Historical Dances

The following list describes the 75 video clips that illustrate portions of the Dance Instruction Manuals. These clips were selected from two different videotaping sessions. The first was a public event, "Society Dances and Parlor Amusements in The Great Hall," which took place at the Library of Congress on October 15, 1997. The event, which marked the 100th anniversary of the Library's Jefferson Building, featured late 19th-century dances performed in costume against the backdrop of the Great Hall, with music provided by a wind band using period instruments. The second videotaping session took place in the Library's Coolidge Auditorium on April 14, 1998. The videos from this session feature a pair of dancers demonstrating specific dances or movements from selected manuals in the collection. All time periods are represented in these videos.

The Table of Contents provides a complete list of the 75 clips arranged by historical period. The entries for individual video clips provide links to the clips themselves and also to the particular pages in the manuals where that dance is discussed.

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