"To be fond of dancing is a certain step towards falling in Love"

-Pride and Prejudice

 

 

 

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Dancing features in several of Jane's novels and balls were a key social activity of the time, providing an opportunity for men and women to meet and court publicly. Jane doesn't describe the music or dancing in detail so for the most part it is mostly guesswork or imagination. 
 

Films and television programmes based on Jane Austen's work tend to feature English modern country dancing in which couples dance in a set, but this has come under criticism for being too smooth and stately. Regency dancing was actually considered to be quite lively and bouncy. I remember a documentary on television years ago on dancing of the period and it was actually quite energetic and many of the dancers were out of breath!

Balls could last from 4 to 6 hours and so could be extremely tiring, especially as the room would be very hot from the candlelight. A woman was expected not to turn down the offer of a dance as it would mean she would have to refuse all other invitations. This explains a little why Elizabeth Bennet does not kick up a fuss at having been asked to reserve the first two dances by Mr Collins in Pride and Prejudice. 

A woman could only dance with a man if she had been formally introduced to him. Mr Tilney requests the Master of Ceremonies to introduce him formally to Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey, and Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice avoids being introduced to any other woman in the room. If you danced with the same partner more than twice, it was generally assumed that you were engaged. 
 

 

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It was acceptable to talk to your partner whilst dancing as Elizabeth Bennet does with Mr Darcy - "conversation ought to be so arranged, as that they may have the trouble of saying as little as possible". Dancing was also an opportunity for physical intimacy without being considered improper. 

 

The cotillion was a popular dance of the time where couples would dance as a foursome in a square formation. During the Regency, the Waltz began to emerge, but it was not considered socially acceptable at first as it involved couples embracing. 

 

The quadrille was introduced around 1815, and was a shorter version of earlier cotillions as partner changes were often left out, and involved sets of five or six couples. In a letter in 1816 to her niece Fanny, Jane tells her she is "much obliged for the quadrilles, which I am grown to think quite pretty enough, though of course they are very inferior to the cotillions of my day".

 

Jane mentions another dance in a letter to Cassandra in 1796, La Boulangère. This was a dance saved for the end of the evening, and required little effort for those that had been dancing all night. Couples would stand in a circle, and one dancer at a time would go around the circle turning each dancer of the opposite sex in alternation with their own partner. 

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The patterns of dances were complicated and the steps and movements required practice before a ball. Dancing was one of the female accomplishments that Caroline Bingley lists in Pride and Prejudice, and many girls would have a dancing instructor. 

 

There are many societies and clubs that recreate the dances of Jane Austen if you are interested in trying any mentioned above and others.