Notes on Etiquette

Dance manuals of the Victorian era often included advice on how a lady or a gentleman should comport oneself in a proper manner at the dance.  With the perspective of more than a century of history to separate us, we find these observations are often incredibly quaint.  While the VSCS does not insist on following Victorian etiquette to the letter, and there will not be an etiquette judge on the floor to slap your knuckles if you should stray from the straight and narrow (it is not practical, after all, to prohibit the modern woman from asking a gentleman to dance), we find the suggestions nonetheless fascinating and in many cases useful.

 
 

The Ballroom
from the American Dancing Master, Elias Howe, 1862

  
     
  Ball Dress for Gentlemen
from The Fashionable Dancer's Casket, Charles Durang, 1856		  
     
  Bow and Courtesy
from the American Dancing Master, Elias Howe, 1862		  
     
  Calling the Change to Cotillons
from the American Dancing Master, Elias Howe, 1862		  
     
  Cotillion or Quadrille
from the American Dancing Master, Elias Howe, 1862		  
     
  Dancing Defined
from The Art of Dancing, Edward Ferrero, 1859 		 
     
  Laws of Etiquette
from The Quadrille Call Book and Ballroom Guide, Prof. M J Koncen, 1883		  
     
  The Toilet
from The Fashionable Dancer's Casket, Charles Durang, 1856