La Sophie

CAVEAT: When I learned French, I did not study 18th century Belgian dancing terms. I have made a lot of guesses here.

d'Aubat was a dancing master in Gand (French for Ghent, in Flanders, in Belgium) which was then part of the Austrian Netherlands, but he published in French.

d'Aubat writes:

La grande chaine les 4. hom. font le 8. en dehors dans la couple de la Dam. de la droite, et de la gauche les 4. Dam. font le 8. en dehors dans l'hom. de la couple de sa gauche, et de sa droite, de cette façon se trouvent dans la place de la couple de coté vis-à-vis de leurs Dam. les 4. pr. fig. font la chaine entiere dans le milieu et les 4. autres de même les 8. fig. chassent oposé et tournent un tour à l'allemande dans les coins rechassent encore avec la Dam. de coté pour revenire à leurs places, et tournent à l'allemande avec leurs Dam. p^r finir.

My translatation:

Grand right and left, all the way around back to places (this may be the first change?) The four men make the figure of eight going round the ladies first to their right, and then to their left The four ladies make the figure of eight going through the men to their left and then right, and in this fashion ending in the place of the couple on the side facing the lady of that couple. The first four (ie. the heads) do rights and lefts in the middle The other four do the same All eight dancers chassé across and do an allemande turn in the corners Chassé back still with the lady on the side to return to their places and do an allemande turn with their partners in order to finish.

The first figure seem fairly clear, all four men figure eight around the women on their right and then the woman on their left, and I assume the finish where they started.

Now the women. They do the mirror image, figure eight around the man on their left, then the one on their right. But what happens next? de cette façon se trouvent dans la place de la couple de coté vis-à-vis de leurs Dam. Um. She ends up in the couple on the side's place (presumably the couple on the right?) facing the lady? But that lady has moved (since all four ladies are doing the same thing) and so can't be faced. Well maybe on the diagonal? But the next figure is rights and lefts so she'd need to face across...

Does coté ever mean opposite? If she moves into her opposite's place she could be facing her opposite across the set... I'm pretty sure that's not a valid reading.

OK, I've no idea what that passage means. I shall ignore it and return all the ladies to their starting places. That makes the rest of the dance much easier to interpret.

Note: having everyone chasséing across the set is a little tricky. I have the men move slowly when they start, speed up in the middle, and slow down again as they approach their opposite's place.

Then the first four dancers (the heads) do rights and lefts.

Then the sides do rights and lefts.

Now I get confused again. When he talks of doing the an allemande in the corners. If they've just chassent oposé then I'd think they'll be in their opposites' positions which aren't in the corners. d'Aubat has a figure which he calls croisent les 4. coins but I don't think this is it as it includes no turns, and can only be done by at most four people at once, not all eight dancers. Or does dans les coins mean "with your corner" rather than "in the corners"? That seems an unlikely translation, but at least it means something. I think I'll just have people allemanding their corner.

But what is an "allemande" here? In English dancing at this period there were several variations. One of those variations seems to be called Le Drapeau in d'Aubat's list of figures, so I assume that's not what is meant by "allemande". That leaves me with dancers standing shoulder to shoulder, twisting that arm through their partner's and then using it to take hold of their partner's other hand, what Cooper calls a "Crossed Allemande".

I don't know if this is what d'Aubat meant, but it's my best guess

The we come to rechassent encore avec la Dam. de coté pour revenire à leurs places. I think, since we are chasséing, we have our shoulders in to the center and so the person on the opposite side of the set is on our coté. So you cross with them, and allemande your partner.

I'm assuming it takes 4 bars to chassé across, and 4 bars to allemande. But a 4 bar chassé seems slow. Quadrilles usually did it in 2. So it might be two bars to chassé and 6 bars to allemande first right and then left. Or maybe something else.

d'Aubat provides no list of changes. Perhaps the French didn't do them? that seems unlikely, since were would the English have gotten the idea? Well ... perhaps the Belgians didn't do them?

Could I just use Hurst's list of changes? But Hurst admits to inventing several of his, so they would not be what d'Aubat had in mind. And all the English cotillions begin with "Le Grand Rond" whereas d'Aubat begins his with "La Grande Chaine".

Where I would expect to find a list of changes he prints a list of figures instead. This list does begin with "La Grand Chaine", but clearly it cannot be a list of changes because some of them take only 2 bars of music and not a full strain. All of dances seem to begin with "La grand chain" which, at 16 bars makes a reasonable "change". So I shall extract several 16 bar figures from his list and use them as changes.

d'Aubat's list of changes is found earlier in the volume:

• La grande Chaine contient 16. mes. & la grande demi-chaine 8. mes.

◦ La Chaine entiere à 4. soit à l'Angloise, ou en rond, soit à coté, ou à 3. 8. mes.

• La Promenade en rond, tourner & detourner 16 mes.

• Le grand quarré alternativement 16 mes.

◦ Le quarré simple 8. mes. & le grand quarré à demi 4. mes.

• Le grand rond tourner & detourner 16. mes. simple 8 mes.

• Le Serpenton entier tout à l'entour pour revenir à sa place 16. mes.

◦ Le Serpenton simple pour se trouver vis-à-vis de sa place. 8. mes. & le quart 4 mes.

◦ Le 8 soit en dehors, ou en dedans contient 8. mes. le demi 4. mes. & le quart 2. mes.

◦ Le Drapeau, qui signifie faire tourner sa Dame à l'entour de soi contient 4. mes.

... but no more 16 bar figures

My translatation:

• The grand chain takes 16 bars & half of it takes 8

◦ The full chain for four is as in English (that is: rights and lefts), or in round, or on the side, or for 3. 8 bars

• Promenade around, clockwise and counter-clockwise 16 bars (I assume people start clockwise, but that might be wrong)

• The Grand Square alternating (I think that means first heads, then sides, or in modern terms, there's a reverse halfway through) 16 bars

◦ The simple square 8 bars & half the grand square 4 bars

• The grand circle, clockwise and counter clockwise 16 bars, simple 8 bars

• The full Serpenton all outside to return to your place 16 bars (There's a picture of this later in the book and it looks vaguely like the heads figure of eighting through the side couples but ending in the opposite position, then repeating the process (through the other side couple) to get home).

◦ The simple Serpenton to finish opposite your place 8 bars and a quarter 4 bars.

◦ All 8 outside or inside takes 8 bars, half 4 bars, & a quarter 2 bars.

◦ The Drapery, which means turn your lady around yourself and takes 4 bars.

So my guess for the list of changes:

1. Grand rights and lefts all the way back home (in Square dancing GRR only goes half way round)
2. Promenade with partner clockwise around the set, then turn and come back
3. Grand Square with a reverse
4. Circle eight clockwise and counter-clockwise
5. Heads Serpenton
6. Sides Serpenton
(d'Aubat draws a picture labeled "les 4. p^rs figurans croisent les 4. coins"
7. Heads croisent les 4 coins
8. Sides croisent les 4 coins
9. Grand rights and lefts again

d'Aubat doesn't mention honouring, but I presume that happened.