Dancing is a way
to let go and to move your body in a manner that may seem silly to some, but
it’s a wonderful form of exercise and self-expression. Whenever I’m at a function where there’s
dancing, I find myself completely entertained by watching the dance moves of
others. Dancing, of course, has evolved
through the years, but people have been using different forms of dance since
prehistoric times. Dancing is depicted
on tomb walls in India and Egypt from as earlier as 3300 BC.
Dancing in
Regency England was a large part of the courting process. Gentlemen would often ask young ladies to
dance so they could speak without being overheard by the lady’s chaperone,
which was not easily accomplished otherwise.
This courting process made dancing an important skill to learn and it
was considered a necessary accomplishment.
The great
country homes held lavish balls and many gentile towns had an assembly room for
dancing. One of the most well known assembly
rooms in London was Almack’s.
At Almack’s
people had to purchase a subscription and obtain a voucher to be admitted, and
only the influential were permitted. So
if you were to make a good match for marriage, it was important that you
learned how to dance. To achieve this
end, dancing masters were hired and dance studios opened. From the waltz to the cotillion, the dance
floor is where flirting and lively conversation thrived and where two young
people could find love.
In the early
part of the Regency era, up until 1810, the country-dance, the cotillion, and
the scotch reel dominated the ballroom.
The country-dance
was a dance performed with a line of couples facing each other. These dances often began with each paired
couple dancing from the top of the line to the bottom and then returning to
their place back in line. Depending on
the number of people dancing, this could take an hour to complete. The leading lady, who was considered to be in
a position of honor, would decide the steps and music to be danced to.
The cotillion
was a patterned dance imported from France, which was performed with four
couples in a square formation and used elaborate dance steps. The changing of partners within the square
occurs during this dance, which allowed for introductions, and of course, more
flirting. The cotillion was introduced
to England around 1766. It reached America
by 1772.
The scotch reel
was popular in folk music. All reels
have the same structure, but reels are distinguished from a hornpipe by having
primarily even beats. The scotch reel is
a lively dance. There were many reels,
such as the Foursome reel or the Axum reel.
Reels usually have two parts and in most reels each part is repeated,
but in some they are not. The dancers
alternate from solo dancing by facing each other with intertwining progressive
movement. The threesome reel is said to
date back to the late 16th century and it looks much like the
traditional Irish step dancing of today.
In the 1810’s
things began to heat up on the dance floor as English dance began a transition
with the arrival of the quadrille and the wicked waltz.
The Waltz was
introduced around 1810, but it was in no way considered an acceptable form of
dance. A person embracing another on the
dance floor was a scandalous concept. The
waltz was not readily accepted in England until continental visitors, in
celebration after the Napoleonic wars, took to the dance floor to perform the
waltz. Although I should point out that
anti-waltz diatribes continued in the form of jokes and caricatures.
The quadrille
was first imported from France by Lady Jersey (one of the leading patronesses
of Almack’s) and it was a shorter version of the earlier cotillions. Dancers were assembled into five or six
figures. The changing of partners was
left out, producing shorter dances.
These dances became quite popular and a lady could find herself dancing
many quadrilles before the night was through.
There were many
dances that came into being during the Regency period as dancing masters began
to invent new forms of the country-dance, while borrowing forms from the
quadrille. Some of these dances had
exotic names, but most of these new dances held minor variations from the
classic form.
Regency dancing
did not die out with the era for there are many groups around the world who
partake in English period dances. One
place Regency dance has gained in popularity is at science fiction
conventions. Is anyone else as surprised
by this as I am? John Hertz, a SF fan, lawyer, and fanzine author, has made
Regency dance a tradition at the SF conventions in the US since the 1980’s and
it continues to this day. This allows
the SF community, who often wear costumes to the convention, to enjoy the period
clothing and costume of the Regency Era.
In these reconstructed ballroom settings, one can dance the night away
to Mozart, Beethoven, and Haydn. All
three of these men wrote dance music, but that’s a topic for another blog.
