European Ballroom Dances of the second quarter of the 19th century
(Barbara Menard-Pugliese)

Between the 1810s and the 1860s ballroom dance changed dramatically. At the beginning of the century triple minor country dances and quadrilles in two-couple sets were very common. After the introduction of the polka and the flat-footed German waltz, ballroom preferences began to favor turning couples dances and four-couple quadrilles. There was still a need for dances that "may be joined in by all the company present," so contra dances developed to meet the need.

A new form of contra dance appeared that involved couple facing couple in a large circle, often described as a circassian circle. Another contra dance style arranged the dancers in lines of side-by-side couples as in La Tempete.

We will teach dances that became popular in English and European ballrooms during the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s. There will be marches, country dances, and contra dances and these will show a change from the triple minor set, where one out of three couples is more active than the others, to circassian circles and other formats, where all dancers are active all of the the time.

Barbara Menard-Pugliese, Medford, Massachusetts, USA:

Barbara Pugliese has been co-director of the Commonwealth Vintage Dancers since 2007. Founded in 1983, CVD specializes in reconstructing, teaching, and performing American ballroom dances of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. The dance company sponsored an international dance week in Newport, Rhode Island for 25 years, and are currently hosting seven formal balls a year as well as performing for museums and festivals. Barbara researches ballroom dances from 1770 to 1929, and is an expert in material culture and women's studies of the same time period. She has a Masters in Library and Information Science and has worked as an administrator for human rights charities and academic institutions.

American Ball Dances from the turn of the 19th C.
(Alan Jones)

The evening will begin with longways dances featuring music and figures by Pierre Landrin Duport, from his United States Country Dances ("The New Hampshire Allemande," "The Massachusetts Hop"), continuing with one or two of his cotillions.

Alan Jones, Paris, Frankreich:

Alan Jones is an American dance historian based in Paris. After performing as a Baroque dancer in the United States and Europe, he is presently working on a book concerning ballet and pantomime in the United States from 1785 to 1812. His first book, Dictionnaire du désir de la bonne chère (Honoré Champion, 2011), concerned culinary history in the eighteenth century.

"New from France": Cotillons in Georgian London
(Anne Daye)

In contrast to the English country dance, the contredanse française or cotillon always had a strong French character even when composed by English masters. The numerous publications from c.1770 to c.1815 in London, Bath, Cambridge and Norwich are testimony to the popularity of this creative and sociable form throughout the Napoleonic Wars. Superseded by the quadrille, the cotillon had established many of the figures of the square set. It was danced by Jane Austen who noted in one of her last letters thanking her niece Fanny for the gift of a music book: ‘Much obliged for the Quadrilles which I am grown to think pretty enough, though they are very inferior to the Cotillions of mine own day’. Cotillon balls were a feature of the assembly room programmes, with inventive figures, delightful steps and charming music.

The cotillons will include: L’Entrée du Bal by Nicholas Lemaire 1773, Les Ombre Chinois by Thomas Budd c. 1780, Lison Dormoit by Francis Werner 1780

Anne Daye, Bedford, Grossbritannien:

Dr. Anne Daye is an experienced teacher and dance leader. Her core research both practical and theoretical concerns the Renaissance dance culture of the Elizabethan and Stuart courts, leading to a doctoral thesis on the Jacobean masque. Her interest in dancing in England then continues with the country dance in the 18th and 19th centuries, with a special focus on the dancing scene of Jane Austen’s world. Anne is Director of Education and Research for the Historical Dance Society.