The dance card, the programme du bal or Carnet de bal,
is a booklet with a decorative cover which lists dance titles,
composers, and provides a place to write in the name of the gentleman a
lady intends to have as a partner for each specific dance.
Opinions vary as to when dance cards came into popular in England. While I can’t find evidence that they were used in England during the Regency era, they were made in Birmingham, England as early as 1803. According to my research, Austrians used dance cards before the rest of Europe. Later, the use of dance cards may have spread as everyone returned to their various corners of Europe from the Congress of Vienna which was basically a big party disguised as a series of series of negotiations that officially ended the Napoleonic Wars (David King’s Vienna 1814 is a great source for The Congress). By the time Queen Victoria ascended the throne, dance cards were widely used and gained wider popularity at balls and assemblies in sometime in the 1830s.
Each dance card was different and elaborate, made from precious metals and jewels like silver, ivory or mother of pearl, bone ivory, tortoise shell. They also vary greatly in size and style. A few are even inscribed "Bal" which is French for ball.
In the previous era, formal balls began with minuets, danced one couple at a time, in a rigidly prescribed order defined by the social rank of the dancers. The highest ranking couple led off the first dance. The man would withdraw, and the lady would dance with the next highest ranking gentleman. She would withdraw and then he danced the next minuet with the next highest ranking lady, and so on until everyone had a turn. Traditionally, they gave over the second half of the evening to country dances, done in a lengthwise formation. Even so, rank again became important in deciding who lead off the set. That person also chose which dance they all would do.
Anyway, at the time of the Vienna Conference, country dancing and formal minuets were losing popularity. Precedence and etiquette which dictated to whom one could dance had begun to fade, and the long country dances were replaced by shorter pair dances like the waltz, valse, polka, lancers and quadrille. Because of the new, less formal dancing and shorter dances, people could do more of them each evening. It probably became harder for young ladies to remember which young gentleman she'd promised a dance. Some sources mention ladies writing names on the underside of their fans to help them remember promised dances but I don't know how often or at what point that occurred. At one point, ladies used decorative notebooks to keep track of each name. Many ladies already carried about small notebooks that opened like fans in their reticules to jot down shopping lists and so forth. Naturally, they used them to record their evening's dance partners.
Later in the century, dance cards became pre-printed booklets of paper which listed each dance the musicians would play, in order. They became progressively more decorative and elaborate as the century progressed. Ribbon or cord attached tiny pencils to the card or program by which ladies let the cards dangle from their wrist. Many preserved them as a souvenir of the evening.
As far as I can tell, dance cards began to lose popularity sometime in the 1920s. Of course, now, no one reserves dances and few even know how to dance. Sigh. Too bad.
So anyway, if you've ever wondered why I never use dance cards in my Regency historical romance novels, now you know.
Opinions vary as to when dance cards came into popular in England. While I can’t find evidence that they were used in England during the Regency era, they were made in Birmingham, England as early as 1803. According to my research, Austrians used dance cards before the rest of Europe. Later, the use of dance cards may have spread as everyone returned to their various corners of Europe from the Congress of Vienna which was basically a big party disguised as a series of series of negotiations that officially ended the Napoleonic Wars (David King’s Vienna 1814 is a great source for The Congress). By the time Queen Victoria ascended the throne, dance cards were widely used and gained wider popularity at balls and assemblies in sometime in the 1830s.
Each dance card was different and elaborate, made from precious metals and jewels like silver, ivory or mother of pearl, bone ivory, tortoise shell. They also vary greatly in size and style. A few are even inscribed "Bal" which is French for ball.
In the previous era, formal balls began with minuets, danced one couple at a time, in a rigidly prescribed order defined by the social rank of the dancers. The highest ranking couple led off the first dance. The man would withdraw, and the lady would dance with the next highest ranking gentleman. She would withdraw and then he danced the next minuet with the next highest ranking lady, and so on until everyone had a turn. Traditionally, they gave over the second half of the evening to country dances, done in a lengthwise formation. Even so, rank again became important in deciding who lead off the set. That person also chose which dance they all would do.
Anyway, at the time of the Vienna Conference, country dancing and formal minuets were losing popularity. Precedence and etiquette which dictated to whom one could dance had begun to fade, and the long country dances were replaced by shorter pair dances like the waltz, valse, polka, lancers and quadrille. Because of the new, less formal dancing and shorter dances, people could do more of them each evening. It probably became harder for young ladies to remember which young gentleman she'd promised a dance. Some sources mention ladies writing names on the underside of their fans to help them remember promised dances but I don't know how often or at what point that occurred. At one point, ladies used decorative notebooks to keep track of each name. Many ladies already carried about small notebooks that opened like fans in their reticules to jot down shopping lists and so forth. Naturally, they used them to record their evening's dance partners.
Later in the century, dance cards became pre-printed booklets of paper which listed each dance the musicians would play, in order. They became progressively more decorative and elaborate as the century progressed. Ribbon or cord attached tiny pencils to the card or program by which ladies let the cards dangle from their wrist. Many preserved them as a souvenir of the evening.
As far as I can tell, dance cards began to lose popularity sometime in the 1920s. Of course, now, no one reserves dances and few even know how to dance. Sigh. Too bad.
So anyway, if you've ever wondered why I never use dance cards in my Regency historical romance novels, now you know.
1 comment:
Great history lesson. Some of those dance cards are so beautiful. I've always pictured a simple formal card, now I have a better image for when I run across a book that does have dance cards mentioned.
As for not dancing formally any more, sigh... My daughter loves country dances and wishes they would come back in fashion (I think she's a few centuries off).
Thanks Donna
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