Historical SourceStep Figures Available
Dance Digest (National Dance League, New York, 1937)
Publisher: National Dance League, 505 Fifth Avenue (Suite 900), New York, NY. Lucile Marsh, Director and Editor; Bernice Oehler, art editor; H. M. Schultz, advertising representative; Dorothy Alexander, Atlanta representative (9 Ansley Road); Mrs. Henry Sweeney, Washington DC representative. Source: Richard Powers collection (POWERS/1937_Dance_Digest.txt — 400 lines OCR; partly degraded). Late-1930s American dance industry quarterly. Three substantive ballroom sections: (1) 'OTHER BIG APPLE STEPS' — National Dance League's 1937 codification of six step-by-step figures (Shag Promenade, Double Quick, Turn, Truckin', Skating Step, The Susie Q) performed within the Big Apple circle dance; (2) 'VICTORIAN REEL and Quadrille' — official RKO Radio release 'Victoria the Great' (starring Anna Neagle as Queen Victoria) Victorian Reel (3 figures, 6/8 reel music) + four-figure Victorian Quadrille (any 6/8 quadrille music); (3) 'QUEEN VICTORIA DID THE QUADRILLE — WE DO THE BIG APPLE' editorial linking the 1937 Big Apple revival to the 1840s Victorian quadrille / waltz / polka / schottische craze, explicitly identifying the 'newest and most popular waltz step of the season' as a revival of the 'old nineteenth century Knickerbocker waltz in which two slides are taken instead of one' and the 'present day Shag' as 'a combination of the erstwhile schottische and polka, youthful dances of the Victorian era'. Bridges POWERS-1935-FOSTER-PALAISGLIDE / LOC-1935-JS-ART / LOC-1935-SILVESTER and POWERS-1938-DMA / POWERS-1938-BIG-APPLE. Editor Lucile Marsh's National Dance Week tour (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia) led to the National Dance League's three-month 1937 lecture-and-judging promotion of the Big Apple as the year's marquee American social dance. Has_Step_Detail = Yes for the six Big Apple steps (explicit count-by-count footwork notation); Partial for the Victorian Reel/Quadrille (named figures with prose instructions, no CBM/sway/rise-and-fall — pre-Silvester American dance vocabulary).Year: 1937Family: dancedigestCatalog: local
Dance manual/reference by National Dance League, 505 Fifth Avenue (Suite 900), New York, NY. Lucile Marsh, Director and Editor; Bernice Oehler, art editor; H. M. Schultz, advertising representative; Dorothy Alexander, Atlanta representative (9 Ansley Road); Mrs. Henry Sweeney, Washington DC representative. Source: Richard Powers collection (POWERS/1937_Dance_Digest.txt — 400 lines OCR; partly degraded). Late-1930s American dance industry quarterly. Three substantive ballroom sections: (1) 'OTHER BIG APPLE STEPS' — National Dance League's 1937 codification of six step-by-step figures (Shag Promenade, Double Quick, Turn, Truckin', Skating Step, The Susie Q) performed within the Big Apple circle dance; (2) 'VICTORIAN REEL and Quadrille' — official RKO Radio release 'Victoria the Great' (starring Anna Neagle as Queen Victoria) Victorian Reel (3 figures, 6/8 reel music) + four-figure Victorian Quadrille (any 6/8 quadrille music); (3) 'QUEEN VICTORIA DID THE QUADRILLE — WE DO THE BIG APPLE' editorial linking the 1937 Big Apple revival to the 1840s Victorian quadrille / waltz / polka / schottische craze, explicitly identifying the 'newest and most popular waltz step of the season' as a revival of the 'old nineteenth century Knickerbocker waltz in which two slides are taken instead of one' and the 'present day Shag' as 'a combination of the erstwhile schottische and polka, youthful dances of the Victorian era'. Bridges POWERS-1935-FOSTER-PALAISGLIDE / LOC-1935-JS-ART / LOC-1935-SILVESTER and POWERS-1938-DMA / POWERS-1938-BIG-APPLE. Editor Lucile Marsh's National Dance Week tour (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington DC, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia) led to the National Dance League's three-month 1937 lecture-and-judging promotion of the Big Apple as the year's marquee American social dance. Has_Step_Detail = Yes for the six Big Apple steps (explicit count-by-count footwork notation); Partial for the Victorian Reel/Quadrille (named figures with prose instructions, no CBM/sway/rise-and-fall — pre-Silvester American dance vocabulary). (1937). Step-by-step detail available. Imported from local collection.