Collection Items

  • Book/Printed Material
    Lettres à Sophie sur la danse, suivies d'entretiens sur les d... Essentially a history of Greek, Roman, and early religious dance, and French court dance, the text is drawn from numerous writers, including Mme. Elise Voiart, Joseph Juste Scaliger, Claude François Ménestrier, Louis de Cahusac, Diderot, and Jean-Georges Noverre. The first part of this book comprises seven letters written by Baron during 1821 and 1822. The second part takes the form of conversations with Sophie...
    • Contributor: Baron, A. (Auguste)
    • Date: 1825
  • Book/Printed Material
    Elements and principles of the art of dancing, as used in the... A translation of Gourdoux-Daux's Principes de la danse (Paris, 1804 and 1811), this manual is important for its description of steps and step sequences appropriate in the performance of the popular ballroom dance, the quadrille (called cotilion by the author). The quadrille is a series of figures, organized into sets and performed by sets of four couples. The manual begins with discussions on deportment...
    • Contributor: J. H. G. (J. H. Gourdoux-Daux)
    • Date: 1817
  • Book/Printed Material
    Essai sur la danse, antique et moderne All of Mme. Voiart's manual is devoted to the history of dance. Quoting heavily from many previously published materials, including a number of travelogues, this book discusses the origins of dance and devotes a chapter each to Greek and Roman dance. The second part of the book discusses transition to what the author terms "modern dance," in this case the court dances of France....
    • Contributor: Voïart, Elise
    • Date: 1823
  • Book/Printed Material
    De la danse, considérée sous le rapport de l'éducation physique, In this important early nineteenth-century physiology of dance, the author provides extensive discussion on the importance of dance. Numerous extractions from Alerme's text can be found throughout later nineteenth-century dance literature.
    • Contributor: Alerme, P.-E
    • Date: 1830
  • Book/Printed Material
    De la danse This manual describes a colonial view of the history of dance in the West Indies, focusing on the dance of Creoles. Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750-1819), discusses the effects of slavery and the African roots for such dances as the chica and notes that contredanses and minuets were also performed.
    • Contributor: Moreau De Saint-Méry, M. L. E. (Médéric Louis Elie)
    • Date: 1801
  • Book/Printed Material
    La danse. Comment on dansait, comment on danse This manual is an extensive history of dance that incorporates many countries, cultures, and periods including Chinese, Hindu, Egyptian, Greek, ancient Gaul, European Renaissance, and Baroque. The manual also covers popular culture, peasant dance, and "foreign dance." The perspective of this manual is clearly nineteenth century, with little emphasis on historical fact. The point of view is clearly western, and this is evident in...
    • Contributor: Maugué, Jules - Casadesus, Francis - Charbonnel, Raoul - Bernay, Berthe
    • Date: 1899
  • Book/Printed Material
    Histoire anecdotique et pittoresque de la danse chez les peup...
    Histoire de la danse | Danse et danseurs
    Large portions of this manual on the history of dance are borrowed from other sources including Mme Élise Voiart's Essai sur la danse (1823). The author begins with an examination of Greek and Roman dance and continues through the court dances of Louis XII and Catherine de Médicis. The discussion on French theatrical dance includes mention of two well-known ballerinas, Fanny Elssler and Fanny...
    • Contributor: Fertiault, F. (François)
    • Date: 1854
  • Book/Printed Material
    Quelques mots sur les danses modernes, This is a fourth edition of a book that acknowledges other antidance tracts including Boullay's Réforme de las danse des salons; Gustave Louis's Physiologie de l'opinion, and La Chrétienne de nos jours by l'Abbé Bautain. The author notes, with some disdain, that the waltz was introduced into France "par les impures du Directoire" (p. 8). The polka also receives criticism.
    • Contributor: Brieux Saint-Laurent
    • Date: 1863
  • Book/Printed Material
    Observations sur les danses An antidance treatise. The argument presented by the anonymous author is based on the idea that dancing is inconsistent with teachings in the Scripture, specifically the Ten Commandments. For example, just as the golden calf represented idolatry, the author argues that pleasure derived from dance is also idolatry, thus breaking the First Commandment. Similar arguments are made for all but the Second Commandment.
