Petronella

The tune, Petronella, was published by Nathaniel Gow in 1820 in The Cries of Edinburgh, to which are added Petronella and A Favorite New Medley; he may also have devised the figure but I haven't found any choreographies published by him. The (R)SCDS gives as their source for the dance a book called The Ball-Room (full title: 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) by J. P. Boulogne, published 1827 (I can't find this book either).

The earliest description of the figure I've found was published by the Lowes in Lowes' Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide. of 1831. The Lowes published in Edinburgh, and their book has three sub-catagories of country dance: English, Scotch and Irish. Petronella on page 102 is catagorized as an "English Country Dance". They describe it thusly:

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.

By 1853, the Lowes had become just Joseph Lowe, and he published a somewhat different version in his Lowe's Selection of Popular Country Dances:

First couple turn round to the right, and set opposite to each other in the middle of the Dance (4 Bars). Again round to the right, and set on the sides of the Dance, (4 Bars) Again round to the right, and set in the middle, (4 Bars) Again to the right and set in places. (4 Bars) First couple down the middle and up again. (8 Bars) Poussette with top couple. (8 Bars)

Courtesy of National Library of Scotland, licensed under:

In ~1868 H. D. Wilcock in Ball-Room Guide; A Manual of Dancing page 70, writes:

1. First couple turn round to the right, and set in centre of dance (4)
2. Turn to the opposite side and set (4)
3. Turn to centre and set (4)
4. Turn and set in places (4)
5. Lead down the middle and up again (8)
6. Pousette (8)

The first version I've found in the US appears in an anonymous work from New Hampshire in 1858 (where the dance is called Patenella): The Ball Room Guide, A Description of the Most Popular Contra Dances of the Day,:

First couple balance, swing, balance, swing, and so continue four times, down the middle, back, cast off, right and left.

Then from Boston in Elias Howe's 1868: The Pianist's Matinee: A Collection of Music for the Piano-Forte, writes:

First couple turn round to the right, and balance opposite to each other in the middle of the dance. (4 bars) Again round to the right, and balance on the sides of the dance. (4 bars) Again to the right, and balance in the middle. (4 bars) Again to the right, and balance in places. (4 bars) First couple down the middle and up again (8 bars) Right and left with the next couple. (8 bars)

In ~1872 J. F. Wallace in The Excelsior Manual of Dancing, (Glasgow), writes:

1. First couple turn to their right and set in centre of dance (4 bars)
2. Turn into each other's place and set (4)
3. Again turn to centre by right and set (4)
4. Turn to places and set, (4)
5. Down the centre and back, (8)
6. Poussette, (8)

In 1897 in D. Anderson's Ball-Room and Solo Dance Guide, (Dundee)

Time 2-4

Turn to right in centre with two steps facing each other, then set to each other with two steps.

Turn into each other's places with next two steps then set with other two steps.

Turn to right in centre facing each other with two steps then set to each other with two steps.

Turn into places next two steps then set with other two steps (the four quarter turns describe the figure of a diamond).

First gent then leads his partner down the centre and back to places, the first and second couples pousette.

Repeat from the beginning other three times

Courtesy of National Library of Scotland, licensed under:

Note: Anderson very explicitly says the lead down and back returns to places, while fifty years earlier it had an implied cast off. That means his "pousette" must be progressive, though he does not say that explicitly.

Many pages later in the book Anderson defines a "Petronella Step". He does not explicitly say it is for petronella turns, rather he says This Step may also be used for Contra Dances, Circassian Circle, etc., in setting to partners, but must never be used for Quadrilles.

PETRONELLA STEP.

Stand in 1st position.

Hop out on right foot in 2nd position.

Bring left foot in front in 5th position.

Beat behind with right.

Hop out on left foot in 2nd position.

Bring right foot down in front in 5th position.

Beat behind with left.

In ~1898 J. Scott Skinner in The People's Ball Room Guide, (Dundee), writes:

This is one of the very prettiest Country Dances we have.

The dancers are arranged in the usual way.

First lady and opposite gentleman advance to the centre, one, two, three, and turn with toes to right. Then they execute the first quickstop twice.

They advance to the opposite side and set.

They advance to the centre and set.

They advance and set in places, having thus, with their successive movements described the figure of a diamond.

Then down the centre, back, and pousette.

There is a tune "Petronella" for this dance. "Meg Merrilees" suits it admirably.

While in the book Prompting: How To Do It by John M. Schell, published Boston, 1890.

First couple balance to side (4); balance to center (4); balance to side (4); balance to center (4); first couple down centre and back, cast off (8); right and left (8).

Back in Scotland, Glasgow, 1900, Allan's Reference Guide to the Ball-Room, says:

1. First couple advance to the centre of the dance, turning round to the right and set.
2. Advance to the opposite side and set.
3. Advance to the centre side and set.
4. Advance and set in places.
5. Down the center and up again.
6. Pousette.

