Last updated on December 1, 2003

Elegant Arts Society
English Regency Dance Repertoire

Dances you might expect to learn and practice at our workshops:

• Waltz - Thomas Wilson's 1816 sequence of French waltzes: the Slow French Waltz with march steps at the beginning, the Sauteuse, and the Jette (Quick Sauteuse).
  
  
• Country dances - In longways triple minor form, the core dance of the Regency ballroom. Tunes and dances are more or less interchangeable. Step sequences are from Thomas Wilson and Saltator. We also dance the quadrille-influenced variations of the late 1810's and early 1820's such as the Danse Ecossoise, Danse Espagnole, and Mescolanze.
  
  
• Quadrilles - the 18th century cotillion shortened and rejuvenated in the 1810's, these are "square" dances for four couples. These were usually danced from memory in sets of five or six; we dance the five figures of the original French Quadrille as well as later variations for the fourth and fifth figures (La Pastourelle and Le Garcon Volage). New for 2004 are Thomas Wilson's Royal Scotch Quadrilles (1824).
  
  
• Scotch Reel - The classic Reel for four as well as a New Reel of Four choreographed by Thomas Wilson in the early 1800's. Steps are from Francis Peacock (1805).
  
  
• Finishing dances - two dances of unusual set form were used as "finishing dances" - easy final dances which everyone could join in. La Boulangere, mentioned in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is a dance for a circle of couples. Sir Roger de Coverley is a longways dance which is the immediate ancestor of the American Virginia Reel.