Castle Walk Dance History

   The Castle Walk was originated in New York in 1912 by America's dancing darlings and foremost authority to the dancing public: Vernon (1887-1919) and Irene Castle (1893-1969). The Castles created the dance to try to inspire others to come to their new Castle House (a dance studio) located in New York. By 1913 they would take it to Paris and introduce it at the Cafe de Paris. In their book Modern Dancing, The Castle's refer to the Castle Walk as: "The sliding and poetical Castle Walk."

   The dance walk was very different than the, Two-step and Waltz of the day and was soon to become a favorite by the masses. The Castle walk was an offshoot of the One Step, which both eventually merged together and became one, except the Castle Walk music is slower than the One Step. The Castle Walk eventually merged with the American Tango as well. The Castle Walk was perfromed in military precision, taking two steps, or one step per beat, never raising the foot from the floor, and using a smooth gliding step. The dancers often walk around in various designs, such as a large figure eight, square or circle, or in the winding fashion of a snake. The principal figures in the Castle Walk are the walk forward, walk backward, turning several times to the right and to the left, going in circles, and even skipping at times while incidentally varying this with Dips and Hesitation Steps, etc.

   The Castle Walk was really just that, a walk, which could go the entire length of a hall or ballroom, while the Lady danced continuously backwards (which before was taboo, as the men were the ones to go backwards) except for certain patterns.

   The dance basically consists of walking in a circle, square, zig-zag, figure eight, and serpentine line of dance, etc. The Arm was under the ladies arm but a little higher than normal during the time and the dance was supposed to have the "I DON'T CARE flair about it while being danced and was not to become difficult in the steps altho the lady was supposed to stay up on her toes the entire time. The dance came with many variations. It was "Quite The Thing". The Castle Walk replaced the Fish Walk in popularity.

James Reese Europe and Ford Dabney wrote most of the Castles music including the Castle Walk. The Castles supposedly introduced the dance at Louis Martin's in New York in 1912. The Castles worked there quite often.

   The Castle Glide, an offshoot of the Castle Walk was created by Albert Newman around 1914. This was quite a jolly dance and was very easy to execute. Dancers were in closed position. Newman explains:
(1) "The gentleman walks four steps forward, left foot,
(2) Right foot,
(3) Lleft foot,
(4) Right foot. Then Chassez (a chasing of one foot by the other) or a glide to the left four times performed as follows:
(1) Left foot-to side, second position; right foot close up to it, First Position (x).
(2) Repeat this movement three more times, counting (2) (x) (3) (x) (4); this takes two measures. On the last step there is a half turn of the body to the right. The Chassez movement is then repeated to the right two measures.
(1) After which turn to the right with five steps of the Castle Walk left foot back,
(2) Right foot forward,
(3) Left foot back,
(4) Right foot forward,
(5) Left foot back,
(6) Dip on the right foot back count,
(7) Rise and transfer the weight forward on the left foot,
(8) And step forward on right foot on the eighth count. Repeat the entire dance.
-- Music 2/4 (Ragtime). A trifle slower than the Castle Walk".

   A few "European historians" claim that the Castle Walk was really the Foxtrot (IT DEFINITELY WAS NOT :) and so state that the Foxtrot was really invented by the Castles, rather than Harry Fox. (Since Vernon was English, they try to claim the Foxtrot as an English dance, either way, it was still invented here in the USA as Vernon lived in the states.) However, if the Castle Walk was the base for Harry's rendition (it wasn't), it was Harry who first did the dance and Harry who got the credit and Harry who got it as a namesake. The original Foxtrot done by Mr. Fox as described in 1912, was not even close to the Castle Walk descriptions of the same date.

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Basic Step: ...

Paraphrased from Modern Dancing:
1) Dancers stand directly in front of each other, The followers right. hand in the leaders left.
The leaders right hand should be a little above the followers waist line, ladies left hand on his
right shoulder.
2) The leader usually starts forward on his left foot and the follower backward on her right foot.
3) Walking in time to the music, taking a single step to each beat (very smoothly), raise yourself up
on your toes, keeping your legs a trifle stiff and breeze along happily and easily.
4) You can also move in a circle, then make the circle smaller and smaller. Its silly, but that's its
popularity.
Note: this was basically the same walk as the one step.