Courtesy of National Library of Scotland, licensed under:

In New York in 1936 from Beth Tolman and Ralph Page's The Country Dance Book, the dance had become "Pat'nella":

Contry Formation . . . . . Six or Eight Couples in a Set

First couple advance to the center of set, turn round to the right and balance (This time you are balancing up and down the hall.)	4 bars
Turn round to right and balance again (This time you are on the opposite side of the line from where you started.)	4 "
Turn round to right and balance again	4 "
Turn round to right and balance in place	4 "
Down the center with your partner and back	8 "
Cast off, right and left	8 "

Going back to the Lowes' first version: the eponymous "Petronella Turn" is spelled out clearly as a chassé. But down the middle, up again doesn't mean what you might expect. In the nineteenth century this was a short hand for a progressive figure where the 1s and 2s switch places (usually the 1s went back to the top, and cast off, but sometimes they just moved up to 2nd place. The Lowes don't specify which meaning they prefer, but if you look at Captain Fleming (page 101 of the same work) you will find down the middle, up again used as progressive. Finally poussette. This is non-progressive (see The Lady of the Lake, page 99). Again the Lowes do not define what they mean by "poussette", so I assume they mean what everyone else at the time meant by it.

(If you look at Wilcock's and Wallace's other dances you will also find that "down the middle and back" is progressive, and that poussette is not. In Skinner, all his country dances seem to end with "down the middle and back and poussette" and it's impossible for me to tell which figure he intended to be progressive.)

However in Anderson, Dundee, 1897, he is very clear that down the centre and goes back to places. So his lead down is non-progressive, which means his poussette must be progressive.

Sadly he does not define what he means by "poussette".

In J.F. Wallace's The "Excelsior" Manual of Dancing, Glasgow, 1872. In his description of "The British Grenadiers", the poussette needs to be progressive and he describes it as Pousette, (using Galop step, making a half turn with each, (and breaks off without finishing his sentence or closing his parenthesis). In his publication from ~1900 he does close his parenthesis but we are no closer to knowing what "each" might modify..

This isn't the modern (R)SCDS poussette which does quarter turns in most places.

Before about 1860 dances were always started in a manner which looks peculiar to modern English and Contra dancers: minor set dances always started with just the top two (or three) couples dancing. Then the top couple would move down one and dance with the next couple (the third from the top), still no one else would be dancing. After two iterations of the dance the new top two couples would join in and you would have four couples dancing. This would continue with new couples starting at the top until the whole line was in motion. When the original top couple reached the bottom they would wait out one iteration, and then start dancing up the line. When they reached the top, they would stop, and would not move again but the dance would continue below them until everyone reached their original place. If you have a line of n couples this would take 3*n-3 iterations of the dance. I show here the dance with 4 couples (which takes 9 iterations to finish) and it shows the origins of the Scottish two couple dance in a four couple set progression (though that only goes through 8 times and so leaves the bottom two couples in the wrong place).

By the end of the 19th century figures were rather different in Scotland than they had been at the start. We've already seen how "lead down and up" changed, and how "poussette" changed. The Lowes say to use a chassé step for the petronella turn, which suggests using another chassé step for the subsequent "set". Anderson suggests using a step which is much closer to the modern pas-de-basque.

Anderson also suggests having only 4 couples in a duple minor line (18 of his 19 dances were duple minors) which may be where the (R)SCDS got the idea of a 2 couple dance in a 4 couple set. Anderson's suggestion is different from what the the (R)SCDS used (Anderson said the 2s shouldn't start until the 1s reach the bottom of the line, while the (R)SCDS have the 2s starting when the 1s reach the 3s) so it may not be. And Anderson's description doesn't work for triple minors.

Petronella moved across the Atlantic (mostly before it had changed) and became established as a Contra Dance. Smukler and Millstone's Cracking Chestnuts gives a good description of the evolution of the dance in the US with several variants.

The US version of the "Petronella Turn" seems based on the 1868 version published by Wilcock (and still apparently used by Mozart Allan in ~1900), but in the 1970s people started adding two claps after the turn. Then the 2s somehow wanted to join the petronella figure (This also happened in Scotland, see the dance The Lea Rig). The 1s going down the middle and back turned into a line of four, and the cast off altered subtly. Finally: Poussette may not have crossed the Atlantic, in any case it wasn't part of 19th century American tradition, and Petronella's poussette turned into rights and lefts, but rights and lefts also changed in the US into right and left four.

According to Smukler and Millstone, in the earliest Contra version the 1s would try to use a different balance (setting) step each time the opportunity presented itself. As there are 4 balances in each iteration, and contra lines could be quite long, this could be a challenge. (In the March, 1955 edition of Northern Junket, Ralph Piper gives 50 variations of the balance (setting) step)

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