The rhythm of the dance allowed them to get in touch with their spirituality and sensuality; and interpretative dances told the stories of their past or predicted their future.
In the early seventeenth century, when the Europeans first became interested in the fur trade, they found the Canadian dances both titilating and appalling, since they were almost always performed naked; but to the Canadian people; who were not ashamed of their bodies; it was as natural as breathing.
These public dances were an opportunity for members of all social classes to meet and mingle, and people often travelled miles to attend them. Young mothers brought their babies and handed them to any onlooker when asked to dance. In 1842, N.P. Willis writes in Canadian Scenery:
"The dance is the amusement of which they are passionately fond. No inn is considered worthy of the name, unless it be provided with a spacious ballroom, which is called into requisition as often as convenience will permit. Intellectual recreations have not hitherto attracted all the attention which they merit. Mr. Talbot, during a residence of five years, never saw above two individuals with books in their hands; and, in one case, it was a medical treatise consulted for health"
As early as 1822, a traveller remarked on our passion for dancing in a letter home. "Our scouts informed us, that they had found in the cabin four or five Canadians, dancing to a sleeping fiddler, whose music ceased as soon as they awoke him" (Canadian Scenery)
"At Niagara, as in all parts of Canada, they are much attached to dancing. During winter, there are balls once a fortnight. These entertainments are not like many English Assemblies, mere bread and butter billets, where nothing is to be met with but cold tea and vapid negus, but parties at which the exhausted dancers may recruit with a substantial supper, and extend their diversion beyond the tame limits of eleven, and twelve o'clock, hours at which a company only begins to enter into the spirit of amusement. On my first entering the assembly at Newark, I felt much surprised at the gay appearance which presented itself. Feathers, trinkets, and all the paraphernalia, which distinguish haughty dames of Britain, were visible".
Popular favourites to keep the Canadian people jumpin' and a jivin' were: the Soldier's Joy, the Money Musk, Pop Goes the Weasel, Sir Roger, and the Virginia Reel; Scottish and Irish reels, the four-and the eight-in-hand, polkas and mazurkas, jigs and hornpipes. Watzes did not become popular until the mid-nineteenth century and in 1857 The Ball-room Guide and Complete Dancing-Master, could be purchased for fifty-cents.
This invaluable book gave instructions for "bows and courtesies", as well as lessons for the Quadrille, Redowas, the German, the Schottische, the Galop, the Deux Temps, the Varsovienne, and the Hop.
In 1857; Complete Rules of Etiquette, had this to say on the subject, followed by comments from other sources:
"No gentleman should ever go into the supper-room alone, unless he has seen every lady enter before him."
"When dancing a round dance, a gentleman should never hold a lady's hand behind him, or on his hip, or high in the air, moving her arm as though it were a pump handle, as seen in some of our cities but should hold it gracefully by his side."
"Draw on your gloves (white or yellow) in the dressing-room and do not be for one moment with them off in the dancing rooms. At supper take them off; nothing is more preposterous than to eat in gloves."
"When an unpractised dancer makes a mistake, we may aprise him of his error; but it would be very impolite to have the air of giving him a lesson."
"Unless a man has a very graceful figure, and can use it with great elegance, it is better for him to walk through the quadrilles, or invent some gliding movement for the occasion.
"If a lady waltzes with you, beware not to press her waist; you must only lightly touch it with the open palm of your hand, lest you leave a disagreeable impression not only on her ceinture, but on her mind."
"Dance quietly, do not kick or caper about nor sway your body, but let your motion be from the hips downward. Do not pride yourself too much on the neatness of your steps, lest you be taken for a dancing master."
"When a lady is standing in a quadrille, though not engaged in dancing, a gentleman not acquainted with her partner should not converse with her."
Hints on Etiquette
Esther Flloyd
"They may be either in the, 'Request the pleasure' or the 'At Home' form. In the latter, the word 'Dancing' appears in one of the lower corners of the card. Even if the private dance is given at a hotel or club, the invitations may read, 'At Home.'
"The first requisites for a successful dance are a good floor, which implies plenty of room, as well as perfect smoothness, and good music. Two orchestras are desirable, or an orchestra in two sections, in order to have the music continuous. The word 'orchestra,' however, is another pretentious word, and a simple 'music' will do, but it must be good of its kind, with the 'lilt and go theatre' essential to dance music. The piano, violin and cello make a good combination, and at a small tea dance, the piano alone may be used.
"The 'refreshment' part of the entertainment may be either a sit-down or a buffet supper. A
dance is a full dress occasion. Women wear their handsomest evening dresses. Hair ornaments and head-dresses are common. The hightopped combs now in fashion are appropriate if becoming to the individual. A young girl's costume may be as pretty and dainty as possible, but should not be over-rich, nor should she wear showy jewelry. A man should not wear jewelry at all, in the usual sense. Cuff links, studs and a permissible ring, should be plain and inconspicuous.
"No young girl should go to a dance unattended, or with a masculine escort alone. Her mother or some chaperone should go with her to a public ball, and at a private dance she must at least be accompanied by her maid. The rule of chaperonage is somewhat relaxed in the case of a subscription dance, where the patronesses giving the dance are supposed to act as chaperones, and is virtually unobserved in the smaller towns where 'everybody knows everybody'.
"A girl is considered rude who refuses to change partners when someone cuts in, and unless someone does, a man must dance all night with the same girl, or else the girl herself must risk being without a partner; a woeful plight in a ballroom; by voluntarily stopping. This naturally makes the men shy, so that girls are more likely than formerly to be without partners."
Light on Dark Corners Toronto - 1894
THOUGHTLESS YOUNG WOMEN - In cities public balls are given every night, and many
VILE WOMEN - The public ball is always a resort of vile women who picture to innocent girls the ease and luxury of a harlot's life, and offer them all manner of temptations to abandon the paths of virtue. The public ball is the resort of the libertine and the adulterer, and whose object is to work the ruin of every innocent girl that may fall into their clutches.
THE QUESTION - Why does society wonder at the increase of prostitution, when the public balls and promiscuous dancing is so largely endorsed and encouraged?
WORKING GIRL - Thousands of innocent working girls enter innocently and unsuspectingly into the paths which lead them to the house of evil, or who wander the streets as miserable outcasts all through the influence of the dance. The low theatre and dance halls and other places of unselected gatherings are the milestones which mark the working girl's downward path from virtue to vice, from modesty to shame.
