{"id":17346,"date":"2023-10-18T15:05:45","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T15:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/?p=17346"},"modified":"2025-02-03T16:27:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:27:45","slug":"dancing-with-the-stars-1830-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.udel.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/18\/dancing-with-the-stars-1830-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing With the Stars, 1830 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By David Cardillo, Digital Initiatives and Preservation<\/em><\/p>\n

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Thanks to Dancing With the Stars, when one hears the term \u201cballroom dance,\u201d they usually conjure images of the waltz or tango along with movies like Dirty Dancing and Shall We Dance? Many dance styles fall under the fairly large umbrella of ballroom dance, which also encompasses any kind of dance involving a partner. As such, it has a very large social component not typically present in other forms of dance.<\/p>\n

A section of the Lewis Family Papers in our Special Collections, which are freely and digitally available, contains written instructions on how to do several 19th-century ballroom dances. These dances would now be considered folk, country or cotillion dances, from which some ballroom dances evolved. At the time, these were the dances the upper echelons of society were practically required to know for formal functions, and the regular folk learned as a matter of social fun and a way to meet new people.<\/p>\n

One of the dances mentioned in this subset of papers, \u201cThe Irish Washwoman,\u201d is described below.<\/p>\n

\"Handwritten

Handwritten instructions for the Irish Washwoman dance.<\/p><\/div>\n

Irish Washwoman<\/em><\/p>\n

The first couple, cross right hands with the second couple, and dance once round, change hands, and dance back to your places, then the first couple dances down in the middle, and up again, cut off the second couple, and right and left with them. Then dance 4 hands round with them and back again. (And so on with the next couple.) And when you are done this, you ought to be in the second couples’ place. And they in yours. Then dance with the next couple.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The following YouTube video<\/a> accurately demonstrates the dance as textually described above, with a few Celtic cultural embellishments.<\/p>\n

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