Many view the early 19th century as the beginning of the modern ballroom dance era. During the early 19th century the first of what would become a classic modern ballroom dance was introduced: the Waltz. Before the Waltz was introduced, social dances by couples were accomplished with limited physical contact. By contrast, the Waltz was danced by couples in a close embrace, the gentleman's hand around the lady's waist while they spun in a series of circles while moving around the ballroom. As old-fashioned and innocent as the Waltz appears to us today, it was shocking to a society where close physical contact with a member the opposite sex, especially in public, had been nothing short of scandalous.

Contredenses, or Contradances, also known as "Country" or "Contra" dances were also highly popular in the first part of the 19th century. A Contradance, of which the Virginia Reel is a type, was a dance performed by folks in long rows, gentleman lined up on one side and ladies lined up on the other. During the course of the dance, couples would progress up and down the row, briefly dancing with every other couple over the course of the dance.

The Quadrille is a form of the Contradance. Done in a square by four couples, the Quadrille came into popular use in the early 19th century. As a rule to which there were exceptions, quadrilles were done in five sections, with each section played four times to allow each couple in their turn to lead off the figures.

The figures, or floor patterns, in each particular dance were fixed. Personal variation in the steps used to execute each figure seems to not only have been permitted, but to also be a normative part of the dance. In America, it became a popular practice to have a "caller" who would call out each Quadrille figure before it was done, thus helping to ensure that the dancers would all be doing the same thing at the same time. Callers are familiar to most today through Country Western Square dancing, and the practice of using callers is often employed at dances held at War Between the States re-enactments for the same reason - to keep everyone going in the right direction at the right time.

From the time of its initial introduction and popularity, the Waltz gained wider acceptance. Its acceptance was bolstered by the arrival of the Polka in the 1840’s. The Polka helped to pave the way for the introduction of other Eastern European dances into the ballroom. Those dances included the Mazurka, the Redowa and the Polka Redowa, all of which were done in 3/4 time, and included a series of intricate hops, glides, and leaps. Quadrilles likewise maintained their popularity, although all figures came to be done primarily with plain, far simpler walking steps. The old-fashioned Schottische would find its place in that grouping of dances, and would be reborn at the end of the century as the Barn Dance.

Country dances were seen more and more as being too "crude" and "provincial" for polite society. Only the Virginia Reel and Pop! Goes the Weasel held their places in polite society because they were regarded as charmingly old-fashioned, rustic dances. Other group dances like Money Musk, the Spanish Dance, and the French Four used Waltz or Polka steps to perform multi-couple figures.

It was the mid-19th century that saw the rise of the Germans or German Cotillions, dance "games" which involved all present. Those were games or mixers that involved several couples at the least. Those dance games would be led by a Master of Ceremonies, and often would involve props such as fans, handkerchiefs, or hats. As the century wore on, often the second half of evening dances would be given over to the extremely popular Germans, or German Cotillions. Most German Cotillions seem quite silly to middle-aged, late 20th century tastes.

Fortunately for us today, the desire among the rising middle class to achieve "gentility" and all its trappings gave birth to the printing of dozens of books devoted to the art of dancing and the rules of ballroom etiquette. The mid-nineteenth century is a treasure trove of material published to suit a remarkably class-conscious society, and left us the ability to re-learn so many of the dances that otherwise would have been lost in history.

Dance manuals of the antebellum period were careful to remind the dancers to watch their position and behavior. Stances are to be straight, yet without being rigid, and movements are to be smooth and direct without bounce, jerkiness, or extraneous motions. All dancers are instructed to move in a uniform fashion. The steps are to be walked and not skipped. The turns should be graceful and easy rather than looking forced. Gentlemen are always to ask the lady for the pleasure of the dance with her, and to bow to her or nod to her when asking. Gentlemen are also reminded to thank the lady for the dance, and again to offer an appreciative bow or nod to her. The dance is truly intended to be a social dance, with some dances requiring interaction with all the other couples within a small group at some point during the dance. Good manners are important in period dance. When possible, gentlemen should wear gloves, as should the ladies.

