The Lancers-Quadrilles

Les Lanciers

The Lancers-Quadrilles or Les Lanciers is a Quadrille. It was published by John Duval in 1817. It was interpreted by William B. De Garmo in 1868 and published in The Prompter. It is a Square dance. There is no progression in this dance. The dance lasts 552 bars.

A discussion of the history of this dance may be found on the Regency Dance site

Music for this dance may be found at the South Carolina University Libraries, Digital Collection. This was published in 1854.

The figures of the quadrille evolved over time, in particular the "FORWARD TWO" figure originally had only the active lady and her vis-à-vis (opposite) advance, but later their partners were included in the movement. See The Prompter, page 41.

In the calls I number couples the way modern square dances do, not the way quadrilles used to (as I expect more people are familiar with square dances than quadrilles now).

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

Intro1-4Honour your partner
5-8Honour your corner
Number11-4Heads FORWARD AND BACK
5-8Heads FORWARD AND TURN Forward, two hand turn opposite, return
9-16Heads CROSS OVER Cross the set with the 1s inside, turn alone and come back with 1s outside
17-24Corner BALANCÉ move toward corner, honor, and two hand turn them then back
No1.21-4Repeat by the heads, except on the cross over the 1s start outside
5-8Heads FORWARD AND TURN
9-16Heads CROSS OVER Cross the set with the 3s inside, turn alone and come back with 3s outside
17-24Corner BALANCÉ
No1.31-4Repeat by the sides
5-8Sides FORWARD AND TURN
9-16Sides CROSS OVER Cross the set with the 2s inside, turn alone and come back with 2s outside
No1.41-8Corner BALANCÉ
9-12Repeat by the sides
13-16Sides FORWARD AND TURN
17-24Sides CROSS OVER Cross the set with the 4s inside, turn alone and come back with 4s outside
25-32Corner BALANCÉ
Number21-4Heads FORWARD AND BACK
5-8FORWARD AGAIN AND LEAVE LADIES IN CENTRE Ladies turn to face partner
9-12CHASSÉ TO RIGHT AND LEFT Chessez two steps right and two steps back left
13-16TURN TO PLACES Two hand turn partner back to places
17-20ALL FORWARD AND BACK IN TWO LINES Sides move to nearest head to form lines, forward and back
21-24TURN TO PLACES
No2.21-4Heads repeat
5-8FORWARD AGAIN AND LEAVE LADIES IN CENTRE
9-12CHASSÉ TO RIGHT AND LEFT
13-16TURN TO PLACES
17-20ALL FORWARD AND BACK IN TWO LINES
21-24TURN TO PLACES
No2.31-4Sides repeat
5-8FORWARD AGAIN AND LEAVE LADIES IN CENTRE
9-12CHASSÉ TO RIGHT AND LEFT
13-16TURN TO PLACES
17-20ALL FORWARD AND BACK IN TWO LINES Heads move to nearest side to form lines, forward and back
21-24TURN TO PLACES
No2.41-4Sides repeat
5-8FORWARD AGAIN AND LEAVE LADIES IN CENTRE
9-12CHASSÉ TO RIGHT AND LEFT
13-16TURN TO PLACES
17-20ALL FORWARD AND BACK IN TWO LINES
21-24TURN TO PLACES
Number31-4Heads FORWARD AND BACK
5-8FORWARD AGAIN AND SALUTE Courtesy and bow and back to places
9-12FOUR LADIES CROSS RIGHT HANDS Right hands across star half way round as gents promenade single counter-clockwise
13-16FOUR LADIES CROSS LEFT HANDS Left hands back as gents return and turn partners to places
No3.21-4Heads repeat
5-8FORWARD AGAIN AND SALUTE
9-12FOUR LADIES CROSS RIGHT HANDS
13-16FOUR LADIES CROSS LEFT HANDS
No3.31-4Sides repeat
5-8FORWARD AGAIN AND SALUTE
9-12FOUR LADIES CROSS RIGHT HANDS
13-16FOUR LADIES CROSS LEFT HANDS
No3.41-4Sides repeat
5-8FORWARD AGAIN AND SALUTE
9-12FOUR LADIES CROSS RIGHT HANDS
13-16FOUR LADIES CROSS LEFT HANDS
Number41-4Heads LEAD RIGHT AND SALUTE Courtsey or bow
5-8LEAD LEFT AND SALUTE Continue moving counter-clockwise to the couple originally on the left
9-12Return to places and SALUTE
13-20Heads RIGHT AND LEFT Heads right and left through over and back
No4.21-4Heads repeat Except lead left first
5-8LEAD RIGHT AND SALUTE
9-12Return to places and SALUTE
13-20RIGHT AND LEFT
No4.31-4Repeat by the sides
5-8LEAD LEFT AND SALUTE
9-12Return to places and SALUTE
13-20RIGHT AND LEFT
No4.41-4Repeat by the sides
5-8LEAD RIGHT AND SALUTE
9-12Return to places and SALUTE
13-20RIGHT AND LEFT
Number51-16GRAND CHAIN Grand right and left, all the way round (not the usual half), honouring partners when you meet them
17-241s FACE OUTWARD 1s promenade inside the set to end facing out, sides fall in behind them, 3s do not move and end in the right place
25-32All CHASSÉ CROISÉ AND BACK Chassez across, Ladies passing in front of partner, then chassez back
33-40PROMENADE Ladies single file circle clockwise while men go counter clockwise
41-44Same sex lines of four FORWARD AND BACK
45-48FORWARD AGAIN AND TURN PARTNER TO PLACES
No5.21-16Repeat with couple 3 leading
17-243s FACE OUTWARD
25-32All CHASSÉ CROISÉ AND BACK
33-40PROMENADE
41-44lines of four FORWARD AND BACK
45-48FORWARD AGAIN AND TURN PARTNER TO PLACES
No5.31-16Repeat with couple 2 leading
17-242s FACE OUTWARD
25-32All CHASSÉ CROISÉ AND BACK
33-40PROMENADE
41-44lines of four FORWARD AND BACK
45-48FORWARD AGAIN AND TURN PARTNER TO PLACES
No5.41-16Repeat with couple 4 leading
17-244s FACE OUTWARD
25-32All CHASSÉ CROISÉ AND BACK
33-40PROMENADE
41-44lines of four FORWARD AND BACK
45-48FORWARD AGAIN AND TURN PARTNER TO PLACES
Finale1-16GRAND CHAIN

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.