La Tempête, a hit throughout 19th century
La Tempête is a staple of 19th-century ballroom re-enactments. I’m sure you’ve already danced it here or there.
It’s a dance that’s accessible to everyone: all you need is the ability to walk and to know your left and right.
What’s more, there’s no limit to the number of dancers: you can always add an extra line of four dancers. The only constraint is the size of the venue!
In short, La Tempête is known to everyone… or is it?
In this article, we’ll look beyond the easy animation dance.
We’ll look at the origins of the dance and its gradual spread throughout the world (yes, yes!) throughout the 19th century. We’ll also look at the variations proposed by dancing masters. Finally, we’ll look at what the dance has become as it moves into the traditional repertoire.
Being a French native speaker, I write in English as good as I can. Please let me know if you sot any error. thank you!
The name and origins of La Tempête
For once, I’m not going to venture into the realms of choreographic creation. It’s not laziness.
When I wrote this article in 2020, getting to the source material was as easy as taking the Ring to Mordor.
So it seems that the dance is indeed French in origin, as its name suggests. This idea is repeated in (among others) Hillgrove, 1857:
”This dance was lately introduced into Paris, and is now in high repute in the soirées dansantes and the fashionable circles in England, and may be truly represented as general favorite, as it only requires an intimate knowledge of the figures to make it both agreeable and suitable for all ages”
Thomas Hillgrove, The Scholar’s Companion & Ballroom Vade-Mecum, Turnbull & Co, New York, 1857.
Hillgrove then draws a political metaphor on dancing:
“When the figure is properly performed the dance is particularly social, cheerful and amusing, and combines the excitement of the country dance with the grace and elegance of the quadrille; while, at the same time, it symbolically illustrates the singular vicissitudes of the social condition of the land which gave its birth – or at least celebrity – the top going down and the bottom going up.”
Ibidem
This references the French revolutions of 1789, 1830 and 1848.
Many English-speaking sources mention that La Tempête comes from France. Yet, not any French nor French-speaking source supports the thesis that the dance was fashionable in Paris in the 1850s. Or even in the next decades.
We must conclude that La Tempête had fall to oblivion in France for a while in the mid-19th century. On the opposite, the dance will enjoy a long, rich life in the English-speaking world: Great-Britain, USA, and event Australia!
Everywhere, the name stays La Tempête in French. That is an important note. Indeed, there exists another dance, The Tempest, that is completely different from La Tempête, even if they are both dance in the same period. More information about The Tempest on Capering and Kickery.
La Tempête is an extraordinary success. It is found in over 50 dance treatises between 1802 and 1917! And be sure that I haven’t found them all.
Those are many, many variations to explore
The formation
Before reading the figures, a few words about the unusual formation for La Tempête.
In La Tempête, dancers forms lines of two couples side by side. Those lines faces each other, in small set of 8 dancers. All those set form a large column, like a double longways.
The progression is a classic duple minor set. After each repeat of the dance, the lines progress one place forward. When a line reaches the end of the longways, it stay inactive during one repeat. During that repeat, the couples inside the line must turn, as a couple, to face the column. Dancers should not turn individually, as it is important that the Leader stay on the Left, and the Follower on the Right.
Interestingly, from 1851, Whale indicates that all the sets start the dance at the same time. So there is no “snowball” progression. Be careful though, not to generalise that remark to all country dance, or event for all versions of La Tempête. Elliott, circa 1854, still recommends the snowball progression.
La Tempête: quadrille or country dance?
The idea that La Tempête is a hybrid between the quadrille and the country dance (in longways) is one that often crops up in the sources. In addition to the excerpt from Hillgrove given above, see what Routledge said in 1868:
“It unites the cheerfulness of the quadrille with the sociability of the country dance; and when its lively figures are correctly performed, it is both amusing and animated.”
George Routledge (éd.), The Ball-Room Companion, George Routledge & Sons, Londres, 1868.
The filiation between La Tempête and the country dance seem obvious. It is a (double) longways, with a duple minor set progression. The only peculiarity it the formation. The figures (hands across, circles…) are also very common in the country dances.
I had more trouble conceiving a link between La Tempête and the quadrille. As I read more sources, two explanations appeared.
Reilley 1870 says:
“As now danced, it is usually commenced in the form of a number of quadrilles, each of which separates into lines, facing each other, the sides forming on the leads; as in this diagram.”
E. B. Reilley, The Amateur’s Vademecum, A practical Treatise on the Art of Dancing, J. Nicholas, Philadelphie, 1870.
Indeed, you can visualise a quadrille, with the partners of the side couples facing each other and lined up on the heads.
You’ll notice that couples 3 and 4 will be separated from the second repeat. What’s more, the head couples are reversed: lady on the left and gentleman on the right. This does not change the way the dance works.