It should be noted that the dances of the period as actually danced were undoubtedly not performed as close to book, chapter and verse as they were performed during the Empire period, and particularly so during the War Between the States. The same dances during the Empire period were performed in a far more reserved fashion that the immediate antebellum years, as well as the War years. In part, this may be due to the law of entropy; namely that all things tend to disorder rather than order. It may have something to do with the introduction of a "wilder" element in society as more people traveled west and found that the conventions of society were less practicable in the journey and the newly opened parts of the country. Perhaps as a result of being away from home and watchful friends and neighbors, they may have felt less inhibited or strictured. Whatever the imminent causative factor, the same dances danced in the first quarter or so of the 19th century were danced with a bit less reserve toward the end of the second quarter of the 19th century.

There are relatively few times when a person is in close contact with their partner in most of the dances other than the holding of hands in the prescribed manner. This helps to avoid the difficulties that can be experienced in couple dancing where the partners are one-to-one, such as in the waltzes. For those new to period dance, this should come as something of a comfort when dancing the contradances particularly, as those dances allow for much observation of the other couples with little risk of tripping over each other.

The Grand March
Commonly used to begin a ball, the Grand March was a slightly sophisticated version of the children’s game "Follow the Leader". Set to music, the dance begins with couples paired, the man to the lady’s left, holding her left hand in his right hand just above the level of the lady’s elbow. When the music begins, the head couple, facing the front of the room (normally where the band is located), begins to march around the room. As they enter their first corner and turn, the head man reaches back with his left hand to take the right hand of the lady of the couple directly behind him, and each succeeding couple does likewise, forming a long chain. Their path describes a counter-clockwise circle as the head couple marches the group into ever-smaller circles.

As the circle winds tighter and tighter, the concentric circles seemingly coming to collapse on themselves inevitably, the head couple then takes a clockwise as their last turn in the inner circle, thus snaking back out between the concentric circles of the group. Some liken this turnaround to the childhood game of "Snap the Whip". The head couple then is followed by all the others as they make ever-enlarging circles.

As the circle is played out, the man in the head couple turns loose of the hand of the lady behind him, and all the men follow suit, returning to their original couples. As the head couple comes again to the front of the room, they stop, stopping all the other dancers, and turn to face the others. The head man bows and the head lady curtsies to the couple facing them, who respond in kind, and then the head couple directs them to the right where they are to march to the outside and down to the very end of the room. The next couple does as the first couple did, and they are directed to the opposite wall, where they are also to march to the outside of all the other dancers and down to the very end of the room. This takes place with each couple.

When the first two couples arrive at the wall opposite the head couple, they turn and march to the middle of the room. At that point, the head man of the couple directed to the left of the lead couple and the head lady of the couple directed to the right of the head couple join hands, forming a foursome. They march to the front of the room, followed by other foursomes. When they arrive at the front of the room, all four bow and curtsy, and are again directed to the right or the left, and they follow the same route as before, only now making a group of eight. This continues until the room can allow for no more doubling of the couples, at which time the dancers all stand facing the head couple and the band, clapping in time with the music, until the musicians stop.

Virginia Reel
Reels are a form of contredanse (or contradance), the word itself derived from the English "country dance". Of all the period dance forms, the contradance is by far the easiest. A contradance is a dance in which couples face each other in two lines or a square; while maintaining their position, the line is usually divided into smaller groups, either of four or six couples. The Virginia Reel uses the pattern of two lines as its basis.

The line (or each small group) has a "head" where the caller and the music are located, and a "foot", being the opposite end of the line or the group. The couple nearest the caller and the music within each group is known as the head couple, and they are to position themselves so that if they faced the caller and join hands, the lady’s left hand would be in the gentleman’s right hand; the gentleman would be on the lady’s left.

The dance steps of a contradance require the head couple to interact with each other, all the other couples interact within their own pairings, and sometimes the head couple interacts with the entire line in a prescribed fashion, at the end of which they will have moved successively down one position at a time until they reach the end of the line. As they complete their prescribed series of steps, the couple in the line who had been next to the head couple becomes the new head couple.

