Dancing in Jane Austen's time

[Elendil_s_Heir]

How many dances would a well-bred gentleman or lady of Austen’s day have been expected to know? I’ve been watching the latest version of Emma on PBS’s Masterpiece Classic. In the third episode, there’s a ball, and requests are made of the band to play different dances, which everyone then seems to know.

[Kimstu]

Nineteenth Century Social Dance

Group dances continued to dominate ballrooms during the early nineteenth century, especially the quadrille that evolved from the eighteenth-century contredanse française (also known as the cotillon). The ten or twelve changes that alternated with the figure, as was required in the contredanse française, were replaced by combining the figures, now called sets, to create a single dance. Performed by four couples facing a square, each set of figures, usually five, was performed to its own music, consisting of eight-bar phrases. A brief pause would separate each set. During the early nineteenth century, the dancers were required to bow to each other and their corners during the first eight bars of each set. By the middle of the century, the dancers simply waited for the eight bars to pass before starting the figures. Examples of some of the components that made up figures included: Forward and Backward; Going to the Right and Left; Crossing Over; Balance (also known as “set to partners”); Hands Around, English Chain (also known as Right and Left), Ladies’ Chain, and Moulinet. […]

Late eighteenth-century contredanses were performed with a series of step sequences, and this tradition continued into the early nineteenth century. The most frequent combination of steps performed in quadrilles consisted of three chassés, a jeté, and an assemblé, used for figures such as the English Chain, Ladies’ Chain, and Half Promendade. An 1817 manual, Elements and Principles of the art of dancing, described step sequences that also required sissoné, two varities of échappé, temps levé, and glissade. Alexander Strathy, in his 1822 Elements of the art of dancing, adds more steps including changement, coupé, pas de zephyre, jeté tendu, and pirouette. Other authors, including Carlo Blasis (The code of terpsichore, 1830), suggested additional ornamental steps, which had an enormous range of technical difficulty; after the 1830s, many of the steps were simplified or dancers would simply walk through the figures. […]

The Scotch reel was a group dance that was performed in small groups of three to eight dancers and was popular in Britain and parts of the United States. It was rarely seen by mid-century, but descriptions of some of the lively ballroom steps (See Video Clip 49), such as kemshóole, kemkóssy, and lematrást were recorded in Francis Peacock’s 1805 Sketches relative to the history and theory, but more especially to the practice of dancing. Published in Aberdeen, the treatise is today also important for its description of the early nineteenth-century minuet.

So, it looks like various forms of contredanse derivatives such as the cotillon and the quadrille, as well as the reel and the minuet, were standard parts of the dance repertoire.

I think it might be a bit off-target to think of the early 19th-century dance repertoire as made up of separate dances, the way we now distinguish between the waltz, the polka, the two-step, the tango, and so on. It may be that what people considered the basic knowledge of dance consisted rather of separate steps and figures, which could be combined in different ways in different dances.

[Dangerosa]

@Kimstu

Nineteenth Century Social Dance

So, it looks like various forms of contredanse derivatives such as the cotillon and the quadrille, as well as the reel and the minuet, were standard parts of the dance repertoire.

I think it might be a bit off-target to think of the early 19th-century dance repertoire as made up of separate dances, the way we now distinguish between the waltz, the polka, the two-step, the tango, and so on. It may be that what people considered the basic knowledge of dance consisted rather of separate steps and figures, which could be combined in different ways in different dances.

Similar to - say - knowing the Electric Slide and the Macarena and the Hustle and the Chicken Dance. A series of steps done in pretty much the same order.

And since it isn’t unreasonable to expect at least a few people who go to a lot of weddings to be able to do all four of the above dances (and maybe a few more), it probably isn’t unreasonable for someone in Austen’s time to know half a dozen step sequences or more when balls and dances were a frequent entertainment and learning such things were part of a young lady or gentleman’s education.

[Arnold_Winkelried]

@Dangerosa

It probably isn’t unreasonable for someone in Austen’s time to know half a dozen step sequences or more when balls and dances were a frequent entertainment and learning such things were part of a young lady or gentleman’s education.

If only today’s young ladies and gentlemen were forced to learn square-dancing, we wouldn’t be subjected to these modern abominations known as krumping or grinding.

[Sattua]

The dancing in Jane Austen’s time is really comparable to country line dancing, I’ve always thought. There are some standards in the repertoire, and then at any one gathering there will be “fads” for certain dances which, consequently, everyone learns.

The country dances of Jane Austen’s time were later replaced by one-on-one waltzing, which was considered scandalous at first.

[Lamia]

A lot of these country dances didn’t involve everyone demonstrating their best moves at once. For some only one couple (or one couple in each group) was actually dancing at a time while everyone else basically just stood there, or only one couple was doing complicated steps while the others were doing pretty simple ones. This is why the couples in Austen novels had so much time to chat during dances! But it also meant that if you didn’t really know the dance, you’d have a chance to watch the lead couple and then try to imitate them when it was your turn to be the featured couple.

[Perciful]

Jane Austen waltzes almost reminded me of the one in the movie, A knights Tale. Very proper and lots of changing of partners. Kind of like speed dating in a dance. Synchronized almost which makes them nice to watch as well as take part in.

[Kimstu]

@Perciful

Jane Austen waltzes almost reminded me of the one in the movie, A knights Tale.

Nitpick: The dances shown in any (historically informed) dramatization of a Jane Austen novel are not waltzes. As Sattua noted, the prolonged semi-embrace required in a couples’ dance like the waltz was not considered proper among the British upper classes of the time period in which her novels are set.

The movie A Knight’s Tale, of course, is not really intended to be a historically informed dramatization of anything.

[runcible_spoon]

I’ve done a little historic dancing, and while I don’t know how accurate that is, it’s actually even more standardized than line dancing (which I’ve also done). Because a lot of moves have specific names, to learn a dance, you really just have to know what moves to do in what order. Line dancing is a little more fluid; there are moves that come up a lot, but naming doesn’t seem to be as standardized, and not all steps have names. Kind of like the difference between learning what words to put together, vs all the letters in a sentence.

In fact, if anyone’s done Contra dancing, it’s very close to that - there’s sometimes even a caller, who will list the moves you need to do, and explain any unusual steps. Not that I think there would have been a caller back in the day, but it wouldn’t take long for a dance instructor to go through a dance. Experienced contra dancers can pick up a new dance in one or two walkthroughs, and I’d expect the same for well-educated dancers back then.

[Dangerosa]

@Arnold_Winkelried

If only today’s young ladies and gentlemen were forced to learn square-dancing, we wouldn’t be subjected to these modern abominations known as krumping or grinding.

When I was in Jr. High (30+ years ago) we had several weeks worth of dance in gym class. Including square dancing, but also the box waltz, polka and lindy. Disco had died, but we got the hustle as well. I don’t recall that it stopped the mosh pits of my college years.

[Perciful]

Maybe this will help.

Contra Dancing was very popular in NH. I tried it once and it was very fast. I almost got my right arm pulled out of the socket. The next day I felt beaten to a pulp. My friend did not tell me much except it was country dancing.

http://www.georgianindex.net/Dance/dance.html