I'm always keeping an eye out for more references to Regency-era or later Swedish dances, which I described in a series of posts a couple of years ago. The newest source I've turned up adds nothing to my understanding of the dances, but does provide a dandy demonstration of more nineteenth century plagiarism and evidence of their having crossed the Atlantic long before they appeared in America.
Dancing master William George Wells, Professor of Dancing "late of London", published The danciad, or companion to the modern ball room in Montreal in 1832. In his effort to introduce "new dances, as used in Europe" to the British colony, he appears to have lifted large parts of his dance manual directly from London dancing master J. S. Pollock, as seen in the second edition of Pollock's Companion to La Terpsichore Moderne (London, c1830).
The Swedish section is one of those parts. The introductory text is copied word-for-word from Pollock, right down to the abbreviations. The three figures I described in my post on Pollock's Swedish dances are identical, and given with identical wording. Even the irregular spacing of the first two lines in the diagram, which can be seen at left, is the same. The only major difference is spelling out "four" rather than using the numeral in notating how many parts each dance has.
Apparently the enterprising immigrant carried a copy of Pollock's work across the Atlantic with him, though I suppose there's some small possibility that Wells had previously published his work in England and that Pollock copied from him. In the absence of any earlier Wells manual, it seems most likely that Wells was the plagiarist here.
It's hard to say whether the Swedish dances were actually done in Quebec in this era. Wells published under the patronage of Lord and Lady Aylmer, the former being the fifth Baron Aylmer, appointed Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada from 1830-1835. Aylmer's tenure seems not to have been terribly successful, and he was apparently notable for favoring the English-speaking community over the French. Supporting (perhaps even importing) an English dancing master would fit with this, but one doubts that it would have made Wells popular among the francophones. But Wells seems to have been the first to bring the Swedish dances across the Atlantic, and with their appearance in his manual, at least the possibility of their having been danced in Canada in this era exists.
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