    • Date: 1830
  • Book/Printed Material
    Nouveau manuel complet de la danse; ou, Traité théorique et p...
    Encyclopédie-Roret, Danse
    Although attributed to Italian dancer, choreographer, and writer Carlo Blasis, this manual contains an abridgement of Blasis's writing on the subject of social dance as published in The Code of Terpsichore (1830). The manual's discussion of specific dances is augmented by M. Lemaitre and includes quadrilles, the waltz, polka, schottisch, polka-mazurka, redowa and cotillon.
    • Contributor: Gardel, Pierre - Blasis, Carlo - Vergnaud, Paul - Lemaître
    • Date: 1866
  • Book/Printed Material
    Nouveau manuel complet de la danse; ou, Traité théorique et p...
    Encyclopédie-Roret, Danse
    • Contributor: Blasis, Carlo - Lemaître
    • Date: 1884
  • Book/Printed Material
    La danse des salons Originally published in 1847, the manual provides important information on mid-nineteenth-century ballroom dance. Following a format utilized by many manuals, the work begins with introductory comments on dance, followed by a description of the French quadrille. This is folllowed by discussion of round dances--the polka, numerous waltzes including waltze à trois temps and waltze à deux temps--as well as steps and figures for another...
    • Contributor: Cellarius, Henri - John Davis Batchelder Collection (Library of Congress)
    • Date: 1849
  • Book/Printed Material
    Guide complet de la danse. Contenant le quadrille, la polka, ... Gawlikowski's excellent manual for description of mid nineteenth-century social dances discusses steps and figures for the mazurka, a dance performed in the manner of a quadrille in Europe's ballrooms. Description is also given for other popular ballroom dances including the waltz, polka, schottisch, polka-mazurka, and redowa. Gawlikowski provides thirty-eight figures for a contillon-valse (known elsewhere as the cotillon or German), a popular group dance...
    • Contributor: Gawlikowski, Philippe
    • Date: 1858
  • Book/Printed Material
    La danse, la tenue, le maintien, l'hygiène & l'éducation, seu...
    Traité de la danse
    Vol. 1: Similar in content ot the author's Traité de la danse, which was published in the 1870s, this is the fifty-fifth edition of a popular and massive work on dance. The volume begins with a history of dance, and continues with several sections devoted to etiquette, including etiquette of weddings and baptisms. A large collection of dances is included--the quadrille, polka, waltz, polka...
    • Contributor: Giraudet, Eugène
    • Date: 1885
  • Book/Printed Material
    Traité de la danse; seul guide complet renfermant 200 danses ... This is the seventh edition of a popular French manual that, in the mid-1880s, was revised into a larger edition entitled La danse, la tenue, le maintein... The manual gives a short history of dance, discusses appropriate etiquette, and describes many of the popular ballroom dances such as the waltz, quadrille, and polka. Giraudet also includes many curious dances including the schottisch polkée sautée,...
    • Contributor: Giraudet, Eugène
    • Date: 1870
  • Book/Printed Material
    Manuel du cotillon
    Cotillon, manuel de la danse
    This late nineteenth-century manual is devoted to description of the popular parlor game, the German (also known as the cotillon). Every page of the manual has an advertisement for Au Paradis des Enfants in Paris, a shop that sold party accessories for the cotillon, including tambourines for the leader, ball cards, hair ornaments, decorations, roulette wheels, and paper lanterns.
    • Contributor: Clément, Eugène
    • Date: 1890
  • Book/Printed Material
    Le cotillon et les quadrilles actuels; traité théorique et pr...
    Cotillon
    This manual provides instructions for the figures of five quadrilles including one for three couples (rather than the normal four couples). However, the main focus of the book is on the cotillon (also known as the German), a group dance consisting of a series of party games of figures. The manual provides 182 figures.
    • Contributor: Paul, F.
    • Date: 1877