Grand Petronelle ~ Quadrille

Petronella ~ Contra Petronella ~ Contra Variants Petronella ~ Anderson Petronella ~ Lowes Petronelle ~ Improper Grand Petronelle ~ Quadrille Petronelle ~ Quadrille Petronella ~ variants Petronella

This is an experiment. I wanted to see if it were possible to have everyone in a square do a complete petronella with their opposite. It turns out that, with care it is. This is based on one of the three versions of petronella published by J.P.Boulogne in 1827.

The first dance in the first book of the (R)SCDS is Petronella.

Book 1 says the dance was published in a book called The Ball-Room, 1827 (no editor, or publisher, or location given), actually the book is titled The Ball-Room, or the Juvenile Pupil's Assistant; Containing the Most Fashionable Quadrilles, with Les Lanciers of Sixteen, As Danced in the Public & Private Assemblies in Paris published in Glasgow, 1827 and the author is J. P. Boulogne. This work actually contains three versions of the dance — though the last two have the same figure (all called Petronelle not Petronella), the first is an "English Quadrille", found on page 40, the second a "Spanish Dance" found on page 41, and the last is an "English Country Dance", found on page 43

Here I'm interested in the quadrille figure, though I will examine the others in hope of shedding some light on the quadrille.

		Bars
1.	The first Gentleman and third Lady perform the figure of a diamond, to their right, in the centre, setting at the four corners	16
2.	Double hands across and back again,	8
3.	All balancez to partners, and turn them to their places,	8
	The others repeat the figures.

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		Bars
1.	The first couple perform the figure of a diamond to their right, setting at the four corners	16
2.	Down the middle and up again,	8
3.	Pousette,	8

Courtesy of the RSCDS archives
(and Mary Nisbet who went there for me)

Sadly Boulogne does not have a glossary where he defines what he means by his figures, so we don't know what the figure of a diamond means exactly, nor what steps are used to do it. We get a little more help from the Lowes who published a version of the dance in Edinburgh, ~1831 in Lowes' Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide.

First couple chassé round to the right, and set in the middle; round to the right again, and set on the sides; to the right again, and set in places; down the middle, up again, and pousette.

So the Lowes thought people chasséd into position without turning.

I'm not sure what Double hands across means, either. My first guess was eight people put their hands into the center, but that's really too crowded. I suspect it's more likely to mean: women take right hands in center and give left hands to partner (star promenade), and go round, then drop hands turn individually and go back the other way. That probably means ending the star with the ladies in the middle so the direction and turn them to their places makes sense.

A figure like this is described in a quadrille called La Polonaise, on page 38 (but isn't given a name), so it is at least plausible.

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Note: Couples are numbered clockwise which is opposite from the modern square dance convention.

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