By SUSAN MANUS
As reported last month, the release of the multimedia collection "An American Ballroom Companion: Dance Instruction Manuals, ca. 1490-1920" is now online in the Library's American Memory collections at www.loc.gov/. Following is an overview of this interesting site.
"An American Ballroom Companion" features more than 200 books relating to the instruction of social dance during the 400 years that are represented in the collection. In addition to dance instruction, the books cover related topics such as etiquette, dance history, anti-dance treatises and notation.
The newest feature of this site is 75 video clips of the dances that defined each era. Some of these are from a performance in full costume, and some are short "tutorial" demonstrations.
The complete collection represented by this Web site exists in the electronic version only. These dance books are housed among several different divisions in the Library; the Music Division, the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and the general collections.
Vicky Risner, head of Acquisitions and Processing in the Music Division, describes the featured books as "a hidden treasure. No one knew we had so much of this kind of material before, because it wasn't physically together."
The Dance Manuals in the Collection
In Renaissance Europe, the study of social dance was the privilege of only the wealthiest citizens, who had access to this activity through the royal court or by private instruction. Due in part to the tight, bulky clothing worn at that time, dances of the period (such as the galliard and branle) mainly concentrated on intricate footwork, deemphasizing the upper body. Most Renaissance dance manuals are by French and Italian dancing masters and include detailed descriptions of the dances, as well as illustrations and musical samples.
During the Baroque era, French dancing master Raoul Feuillet developed a new notation system that documented many of the dances popular at the French royal court. With the advent of this new written standard, group dances (such as the contredanse or country dance) were eventually spread to the American colonies. By the 19th century, there were many volumes of dance instruction published in the United States. These manuals represent the majority of the items in "An American Ballroom Companion."
The early 19th century manuals in this collection show the emphasis on group dances such as the quadrille. By the late 19th century, the popular group dance was the German cotillion or simply "German," which often included party favors or props. One manual in the collection, by the dance teacher Allen Dodworth, lists 250 variations of the German (with figures titled "basket" or "serpent" and some requiring props such as "the frogs" or "the stormy sea").
The waltz became the most popular of the 19th century "round dances," which also included the polka, galop, schottisch and others. Every instructional manual from the 19th century contains some discussion of the ubiquitous waltz.
"… a dancer should not attempt a step which he cannot perform with ease, because there can be no grace where there are contortions."
- Elements and Principles of the Art of Dancing,
J.H. Gourdoux-Daux, 1817
As in contemporary society, exercise was promoted in the early 19th century, as noted by James Cassidy in his book from 1810, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Dancing: "A merely studious and sedentary life is therefore equally prejudicial to the body and the mind."
Instructions on etiquette and decorum (such as table settings, etc.) were added to many 19th century dance manuals, in response to the growing trend toward more rules and regulations in polite society. William Greene's 1889 "Terpsichorean Monitor" includes discourse on the many rules of the time governing good behavior, including "When meeting a lady with whom you would like to converse, you should not stop her, but turn and accompany her in the direction she may be going; not forgetting, when taking your leave, to lift your hat."
"In conversation at the table, be careful not to speak while eating a mouthful; it is indecorous in the extreme."
-The Lady's Guide to Perfect Gentility,
Emily Thornwell , 1857
The effect of 19th century modesty is reflected in this quote from Allan Dodworth's Dancing and Its Relations to Education and Social Life, published in 1900; "The idea of one holding the other should not be too strongly entertained. To dance together in sympathetic time and motion ought to be the dominant thought." Dodworth also offers a reason to start dance training at an early age: "With children, the effort to move gracefully produces a desire also to be gracious in manner, and this is one of the best influences of a dancing-school."
"The practice of the slower movements refines and elevates the taste."
- Dancing and its
Relations to Education and Social Life,
Allan Dodworth, 1900
The turn of the century saw the advent of a distinctly American style of music, called "ragtime" and the emergence of a new, freer style of ballroom dance. These more individualistic dances included the cakewalk and the turkey trot, as well as the imported tango and the maxixe. These dances are described in the early 20th century manuals in the collection, including the well-illustrated Modern Dancing (1914) by Vernon and Irene Castle, who were popular exhibition dancers of the time.
From a practical standpoint, the actual steps can be put to the test, as many of the manuals provide step-by-step instructions for specific dances. In addition, volumes throughout the entire time frame of the collection often contain notation, floor patterns, elaborate illustrations or photographs.
This collection also contains a significant number of anti-dance treatises, often in the form of religious sermons. Some of the most emotional writings in the collection are found in books depicting the evils of dance, as in the 1892 publication From the Ballroom to Hell by one-time dancing master Thomas Faulkner. Faulkner makes his case for the dangers of the waltz and boldly states, "To stop this great tide of sin we must begin at its source. To close the doors of the brothel, close first the doors of the dancing school."
"The dress of a gentle man should be such as not to excite any special observation, unless it be for neatness and propriety."
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The Art of Dancing,
Edward Ferrero, 1859
Enhancement of American Memory Collections
This site is unique for the Library's Web site due to the number of complete books offered and for the multimedia options available. Each of the 200 books feature complete page images that can be viewed via an electronic "page turner," that is, the pages can be read consecutively, as in a book. Many of these books are also text converted in HTML, and also in SGML to enable extensive searching.
The newest feature of "An American Ballroom Companion" is the addition of 75 video demonstrations of many of these historic dances, enabling users to compare directly the written texts with the movements themselves. These short videos all feature professional dancers, some in full costume from a re-creation of an 1897 ball held at the Library of Congress in 1997 for the centennial of the Jefferson Building. The other videos feature one or two dancers in close-up "tutorials" of specific steps from the Renaissance to ragtime eras.
The site's most noteworthy feature is the extent to which these videos are linked; there is a complete listing in the Video Directory, as well as links in the relevant bibliographic records, book page images and background material. The video clips themselves are available in four different formats, a first for the American Memory site, in order to accommodate the wide variety of user equipment.
According to the National Digital Library's Morgan Cundiff, team leader for this project: "This Web site provided several design challenges. Our project team developed a new way to navigate between the full text of the dance manuals and the digital images of the corresponding pages. We also were able to provide a very thorough system of links to the accompanying video clips that illustrate various dances and movements."
The "Special Presentation" section of the site includes narrative material designed to assist users in assimilating the great amount of material in this collection. The first part is an overview of social dance history as it relates to the books in this collection. The second is a primer How to Use a Dance Manual, which provides an overview of the general importance of dance manuals and how to use a manual to learn a specific dance. This material was written by noted dance historian Elizabeth Aldrich, who served as special consultant for this project.
The material is valuable to researchers, according to Ms. Aldrich, because "the collection contains a wide range of important primary dance materials, covering the development of social dance from the early Renaissance to the 1920s and, second, this material is scarce — except in a few urban research collections. The field of dance research will be enhanced by its availability."
Ms. Manus is a specialist in the National Digital Library Program.