FIRST PART A SHORT HISTORY OF DANCE FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE BEGINNING OF THE 19TH CENTURY CHAPTER 8 THE CONTRADANCES IN THE REGENCY ERA 8.1 Regency Era The expression Regency dance today refers to the dances in vogue in England in the period from approximately 1790 to 1825, even if the actual Regency in the British Kingdom lasted only from 1811 to 1820. The beginning of the Regency, in fact, it is conventionally equated with the Act of Parliament of 1811 which awarded the Regency of the Kingdom to the eldest son of King George III due to his father's mental illness. The decade of regency of the future George IV was marked by the Napoleonic wars in Europe and by a particularly lively cultural climate at home. With the nascent Romantic movement, novelists such as Jane Austen and Walter Scott, poets such as Lord Byron, John Keats, William Blake and William Wordsworth, artists such as John Constable and William Turner established themselves in this period. A particular phenomenon of custom, in England as in the France of the Restoration, was dandyism, from which the Prince Regent George himself and his court of libertine gentlemen, more involved in worldly life than in the government of the country, did not escape. The dandies were the elegant men whose behavior was inspired by Lord G.B. Brummell, considered the arbiter of London elegance. Their display of elegance in their manners and dress was accompanied by forms of exasperated individualism, ironic detachment from reality and rejection of bourgeois mediocrity. The dandy stood out in his clothing for an exaggerated attention to detail: he wore long trousers, blue jackets and tailcoats for the evenings; the new attention to the personal hygiene of gentlemen is due, among other things, to the abandonment of unhygienic wigs. Victorian historian Thomas Carlyle defines the dandy as "a man whose trade, office and existence consists in wearing clothes." With his lifestyle, his attitude and his refined elegance, the dandy intended above all to distance himself from a mass that he despised and whose egalitarian principles he did not share. In the England of those years, the growing well-being produced by the industrial revolution contrasted with the social degradation caused to the working class by the same mechanization that had so much improved the income and style of the small and medium bourgeoisie. In Georgian times, dancing was considered an essential "skill" for both women and men, including the military, not only for the pleasure of dancing, but to acquire elegance and poise. Young people from good families had to know how to dance, and dancing was part of their education especially in view of major social events. As happened among the nobles of previous centuries, in upper middle class families the children were taught by the dance master and even some schools provided dance courses, an activity that had a place of honor in social life. The privileged classes gathered in public halls and private homes, or outdoors, when the weather permitted, to dance the night away. Dance parties were often planned months in advance and had hundreds of guests. In the large residences of the wealthy classes and in country houses, balls were an opportunity to show off wealth and prestige so much so that the most prominent families competed to host the most coveted event of the season, but small dance parties were improvised in any private living room simply by moving the furniture and having someone play the piano. 8.2 Debutante balls The girls' debut in society was expected between the ages of seventeen and twenty-three with a series of events and receptions that culminated with the presentation of the young girl at court. The climate of social life of girls from good families of the time is masterfully described by Jane Austen in her novels. The presentation at court was very expensive, but it introduced the young woman to society life and offered her the possibility of finding a husband. In particular for the gentry, exponents of the small hereditary nobility, their debut in society was an unmissable opportunity to procure an advantageous marriage for their daughters, who, if they had not yet married at the age of twenty-three, were thoughtful spinsters, even if an obstacle to it could be caused by the presence of older sisters: until they married the younger one could not be introduced into society. At the time of the regency of George IV, the presentation of the debutantes to the queen took place during a reception, the Queen's Charlotte Ball, which inaugurated the social season which lasted from April to June. For the occasion, the girls had to dress in white and enter the party introduced by a lady from the queen's entourage or accompanied by her mother. When presenting to the queen they had to respect strict rules of etiquette. They never had to speak unless directly asked and, when they retreated, they had to avoid turning their backs on the sovereign by walking backwards with their heads bowed. For men, however, there was no rigid ceremonial, although they still had to be introduced by those who already frequented the court. Boys and girls anxiously awaited the start of the social season, as occasions where young people of both sexes could meet were rare outside of these events. The rules of etiquette were quite strict even when it came to dancing: it was not considered appropriate for a girl to dance more than twice in a row with the same partner during the same party. 8.3 Steps and choreography in Regency dances In the figurative dances of the Regency era, couples crossed and exchanged with rather complicated steps and complex choreography. English social dancing of the 1770s had been heavily influenced by France as early as the late 1760s, when the Allemande and Cotillon had been introduced. The Empire style had lightened the styles of the clothes allowing greater freedom of movement compared to previous eras. Women's dresses had almost geometric lines, high waists, cone skirts and balloon sleeves. To make the clothes, soft colored fabrics were used, often inlaid with gems, pearls and gold and silver thread embroidery. Silk, despite being highly appreciated, was not used for ball gowns as it would have highlighted sweat stains, but with the industrial revolution and the introduction of the first automatic loom it was possible to have equally light yarns such as gauze and muslin. The hairstyles were high and elaborate, enriched with compositions of flowers and feathers. In the quadrilles and cotillions, country dances performed to adaptations of popular or theatrical music, four pairs of dancers arranged themselves in a square and exchanged with those in the opposite corner. In England later the positioning in two rows that moved along diagonal lines from one end to the other prevailed. In the first phase, the couples at the beginning and end of the two rows facing each other move their steps along the lines, then all the dancers form simple figures such as the "bridge", formed by the hands of the couples touching each other while holding their arms stand up while the pairs of dancers cross it from the last row. During these dances, the only contact between the participants was the discreet contact of the hands or arms. Early nineteenth-century dance masters revived country dances as if they were a new phenomenon, rediscovering Scottish reels, Scottish country dances and country dances of sixteenth-century tradition, which were usually performed as a conclusion to the dance. Many dance masters of the time, of which the best known is Thomas Wilson, published numerous books on dance. This abundance of original sources offers a nuanced view of Regency Era social dance trends. Thanks to steam printing, which allowed 1,100 sheets per hour to be printed compared to the previous 200, publishing had a significant development and publications dealing with musical and dance art multiplied, awakening a new interest in music and dance.