VERNON & IRENE CASTLE

Closed position -- their famous "Castle Walk" (click on the thumbnails for a larger photo)	In this photo, the Castles are demonstrating a nice shadow position, Vernon a bit behind and to the left of Irene, trail feet free.	In this photo, the Castles are in a semi-closed or promenade position, and they have lunged forward on their lead feet with what looks like a strong checking action. I suspect that they will recover, step back in a one-step whisk; and then launch into a promenade weave;;
		(NOTE: Whenever you notice strange punctuation in these pages, know that I am describing the timing of the action. A comma separates two beats of a measure, and a semi-colon marks the end of a measure. Above, I am suggesting that the "lunge, -, recover, whisk;" took one measure, and that the weave will take two measures.)

These photos are taken from Modern Dancing by Vernon and Irene Castle, originally published in 1914 by The World Syndicate Co., NY, reprinted by Lacis Publications, Berkeley, CA, 1998. The Castles first danced together professionally in Paris in 1912. They exhibited a new American dance, the Grizzly Bear. Their professional life extended for only a few years, through the First World War, but they were extremely influential in the dramatic growth of ballroom dancing in the United States at that time.