Schottische Quadrilles
Richard Powers

Performing quadrilles for an audience presents several problems, including the modest understated nature of quadrilles and the slower pace of life in the 19th century.  But the main problem with performing quadrilles for an audience is the repeats.  An audience only needs to see a figure once to understand and appreciate it — perhaps twice, if it's an interesting figure — but not four times.

We have two solutions:
1) Complain about the easily-bored mentality ("been there, seen that") of today's post-MTV audiences.
2) Acknowledge that our audience is going to be who they are, for better or worse, and strive to engage their attention.  In other words, we don't have a 19th century audience, so we work with whom we have.

If you have a knowledgable audience, I recommend performing all of the repeats.  Then if you want to keep the attention of an average audience, I recommend taking out the repeats and maybe even the pauses between the five figures.  Both choices are valid.

Here is how the five figures of my Philadelphia Schottische Quadrille can look with the repeats and pauses removed:

The description is here.

When Figure 3 is done only twice instead of four times, the ladies end up crossed over.  So the Half Ladies Chain in Figure 2 became a full Ladies Chain, to pre-emptively cross the ladies back.  Then a Zig-Zag Chorus in Figure 3 gets the men back home.

Here is another condensed version of a Schottische Quadrille, reconstructed by Merrell Fuson and performed by the Lexington Vintage Dancers.