Dance Party Like It's 1499!
Making the most of your ballroom dancing is a laudable objective, and these days, you might wonder how: with partners masked and six feet away!
But these restrictions are nothing new! In times past, masks and distance only enhanced the romantic, mysterious allure of dancing with partners.
MASKS
Masks have played a prominent role in the long and glorious history of social dancing. In the 15th and 16th centuries, they were featured in Carnival masquerade balls, (hence our word for this face covering, mask) held by the wealthy merchant classes of Venice. All sorts of delicious shenanigans took place when no one knew who was who!
DANCING AT A DISTANCE
Social dancing — dancing to celebrate community- goes back to primitive times, whenever people needed ways to celebrate or mourn events that affected the entire group: deaths, marriages, hunts, harvests. But partner dancing is of more recent origin. The formal dances of the European upper classes that became popular as early as the 1300s were a means of connecting individuals with potential mates, and as such, were strictly monitored for unacceptable physical contact. Slow, stately "processional" dances (bassadance, pavane, almain) and fast, lively dances (galliard, coranto, canario) allowed eagle-eyed chaperones to keep an eye, as best they could, on any untoward behavior.
WALTZING (gasp!) and beyond
The waltz, introduced in London in 1816, shocked proper society to its core with its close hold and simple steps. Waltzing was condemned as vulgar and sinful; is it any surprise it was madly popular? The taboos fell and the floodgates opened and partner dancing has been part of a full life ever since.
Today, due to public health concerns, we have a temporary return to the taboos of the past. But like our inventive forbears, that's not going to stop us from dancing. Through use of organizational tools like Zoom and advance planning, people can gather, masked and at a socially acceptable distance.
To talk more about this, or anything else, please Contact Us. Thanks.
Here's one intrepid organizer determined to keep on dancing.