Dance? In these shoes?

Loretta reports:

Speaking of platform shoes, how about disco?

The 18th and 19th centuries had their version of disco--and I think that might fit better than the term ballroom dancing. Yes, they danced in ballrooms. But, as Susan & I discovered at Colonial Williamsburg, they also danced wherever and whenever they could get someone to make music (a single flute was sufficient) and a group of people to step in time to the music. What makes it more like disco, I think, is that the man didn’t hold the woman around the waist. They barely held each other. They touched hands. For some moves, they hooked arms do-si-do style.

This is a chart of minuet dance steps. Here's the whole book.

Our ancestors made do with a single flute or a pianoforte. With disco, a record or tape player was sufficient. But everybody dressed up for dancing. Men showed off their grace and elegance. And so I thought of Fred Astaire, naturally, but also John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever.


Styles change, but we can always appreciate a man who moves with grace.