In the Virginia Reel, six ladies face six gentlemen with a distance of approximately six feet between them. As the music begins, the callers instructs the gentlemen to "Bow to your ladies", and the men are to step forward and bow as the ladies curtsy from their places in line. Calling "Right hand to the ladies", the couples approach each other with right hands upraised and, pressing their right hands together, turn around clockwise once, stepping back to their places in the lines. With the call "Left hand to the ladies", the same pattern is repeated as with the right hand, only using the left hand and turning counter-clockwise this time. When the caller says, "Both hands now", they raise both hands to shoulder level; and pressing their palms together, they turn clockwise once, returning to their positions in line. At the call, "Do-si-do", the couples pass to each other’s right in the middle of the area between the lines; and facing front the whole time, each person circles their partner and returns to their place in line without having touched.

As soon as the ladies and gentlemen have returned to their own lines, the head couple step to the area between the lines and sashay to the end of the line, and then sashay back. As they sashay, it is customary for the other dancers to whoop and holler. When they arrive at the top of the line, they place their uplifted right palms together and turn clockwise one-and-one-half turns. When they complete the one-and-one-half turns, each will be facing the line of the opposite sex, and they will begin a process called "stripping the willow" or "stripping the vine".

Stripping the willow means that the head couple will now separate in order to make a complete turn with the couple next to them, raising their left hands to their new partners. They will make one complete counterclockwise turn in the center of the line, and return their new partners to their original places in line. The head couple then raises their right hands to each other and makes a complete clockwise turn in the center of the line, and then repeats the previous step with the very next couple in line.

In this way, they will make one complete turn with each couple in the line, interrupting each change of partners with a complete turn again with each other. When the head couple reaches the last couple in line and does a turn with them, the lady will still be on the gentlemen’s side of the line and the gentleman will still be on the ladies’ side of the line. The head couple will take each others’ hands and do a one-half turn so that they will end up aligned with the line of their own gender, but still in the center of the line.

Louisiana Reel
The reel steps are identical to those of the Virginia Reel. The sole difference is that all of the reel participants are gentlemen.

Waltz
Of all the dances, this dance for couples is perhaps the most beautiful and elegant of them all. It is a simple step, but it does require you to be on the balls of your feet most of the time, which can be quite hard on the knees. The dance is done to a waltz beat which is one-two-three, one-two-three.

The gentleman holds the lady’s right hand in his left with their arms extended from their bodies, elbows slightly crooked, and he places his right hand on her waist while she lays her left hand on his right shoulder. The basic movement is for the gentleman to lead with his left foot and the lady with her right, taking a relatively large step together; roughly three-quarters of the distance covered by that first step is then covered by stepping after it with the other foot, raising up gently on the balls of the feet; and then a third small step is taken in the same direction, gently lowering oneself as the step is completed. This completes one waltz step.

That step is repeated, leading with the foot opposite to the one with which the dancers previously led. When a total of four waltz steps have been completed, the dancers should have made a full circle. The dancers should not end that pattern of four waltz steps at their original starting point, though, as they should have moved slightly counter-clockwise to their original position. It is customary to make a circle with a pattern of four waltz steps, moving counter-clockwise in that circle, while at the same time making a much larger circle or orbit that eventually will lead the couple all the way around the room in a counter-clockwise fashion. An easy way to think of it is to consider the couple’s four-waltz-step pattern as a revolution of the earth as it spins on its axis through the day and through the night; and their movement around the dance floor as the revolution of the earth around the sun through the year. If you are paired with a partner who dances on your toes, it may well seem as if it will take a year to make the revolution around the room.

Broom Dance
The Broom Dance is a waltz that needs two things which are different from the traditional waltz: a broom and an extra gentleman (not paired to a lady). This may be fairly described as being more like musical chairs than a dance.

When the dance music begins, the extra gentleman has a broom for his partner. At some undisclosed point, the band will stop playing suddenly. All of the men dancing must change partners, including the man with the broom, who is to drop the broom on the floor at the instant that the music stops. It does not matter who each gentleman’s next partner will be, so long as he has a next partner; it is nor permissible to dance with the same partner twice consecutively, and in the spirit of fun, the gentlemen should seek to dance with as many ladies as possible. For the gentleman who is left without a female partner, he must then dance the next musical passage with the broom. This is repeated until the announcement is made that the band is playing the last of the song.

