The Original Tampete ~ Burnton is an American Country Dance. It was published by Burnton in 1851 in The Original Tampete as danced in Europe. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2024. It is a Four Face Four dance. The minor set lasts 48 bars.
The earliest version I've found of this actually comes from Germany, though that book claims the dance was already popular so it probably has even earlier roots (I'd guess France as the original source, given the name). It was published by Johann Heinrich Kattfuß in Leipzig in 1802 Choregraphie Oder Vollständige Und Leicht Falssiche under the title of "Der Tempẽte".
In his Hart's Second Set of Quadrilles, Hart writes:
Form a line of 4, the 2 Ladies on the 2 Gentlemens right, 4 more opposite to the first 4, form lines of 4 behind the 2d. line as many as intend to dance.
FIGUREThe first 2 lines right and left, chassez across to the right and left with your partner, dechassez, in returning you go behind the 2d. Couple The Center 4 hands round, the outside couple's turn and back all 8 Set quite round to the right re set to your places, the top four lead through the 2d. line and begin the same figure with the 3d. line & so on to the bottom of the dance.
Then another German source, in 1842, Liller wrote:
ist ein französischer Tanz. Die Tanzenden müssen in folgender Ordnung stehen:
sich das Gesicht zutehrend.
22 11 33 44 is a french dance. The dancers must stand in the following order:
???
22 11 33 44 Hinter biesen Paaren funnen noch viel mehr Paare antreten Many more couples can join in behind these Die in der Mitte gegenüber stehenden Paare führen folgende Tour aus: The couples standing opposite each other in the middle perform the following figures: Erste Tour. Chaîne en quatre. First figure. Rights and lefts for four. Zweite Tour. Moulinet oder Kreuz Second figure. Hands across (or cross). Dritte Tour. Ronde rechts Third figure. Circle right. Vierte Tour. Das erste und zweite Paar chassirt an einander vorüber und wechselt die Plätze, dasselbe thut das dritte und vierte Paare. Hierauf macht das erste und vierte Paar halbe Ronde desgleichen das zweite und dritte Paar, so daß das erste Paar auf die dritte und das vierte Paar auf die zweite Stelle fommt. Fourth figure. The first and second couples chase past each other and switch places, the third and fourth pairs do the same. The first and fourth couples circle half, and the second and third do the same, so that the first couple is where the third couple started, and the fourth where the second did. Funfte Tour. Das erste und zweite Paar chassirt aneinander vorüber und wechselt die Plätze, desgleichen ach das dritte und vierte. Das erste und vierte Paar, somie das zweite und dritte Paar macht halbe Ronde, so daß jedes wieder auf denselben Platz zu stehen tommt. Fifth figure. The first and second couples chase past each other and change places, as do the third and fourth. The first and fourth couples, the second and third couples make circle half, so that everyone ends up in the same place again. Sechste und siebente Tour. Grosse Chaîne Sixth and seventh figures. Grand chain. Achte Tour. Alle vier Paare chassiren gegen einander und wieder zurüd, flatschen in die Hände und chassiren durch einander bergestalt, daß man nun init der zweiten vis à vis gestandenen Partie tanzt. Eighth figure. All four couples forward and back, dropping hands and passing through to the next set of dancers. Beide Paare fangen die bereits beschreiebene Tour mit ben Entgegenfommenden wieder an, und führen sie so lange aus, bis sie aus den Platz des Icssten Paares fommen, worauf sie sich menden und dasselbe bis auf den erten Platz zurüdtenzen. These two couples start the above figure again with the couples waiting for them, and they continue until they reach the end of the line whereupon they turn as couples and do the same thing back to the top.
In 1851 Burnton & Dressler published a version of the dance in New York, which they claim was called "The Original Tampete."
Burnton claims it was "as danced in Europe", but the version I found from Germany in 1842 is not much like this, and I can find no others from Europe around this time. Whale (who also published in New York in 1851) claims that his version is "as danced at the Queen's Last Ball." His version is quite different from Burnton's so presumably there was considerable variation on the other side of the Atlantic at that time.
This popular dance is danced by any number of couples, standing as above at the commencement, all begin at once.
- All forward and back, (4 bars) half right and left (4 bars) forward and back, (4 bars) half right and left to place. (4 bars)
- Couples Galop eight steps to the left, (4 bars) then eight steps to the right, (4 bars)
- Small stars (each double couple form a star. Ladies cross hands, Gents also round eight steps to the left (4 bars) change eight steps to the right (4 bars)
- Grand star (Four couples Ladies take Gents arms & cross hands in centre, eight steps round to the left, (4 bars) change Gentlemen swing in centre and cross hands, Ladies remain on Gents arms outside, eight steps round to the right (4 bars))
- Circles (Each double couple for a circle, hands round, eight steps to the left, (4 bars) eight steps to the right. (4 bars))
All advance_first couple holding hands up, others passing quick through, and advance to the new couples. This forms the first figure again, and must therefore be no time lost, when passing through to the next.These are the original and true figures as danced in Europe.
Note this is the first version of the dance where all couples begin dancing together, something which was very unusual in 1850, and the first version of the dance to begin with "advance and retire", which has since become a standard beginning of four face four dances. (Whale's versions, published the same year, also had both of these features.
Oddly, there is no music alloted to the progression. The printed music has the calls under it, and it ends with the circles. I suspect the progression actually happened as part of the first forward and back, but that makes animation complicated so I've make the circles 6 bars and alloted 2 for progression.
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.
The dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
1-4 | Lines of four forward and back |
5-8 | Starting with opposite, half rights and lefts |
9-12 | Again: lines of four forward and back |
13-16 | Starting with opposite, half rights and lefts |
17-24 | Couples mad robin around the other couple in the line |
25-28 | With the opposite couple right hands across... |
29-32 | ...and back to the left |
33-36 | Ladies with left hand take partner's right hand, ladies form a right hand star, star promenade (grand star) |
37-40 | Ladies back out and the gents swing in, left hands across star promenade |
41-43 | With the opposite couple, circle left... |
44-46 | ...and back to the right |
47-48 | Top couples arch, bottom couples dive through (as couples) |
If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.
If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=TheOriginalTampete-Burnton
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2024 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2024 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
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.