Here's an interesting little tidbit that's a good reminder of some of the things we don't know about early nineteenth century social dance.
The article at left, "Present State of Dancing in Paris", appeared in the April, 1822, issue of Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine, better known as La Belle Assemblée.
The highlights:
"Spanish dances are quite the rage; and the term may be well applied to the Bularo, which, when danced in the best manner in Spain, always reminded me of two persons scolding each other: this dance, with the Fandango, is much in favour now in Paris; and the French ladies dance them in a manner, which would make one imagine they had long sojourned in Spain, or, at least, among the Pyrenees."
"Spanish dances" here seems to refer not to the variant country dance form but rather to dances for couples, or possibly for solo female dancers. Male and female dancers both use castanets, and the (presumably female) Fandango dancers wear "Chinese crape pantaloons lined with levantine."
"The waltz and Le Moulinet still, however, continue in high favour: the diversity of steps introduced in all dances is astonishing; and the agile movement of the small feet, all in white satin slippers, absolutely dazzle the eyes."
Note that these appear to have been exclusively French feet. English ladies are declared notable for the "elegance and vanity of their attire" and "the intrinsic worth of their jewels and ornaments".
I would guess Le Moulinet to refer to quadrilles, which were indeed blessed with a wild diversity of steps in this era. I'd be quite curious to know how diverse the waltz steps were; surviving sources don't provide nearly as much variation as for the quadrille.
"The shuffling step, I am sorry to say, à la Portugais, is not yet out of favour."
Apparently Portuguese steps were not as admired as Spanish ones.
Click the photograph to enlarge and read the whole thing!
Article photograph courtesy of Irene Urban, from her collection
of early nineteenth-century women's magazines.
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