Capering & Kickery

Death by Persuasion (Midsomer Murders, Season 19, Episode 5)

I'm always pleased to see any film or television production make an effort to get the historical dancing right, but it's a big surprise when it more-or-less happens in a television series, which one doesn't necessarily expect to have the budget for a dance historian as choreographer and the proper music, or anyone on staff who even knows they need such.  I plowed reluctantly through a ninety-minute episode of a television show that, on the whole, I had no interest whatsoever in only to experience the delightful surprise of just under seven minutes of historically correct music and dancing that ranged from "acceptable kludge for television" to "wow, they got it RIGHT!"

That, as they say, was unexpected.  

Spoiler: I think I spotted Ellis Rogers, who literally wrote the book on quadrilles, in the background of a couple of scenes.  His involvement would explain a lot.  Unfortunately, the credits for the episode list Jim Parker for the music (which he may have played, conducted, or arranged, but certainly didn't compose) and no one at all for dance or choreography.  Edited 2/28/20 to add: Meryl Thomson of Green Ginger confirmed in the comments below that some of their recordings of Duval's Lancers were used in this episode.

Dancing in Love & Friendship

After I saw Love & Friendship back in June, I mentioned in my post on the Kentucky Reel that I would talk about the dance scene in more detail once I could get my hands on the DVD and watch it more carefully.  That having finally occurred this month, here are a few thoughts.  

The short version is that while the music is accurate to the era, which is a pleasant change from many other Jane Austen adaptations, and the scene effectively captures the general feel of a small, informal dance of that era, the actual choreography fails in the details.  There are just too many alterations to the traditional choreography to call it truly authentic.  But it's a reasonable effort, much better done than in most Austen films, and many of the modifications are at least nineteenth-century in style, so overall it does not irritate me the way other, more wildly inaccurate, dance scenes do.