My Account
| |
Help
My Dashboard
My Dashboard
Get Published
Home
Books
Academic eBook Collections
eBook Library Collections
Graphic Novel Collections
Journal and Magazine Collection
Audio eBook Collection
Library Exhibits
Search
Support
How-To Tutorials
Suggestions
Machine Translation Editions
Noahs Archive Project
About Us
Terms and Conditions
Get Published
Submission Guidelines
Self-Publish Check List
Why Choose Self-publishing?
Home
|
Books
|
Search
|
Support
|
About Us
|
Sign in with your eLibrary Card
close
We appreciate your support of online literacy with your eLibrary Card Membership. Your membership has expired. Please click on the Renew Subscription button in the SUBSCRIPTION AND BILLING section of your Settings tab.
Close
Most Popular
New Releases
Top Picks
Kid 25's
Library Exhibits
Social Seduction
Ballroom Dancing
Social Seduction
Orchésographie : Complete Book
(by
Arbeau, Thoinot
)
Polite and Social Dances; A Collection o...
(by
Hofer, Mari Ruef
)
Natural rhythms and dances
(by
Col, Gertrude K
)
Social dancing of to-day
(by
Kinney, Troy
)
Complete Quadrille Call Book and Dancing...
(by
Wirth, A. C
)
The Dance of Society : A Critical Analys...
(by
De Garmo, William B.
)
Social Dance a Short History
(by
A. H. Franks
)
The Ball-Room Bijou, And Art of Dancing ...
(by
Durang, Charles
)
In centuries past, the delicate act of social introduction for the upper echelons of society occurred in the ballroom. Closely chaperoned, eligible bachelors and unmarried ladies became acquainted, conversed, and developed relationships all with a trifold purpose of exercise, social networking, and finding a spouse in these civilized settings. In glittering ballrooms and dressed in their finest clothes, Europe’s gentry and North America’s moneyed class hunted for wealth and status.
Ballroom dancing or
social dancing
occurred in partners, ladies paired with gentlemen. Couples followed prescribed steps to sets of music with certain tempos and patterns given specific names:
minuet
,
quadrille
(which branched into square dancing),
polonaise
,
polka
,
mazurka
, and so forth.
The Ball-room Bijou, and Art of Dancing
(1850) by Charles Durang describes these and other social dances along with “rules for polite behavior.” The aforementioned historic dances later yielded to the
waltz
,
foxtrot
,
cha-cha
,
tango
, and other modern styles evolving from mainly Latin influences.
Ballroom dancing took firm hold of high society in the 16th century with the publication of
Orchésographie
(1588) by Thoinot Arbeau. The book analyzes contemporary social ballroom behavior and the interaction between musicians and dancers, as well as aligning dance steps of the
basse danse
, branle,
pavane
, and galliarde (a.k.a. cinq pace) with music. In 1650, composer Jean-Baptiste Lully refined a peasant dance (the poitou), set it to music, and called it the minuet. The French dance reigned supreme in upper class ballrooms until the scandalous waltz debuted in 1812.
The first in a line of famous and popular composers,
Johann Strauss I
(1804 - 1849) claimed fame as a Romantic Age composer of waltzes, although is son
Johann Strauss II
(1825 - 1899) received the title “The Waltz King.” Scandalous because of the closed embrace of the dancers, the waltz found favor with its relatively simple steps and capacity for allowing partners to hold entire conversations. Around the same time, Miss Berry introduced the quadrille into English ballrooms. By 1813, the upper classes knew it by heart, and it dominated Victorian Age balls.
In the early 20th century, Jazz and Latin American verve influenced music, which led away from
sequence dances
to dancing in which the partners moved independently of each other.
Vernon and Irene Castle
ignited the trend toward modern ballroom dance In the 1930s,
Fred Astaire
and
Ginger Rogers
set silver screens on fire with the elegance and romance of their dancing and gave rise to the modern sport of ballroom dancing.
More information on social dances with instructions for performance can be found in the following titles:
Polite and Social Dances
by Mari Ruef Hofer
Natural Rhythms and Dances
by Gertrude K. Colby
Social Dancing of To-day
by Troy Kinney
Complete Quadrille Call Book and Dancing Master
by A. C. Wirth
The Dance of Society
by William B. De Garmo
By Karen M. Smith
About Us
Privacy Policy
Contact Us
Copyright © World Library Foundation. All rights reserved. eBooks from World Library are sponsored by the
World Library Foundation
,
a 501c(4) Member's Support Non-Profit Organization, and is NOT affiliated with any governmental agency or department.