Carpenter 1879 proposed another solution. He described various ‘Figures for plain quadrille’, often danced instead of the 3rd or 4th figure. One of these is a version of La Tempête which begins with a large round dance. At the end of the large circle, the men in the leading couples let go of the lady in front of them and continue straight ahead. In this way, two lines facing each other are formed: couples 1 and 4, opposite couples 3 and 2.
Carpenter doesn’t give a diagram, so I’ll do it myself:
Notice that all dancers get to keep their partners and will progress with them, unlike in the previous proposal. Also, the couples are correctly place (with Gentlemen on the Left).
Aussi, les positions sont inversées entre cavaliers et dames par rapport à la version précédente.
In short, country dance or quadrille, it’s all a question of point of view.
Is La Tempête a Mescolanze ?
In the 1820s and 1830s, a type of dance called ‘mescolanze’ appeared in Britain. G.M.S. Chivers, a dance teacher, claimed to have invented it.
It interests us because it is a kind of country dance in which four dancers face four others, exactly as in La Tempête. Could La Tempête be a survivor of the genre?
This is a matter of debate among dance historians. It is certain that La Tempête existed as early as 1802, i.e. before Chivers’ publications. But it could be that he was the promoter of a pre-existing dance.
Mescolanze or not, La Tempête is the only ‘4 on 4’ dance to have had lasting success in the nineteenth century.
Variations on La Tempête
You probably know that version of La Tempête (Hillgrove, 1857):
- All eight forward and back, 2x
- Chassé croisé as a couple and back
- Lead in and out, 2x
- Hands across as 2 – 4 – 2 dancers
- Circle left as 2 – 4 – 2 dancers
- All eight forward and back, go forward and through to the next line of four
Not all versions begin with the lead in and out. Some begin with a right and left through (Liller, 1842). Others begin with a big circle (Sichore, 1891).
Sometimes the chassés-croisés are not done with the couple next to you, but the one in front of you. Sometimes there is even no chassez at all! But, let’s face it, those versions are less fun.
The moulinet and circles in 2 – 4 – 2 are the signature moves of La Tempête. Only the oldest source (1802) gives moulinets and circles in 4 – 4. Alle the others mention: the four dancers in the center give hands and circle to the left (or moulinet), the two dancers on each side do the same two by two.
For the progression, there are three options:
- Individual: the dancet go forward and passes the person opposite them with right shoulder.
- In pairs: the lead couple pass between the partners of the follower couple, who let go of each other’s hands.
- Bridge: the follower couple forms a ‘bridge’ under which the lead couple passes.
In the traditional adnce repertoire
As you will have gathered, historical sources are full of different versions of La Tempête, a real hit throughout the 19th century.
Allow me to make a brief incursion into the realm of popular dances. La Tempête is known in the English countryside as ‘Tom Pate’ (collected by Sibyl Clark, from Edith Palmer in Northamptonshire). ‘Tom Pate’, “Tempête”… This is obviously a distortion of the original name.
In Scotland, too, La Tempête was adopted into the ceilidh repertoire. However, the first figures of the choreography are very different, so take a look at this video. The last figures (chassé-croisé as a couple, circle, moulinet, pass through) are in line with the historical sources.
Ireland has also incorporated La Tempête into its traditional repertoire. Incidentally, the dance has been renamed: it is now called ‘Siege of Ennis’. The title, contrary to appearances, does not refer to any historical event.
And there was some typical Emerald Isle stepping (threes, sevens and rising steps). Nevertheless, the dance is still recognisable. It’s a ceili classic!
Quoted sources
Johann Heinrich Katfuss, Taschenbuch für Freunde und Freudinnen des Tanzes, 2e partie, Leipzig, 1802.
G. M. S. Chivers, The Dancer’s Guide, c.1820.
Johann Nicolaus Liller, Tanz-Kunst, Leipzig, 1842.
Mr. Whale & Daughter, New dance. La Tempète. As dances at the Queen’s last ball, William Vanderbeel, New York, 1851.
Thomas Hillgrove, The Scholar’s Companion & Ballroom Vade-Mecum, Turnbull & Co, New York, 1857.
George Routledge (éd.), The Ball-Room Companion, George Routledge & Sons, Londres, 1868.
E. B. Reilley, The Amateur’s Vademecum, A practical Treatise on the Art of Dancing, J. Nicholas, Philadelphie, 1870.
Constantine Carpenter, Glides, Waltzes, Galops, Quadrilles, Etc., Philadelphie, 1879.
T. Erp. Sichore, A Treatise on the Elements of Dancing, The Bankcroft Company, San Francisco, 1891.
Conclusion
La Tempête needs no introduction. This country dance was a favourite at balls throughout the 19th century. As with all successful dances, numerous versions were published. This gave dancing masters as many variations to present to their students.
In the end, it doesn’t matter which version you choose to teach, as long as you keep it light and fun. Also, La Tempête lends itself best to a large number of dancers. If there are only 16 of you, for example, half the dancers are inactive every other rehearsal, which is a shame.
Which version of La Tempête do you prefer?
