Jane Austen Tea Dance

Jane Austen Tea Dance

This afternoon I attended a tea dance in honor of the 234th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth ( a few days early). Dance historian Susan de Guardiola from Connecticut taught English country dances, the Boulanger, and Sir Roger de Coverley (aka The Fezziwig Dance). There were many ladies and gentlemen in costume including Susan, Gail Eastwood and Liefe Wheeler, our hostesses.

Susan de Guardiola

The first dances were what Susan termed "flirty dance;" the ones mentioned in the novels where Mr. Bingley stood up for two sets with Jane Bennet (a total of about 3 hours!) and where Mr. Darcy and Lizzie bantered. These were exceedingly difficult with many little hopping steps and turns.

Next we danced cotillion dances, popular at the end of the 18th century. They are the forerunner of modern square dancing and I enjoyed those but it was hard to remember all the movements and remember when it was my turn! I sat out the Boulanger, but learned that it is the only dance Jane Austen ever mentioned by name and wrote about in her letters. She preferred the older style dancing of her youth to the modern dancing done by her nieces and nephews. We concluded with the Sir Roger de Coverley, which is the dance done at Fezziwig's in A Christmas Carol. As A Christmas Carol is my family's favorite Christmas story, I enjoyed learning this dance.

Watch a slideshow of the dancing:

They hope to host another Regency dancing event in the spring so stay tuned for more details!