THE GRAND MARCH.
The Grand March is a feature of all formal balls. It generally marks the beginning of the evening’s festivities, but may, for special reasons, be deferred to a later point in the programme. In order to make the march an agreeable feature of the evening’s pleasures, it should be led off by a gentleman and lady who understand the details of the necessary evolutions, assisted, in case of necessity, by one or more of the floor committee, whose services may be called upon to preserve uniformity of action through the march. All marching should be done in straight lines, following the direction of the walls of the rooms, the change of direction being made precisely at each corner. The leader and his partner should lead the march; moving slowly once or twice round the room, to give all the couples time to fall in and follow.
THE MARCH IN FILE.
As soon as all are in order the leader should head the line of march up the middle of the room; when he has reached the top, he turns to the left, and his partner to the right; the gentlemen all follow him in single file, the ladies following the leading lady in the same manner; when the leaders of the two lines arrive at the bottom, they pass to the left of each other, the gentlemen marching round the room on the outside, and the ladies inside them, and in the opposite direction. When the first gentleman meets his partner again at the top of the room, they both march together again round the room to the right, followed by the other couples in their order. The leader should be careful to introduce sufficient plain marching between each figure to get all the couples following him in column before commencing a new evolution.
THE MARCH IN COLUMN.
The first couple lead round the room until the leader reaches the bottom left-hand corner. There, instead of turning upwards at right angles up the side of the room, the first couple should file to the right and march in a line parallel with the advancing couples, but in an opposite direction across the room; as each couple successively arrives at the same corner, they file to the right and follow their leader. When the leader has got across the room, the first couple should file to the left, and march straight across back again, and so on, forming a serpentine line of march backwards and forwards across the room until the top of the room is reached. To make this effective, it requires a considerable number of couples, so that there will be at least four lines, constantly passing each other in opposite directions, and forming a very pleasing appearance. When the first couple reach the top of the room, they lead the march round the room again, until all the couples are following them in regular column.