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For some years we have been involved in playing for dances ranging from Playford, through the early 19th Century to Edwardian. Recently we have been concentrating on quadrilles which were the most popular dances throughout the 19th Century. These are danced in square sets of four couples. The music we use is taken from manuscripts of the period and arranged by ourselves.The quadrilles we most commonly do are Paine’s First Set of Quadrilles, Paine’s 12th Set of Quadrilles, Mr Hart’s Lancers Quadrilles, The Shooting Quadrille, The New Caledonian Quadrilles, The Caledonian Quadrilles, Michau’s 2nd set of quadrilles, Le Prince Imperial and The Royal Scotch Quadrilles. We work with dance teachers who are experienced in teaching these dances.
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Click icon to view The Quadrille Club dancing at the Early Dance Festival, Canterbury 2006 (Windows Media Player).
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The Early Dance Circle has produced a new CD of PDF images of 13 of Paine’s quadrilles, their music and accompanying text. Over 300 pages contain the music in its original format with abbreviated dance instructions, followed by each quadrille with the music ready to play (notation by Meryl Thomson) and dance instructions in an extended form (interpreted by Ellis Rogers). Copies are priced £8.00 plus £1.50 postage and available from Meryl Thomson or Diana Cruikshank.
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We have played at the Dolmetsch Historical Dance Summer School and for Quadrille workshops in Horsham, Oxford, Cecil Sharp House, St Andrew’s Summer School and RSCDS London Day School. In 2003, 2005 and 2007 we played for a Historical Ball for the Dolmetsch Society after their conference and are playing for them again in 2009. The 2007 ball included 18th and 19th century dances. In 2005 we played for the Early Dance Circle in Norwich for their 19th Century Ball and played for them again in Canterbury in 2006. We have also played at the Quadrille Club at Cecil Sharp House, a Regency Workshop in Raynes Park and a Trafalgar Ball in Botley and Regency Balls in Winchester. We played at The Wallace Collection in December 2008, for the “Dancing with Darcy” Ball at Chawton House in July 2009, “The Beagle Ball” in Shrewsbury in October 2009 and played for for the Quadrille Club’s 25th Anniversary Victorian Ball in December 2009.
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We recently (July 2010) played for the Dance Society London in Fulham Town Hall for their Victorian Ball (see photo) led by Fabio Mollica. This included dances such as Cinderella, Ganglovienne Waltz, Mazurka L’Andalusia, La Varsovienne, Prince Rudolpho’s Waltz, Pas de Trois and The Lancers.
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The Regency programmes include country dances such as The Polonaise, The Dutch Skipper, Miss Poultney’s Fancy, Duke of Kent’s Waltz, Tinka Tink, Marlbrouk, Petronella, Sir Roger de Coverly, Le Carillon de Dunkerque, Lady Nelson’s Waltz Cotillion, Tars of the Victory, Mr Turner’s Academy Cotillion, Prince William of Gloucester’s Waltz, Figaro, The Pavilion Waltz, The Nameless, Gallini’s Allemande Cotillion, The Regent’s Favorite, The Regent’s Hornpipe, The Steamboat Hornpipe, The Equestrian Waltz, Lady of the Lake, The New Rigg’d Ship and Haste to the Wedding as well as Paine’s 1st and 12th sets, The Shooting Quadrille, HMS Pinafore Lancers, Iolanthe Lancers and the Trafalgar Quadrilles.
We also enjoy playing the Lancers Quadrilles to music other than the original and have arranged sets for HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, Iolanthe, The Pirates of Penzance and even Carmen!
Our CD of Historical Quadrilles and Scottish country dances with quadrille formations was released in 2005. It contains music for Paine’s 1st and 12th sets of quadrilles, Mr Hart’s Lancers (1819), The Duke of Kent’s Waltz and The Pavilion Waltz as well as 5 Scottish country dances with quadrille figures and comes with a 20 page booklet with full instructions for all dances (See Our Recordings page for a sample).
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