Informal Dances

Dancing was also, of course, the recognised way to meet young eligible partners and escape for a moment from the watchful eye of their chaperones. The great country houses held lavish balls and every middle-sized town with any pretensions to gentility had its own Assembly Room where balls might be 'got up by subscription'. Because the old custom of presenting debutantes at court had fallen out of practice, daughters were presented to society at the grand balls and assemblies of the London season.

Dances could be elaborate and involve intricate steps so it was essential that young people should be taught to dance if they were to make a good 'match'.

The father of a great family might therefore hire a Dancing Master and invite the children of his acquaintances to come and learn the latest patterns and steps and hold informal parties and dances before the children 'came out'.

For the children of the increasingly wealthy middle classes many independent dance studios were opened and some of these Dancing Masters became famous in their own right.

The Assembly Rooms had strict rules of fashion. The most prestigious and fashionable place to dance was a social club for dancing and gambling called Almack's Assembly Rooms, in London. The Lady Patronesses at Almack's issued rules that no gentleman should appear unless dressed in knee-breeches, white cravat, and chapeau bras. On one occasion the Duke of Wellington was refused admission for being dressed in trousers. Invitations were highly desirable. It is said that in 1814 only 6 of the 300 officers of the Foot Guards were granted vouchers of admission. The ladies of Almack's were the arbiters of fashion for a generation, and dancing was their domain.

This was also an era of rapid technological change. The cost of printing had fallen significantly, and there was a demand for fashionable music and dance notation. Professional musicians and dance masters printed collections of dances in annual publications. These books made their way across the country, and were shipped out to the colonies. Many of the dances we know today come from these printed sources.

The Evolution of English Dance

The dances of the Regency era come from the long tradition of English Country Dances and share their inheritance with Scottish Country Dancing, but the dancing is smoother with an impression of swift lightness. Partners face each other in a line, and dance a sequence of elaborate figures as they work their way from the top of the dance to the bottom and back again. These are known as longways dances, or long dances. There were also round dances of various forms, though most of these were not danced by the Regency period.

The English Country Dances date from the 16th century, and were popular even then amongst the middle classes. The court dances such as the Gavotte and the Minuet had become ever more elaborate and stilted and the more light-hearted country dances were often performed to complete the evening. These were the dances that the vigorous young gentry danced until dawn guilded the ballroom windows, and they were the dances that survived.

The long dances were danced to traditional tunes or to music adapted from popular songs and stage works. These dances soon spread to France, where the English longways form became known as the Contredance Anglais, contrasting with the French Contradanse where the ladies stand to the right of their partner.

In return, the Cotillion and the Quadrille were imported into England from France. They are danced in a square formation. The Cotillion was introduced into England in about 1770, and was thus danced alongside the country dances throughout the Regency period. In her youth Jane Austen would certainly have danced Cotillions and country dances.

The Quadrille was a late-comer, formally accepted into English Society by the ladies of Almack's in 1815 though there is evidence that they were danced in the Duchess of Devonshire's house as early as 1803. The Quadrilles had their own lively steps and were often quite flirtatious.

Though Waltz music was being used in country dances by the mid 18th century, this must not be confused with the couple dance we now associate with Waltz music. When the couple waltz was first introduced by Baron Neuman in 1812 it was regarded as foreign and very shocking because of the physical contact involved. It only gradually became accepted by the ladies at Almack's. Captain Gronow, speaking of the Waltz, recorded in his memoires that "Baron de Neumann was frequently seen perpetually turning with the Princess Esterhazy; and, in course of time, the waltzing mania, having turned the heads of society generally, descended to their feet."