Lucky Seven
The Lucky Seven is a progressive dance. Couples are formed into a circle, the gentleman to the left of the lady who is his partner. All dancers join hands in the circle. At the signal from the caller, all take eight steps to their left, and make a crisp turn toward the center of the circle. Taking four steps in toward the center of the circle, on the fourth step they raise their hands above their heads and call out "Whoo" as their hands are lifted up. Bringing their hands back down, they take four steps backward; then, repeating the four steps in, the "Whoo", and the four steps back out, once they resume the larger circle, the gentleman takes the right hand of his partner with his right and passes around her right side (taking approximately three steps in moving from one partner to the next), taking the next lady’s left hand with his left as he passes that lady’s left. He alternates the pattern - right hand, left hand, right hand, left hand - until he has reached his seventh lady.

As the gentleman takes the hand of the seventh lady, she spins underneath his lifted arm and all of the folks comprising the circle rejoin hands. Once everyone has joined hands, this entire progression may be repeated numerous times, although typically it is repeated only until the original partners are rejoined.

Patty-Cake Polka
The Patty-Cake Polka is really not a lot of polka, but far more a game of Patty-Cake. Made of a circle of gentlemen on the inside of the circle and ladies to the outside, the dance begins with each couple facing counter-clockwise. The couple faces left, the gentleman holding the lady’s hands in his, as the music begins. When the caller so instructs, the couples all begin a pattern in time with the music in which the leg on the counter-clockwise side is extended to touch the heel to the floor, then withdrawn so that the toe is touched to the floor close to the other foot, and this is repeated; the pattern is a simple "heel-toe-heel-toe".

Immediately upon completing that, the dancers then "slide" or bound clockwise four times, still in beat with the music. They then face the opposite direction and repeat the "heel-toe-heel-toe" pattern, followed by the four slides or bounds in the opposite direction.

Still in time with the music, both members of each couple slap their own knees three times with their hands, then slap each other’s open palms as in the game "patty-cake"; crossing hands, then, each slaps the other’s right hand with theirs three times, then their partner’s left hand three times. Taking their partner’s right hand with their own, they spin once around each other and the lady remains in place while the gentleman steps to the next lady to his left, and the dance is repeated with her without a pause.

This is commonly repeated until each gentleman has made his way around the circle at least once, and often until the gentlemen have made the circuit twice. To make matters more fun, the musicians often increase the meter of the music through the final go-round, making each couple have to complete all of the steps more rapidly until the rate of speed is almost frantic.

The Hat Dance
This is more of a game or a mixer; called a German, or a German Cotillion. The Hat Dance is really more of a social education than anything else, in many ways. Unlike the other dances, this one requires four pieces of equipment: three chairs and a hat. The ladies form a line to the right of the chairs (as the dancers face the chairs) and the gentlemen form a line on the left, and the dance is then ready to start.

The first lady in line sits in the middle chair and the first two gentlemen in line sit on either side of her. The lady has a hat in hand and listens to the pleas and suasions of the two gentlemen, for the object (if you are one of the two gentlemen) is to persuade the lady to give the hat to the other gentleman and sashay down the line with you as her chosen partner.

Exaggerations, lies, flattery, stories, works of fiction, bragging, wild tales, and sometimes even the truth are allowed in trying to persuade the lady to choose you. A person may offer to serenade the object of their pleadings, for instance, if they have musical abilities (or even if they don’t), or offer to cook for them or take them to fabulous places like New Orleans or Memphis. Singing to the one whose favor you are seeking may not be amiss, assuming you can sing at all. Offering carriages, strapping babies if you are virile or recently widowed with children, or rich bottom land newly plowed may be quite tempting.

Once the hat has been handed to the loser of the contest, the couple sashays down the line, and the gentleman with the hat now takes the center seat while two ladies leave their line to flank him. As with the two gentlemen persuading the one lady, it is now the two ladies’ turn to give the gentleman compelling reasons to choose one of them as his partner.