The name means “the Volga quadrille.” It is from the Volga River area of the Saratov region, southern Russia. As a dance type, the quadrille was first introduced in ballrooms in Russian cities in the nineteenth century as a result of upper-class connections with France and other Western European countries. Later it became popular among all parts of the population, in villages as well as in the countryside. Before the quadrille, with its fixed figures, sequences and dance and music forms, Russians always danced in an improvisational fashion. For them, the most remarkable element of a quadrille was the fact that the figures were fixed, not so much the quadratic shape of the original French quadrille. As a result, Russians named dances in other shapes, like couples on a line, also “quadrille.” Nowadays, even dances in a circle can be called quadrille. This Volga quadrille is a line quadrille (lineynaya kadril), learned from Olga Zolotova, who was a solo dancer with the Pyatnitskiy Folk Ensemble from Moscow, where she later became the director of the dance school. The dance is derived from a staged folklore performance and was first presented by Olga Zolotova at a dance trip to Russia in 1989.

Presented by Radboud Koop in 2010. View pdf here.