; Dublin, J. M'Glashan; Edinburgh, J. Menzies; Glasgow, J. M'Leod. Source: Richard Powers collection (POWERS/ABBYY TXT/c1848_Mitchell_Polka.txt — 907 lines OCR). Post-1842 expanded edition of Mitchell's Ball Room Guide (author claims 'a demand for nearly 60,000 copies'). Five-part structure: (I) Essay on Dancing — As an Art / Characteristics of Various Countries / Learning to Dance; (II) Etiquette of the Ball Room; (III) All the Dances (the 1842 quadrille corpus, with minor edits: First Set, Lancers, Caledonians First & Second Set, First Set with Old Finale, Second/Third/Fourth/Fifth Set Quadrilles, Albert Quadrilles with Victoria Finale, Queen's Own, Spanish Dance / Saraband of Spain, Waltz Quadrille First & Second Set, Waltz Cotillion, La Galopade, Galopade Quadrilles, The Mazourka / Mazourkas à la Devonshire (Kolo Polish Set / Right and Left Polish Set / Grand Chain / Finish with Kolo), The Polonaise, Highland Reel as danced at Blair Athol); (IV) THE POLKA LESSON BOOK — ten-figure general Polka (Promenade, Waltz, Waltz à rebours, Whirling Waltz/Valse tortillée, Bohemian Step, Changing Arms, Bohemian Step Changing Arms and Waltzing, Moulinet of One Hand, Moulinet Following the Lady, Double Pass), Drawing-Room Polka (Introductory Step + 5 figures), five-figure Royal Polka Quadrille (Pantalon, L'Été, La Poule, Trenise, Finale — performed with Polka step and 'toe-and-heel' accent), Valse à Deux Tems; (V) Redova Valse, First New Mazourka Quadrille (Coulon / Mrs. Nicholas Henderson, 4 figures), Second New Mazourka Quadrille (Coulon; first danced at Almack's; 5 figures with Introduction), Valse Mazourka / La Cellarius (M. Cellarius of Paris), Sir Roger de Coverley as danced at the Palace; plus Hints on Social Politesse and Glossary of French Terms. Documents the 1844-1848 Polka-mania and the 1847-1848 Cellarius Mazourka-Valse craze in English ballrooms, including the 'Mazourkas à la Devonshire' attribution that traces the Polish-Russian Mazourka's English introduction to the Duke of Devonshire's 1820s+ embassy to St. Petersburg. Has_Step_Detail = Partial (detailed Polka chorography of step + bar counts for many Mazourka-Quadrille figures; narrative step prose elsewhere; pre-Silvester). (1848). Imported from local collection.