Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 25, 1993 TAG: 9312020257
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The morning session is called ``A Survival Strategy for the Ballroom'' and features instruction in a single step which, rhythmically modified, enables one to succeed at the six most popular dances of the 19th-century ballroom - the waltz, the waltz gallop, gallop, polka, polka redowa and schottische.
The afternoon session, titled ``The Grand Waltz,'' will begin with instruction in the simple turning waltz and move on to the more complicated Grand Waltz; discussion of styles of the era and historical details will be included.
The workshops cost $8 apiece. Instructors will be Merrell Fuson and Caroline Waldrop Buckman. Buckman is a Salem native and Andrew Lewis High School graduate, class of 1967. She is a licensed clinical social worker in private practice in Lexington, Ky. Fuson is a cattle rancher and businessman from Williamsburg, Ky.
Vintage dance is an unusual subject for this area, but it has been popular in the Cincinnati area and elsewhere since the 1970s. It consists of 19th-century and ragtime dances, Fuson says, with some involvement as well in swing dancing to big band music from the 1940s.
The Lexington group concentrates on American dances from the 1840s to the 1940s, Buckman says, encompassing both the Romantic and Victorian eras and dances made fashionable by Irene and Vernon Castle.
She is a founder of the Lexington group, but she credits her interest in the activity to Richard Powers, the dance historian who operates the Flying Cloud Academy of Vintage Dance in Cincinnati. Fuson happened upon Powers while studying contra dancing at a folk camp, and he introduced the dance style to Buckman. They and others commuted to Cincinnati for balls and workshops.
``Another single mother and I were in the same situation,'' Buckman says. ``We were tired of driving all that way. Our goal was to raise up this army of waltzing men right here in the Bluegrass State.''
They've had some success, drawing an estimated 200 different male participants in their group's activities. The core members number about 50 men and women, she says.
Other vintage dance groups exist in Boston, New York and San Francisco, but they are not numerous, she says.
Period dress is optional at the vintage balls, but many participants take their attire seriously Civil War buffs frequently come in uniform, of both North and South. The live music is authentic, too. For its next ball, the Lexington group has hired Saxton's Cornet Band of Lexington, which plays Civil War-era instruments without amplification.
Though American, most of the music would not be readily identifiable to modern listeners.
``Somebody might sing a Stephen Foster song during an intermission,'' Fuson says.
Nor are the polkas like the ones you see today. ``You'd consider it classical music,'' Fuson says.
Serious dancers often use original source material - dance manuals from 100 years ago - to master the appropriate steps.
``What we teach will not be hard to learn,'' Fuson says. ``This is an introduction to the Victorian ballroom order ... some simple turning waltzes and gallops and polkas with basic figures for set dances and quadrilles, and some pointers on etiquette and style, as well.
It's not like a Strauss waltz, but ``more like a cross between ballroom and ballet.''
Buckman, the daughter of Luke and Harriet Waldrop of Salem, says she recently had her first vintage ball gown designed and made in Lexington. It's a silk taffeta dress in morning glory blue with teardrop lace, a cameo neckline and a bodice that laces in back. ``It's an authentic Civil War gown,'' she says, and at $500, ``It's worth every penny.'' She will wear it during the workshops.
Vintage dance ``reached its apogee between 1847 and 1857,'' Fuson says. ``After that it started to drop away. What started the decline was the introduction of the hoop skirt, because it killed a great many of the dance steps. It bounced in an undignified manner.''
``It's the only dancing I've ever been introduced to that's really rational,'' Buckman says. ``I have to dance in such a harmony with my partner that we actually create a centrifugal force. It's ecstatic to me. You can't really feel it until you get good at it.''
And, says Fuson, you can't appreciate the dancing ``until you see it done by someone who can do it.'' Vintage dancing is beautiful and powerful, he says, lovely as well as lively. ``It's not dancing for the sedate or the out of shape. The spirit is close to contra dancing, but more stylistic and more complicated.''
\ The workshops will be Sept. 4 from 9:30 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m. at Mount Pleasant Elementary School. Participants should wear leather-soled shoes. For registration and information, call Richard McDearmon at 857-3212 or 334-2120.
by CNB