1: THE CASTLE POLKA

DESCRIBED BY MR. CASTLE

        BEFORE I explain the polka it might be well to tell why I think it should be revived and modernized-not to take the place of the other dances so popular now, but to add variety to all dance programs. We have at present a leaning towards things old-fashioned. This is most noticeable in the quaintness of the fashionable woman’s attire. In fact my wife is wearing at parties the dress you see in these photographs.
        Possibly the most important excuse for a revival and modernization of the polka is because it is easy to learn and so enjoyable to dance. In the polka you hop rather than slide, which is exactly the opposite to the usual steps in out present-day dances. This hop, if not exaggerated, is most graceful. The counting for this dance is 1-2-3-hop, 1-2-3-hop. You do the hop after the third step-that is, if you start this way: left, right, left, hop, the hop comes on the left foot. If this is clear to you it is safe to take up the dance itself, which I will explain by imagining myself the instructor and you my partner and pupil. If you happen to be a man you must put yourself in my place and study my description in that way.
        To commence we assume the usual dancing position for both to go forward. I start on my left foot and you on your right (this will be better understood from our first photograph). Now we start dancing the polka step in this position, going forward around the room.

        This is the first figure, which (while we are learning) we will do eight times.
        For the second figure I swing in front of you and we continue the same steps facing each other, turning the while as in the two-step (second photograph). You must be very careful not to hop until after the third step, and also, when you do hop on the one foot the heel of the other should come up, as Mrs. Castle’s foot is in the third photograph. This step we will also do eight times.
        The third figure is very simple and very pretty. I release my right hand, which is around your waist, and we bow to each other as in the fourth photograph. The time for this bow is eight beats- four to make the bow and four to straighten up again. After that we commence the polka step again. I start on my left foot and you on your right foot, as before.
        The fourth and last figure is not quite so simple. While we are facing each other doing the ordinary polka step we change hands-that is, I take your right in my right and your left in my left, your right hand being behind your back. Now to make to the change I do two ordinary walking steps, and you turn a little so that you (keeping on with the polka step) are at my side instead of facing me. After my two walking steps we go into the polka again, and in the position seen in the fifth photograph. This is all there is to the polka, and, to get back again to the first figure, all I do is to take two more walking steps and take the original hand position.

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