The Victorian Ball

The Victorian Ball was a very important part of Victorian Society. The Dance (under a 100 people) or Ball (100 people and up) was more than just a form of entertainment. The Ball began with the Grand March and contained group (set) as well as couple dances running alternately. The Ball always ended with a Farewell waltz. These should be danced with the people with whom you arrived.

Instruction will be offered before the Ball, but as a kindness we wanted to let you be aware of the dances that will be offered at the Ball.

The Balls primarily began with a Grand March, which was an introduction of the people who put on the Ball to those attending and equally as an introduction of the dancers to the Ballroom. This is why the Grand March hits on all corners of the Ballroom. The Ball is a social gathering and the Grand March lets the dancers recognize each other in a very controlled orderly fashion.

Mostly every set begins with a Waltz. We will be doing two types of waltzes. Both of these waltz types were performed at the time. The first type is the Viennese Waltz, which is a very fast waltz with the dancers alternating moving. The second type is the hesitation or slow waltz.

Additional dances we will doing include the fast polka, which is like the gallop with some period changes. The Gallop is done primarily with chassee steps. The fast polka has some chassee (sliding) steps and regular polka steps. The polka that is closer to what we do as the normal polka is the polka francaise. There are four types of polkas: gallops, fast polkas, polka francaise, and the polka mazurka besides regional differences will occur. We are doing only the fast polka.

After the polka the next dance we will be introducing is the schottisch. The schottisch is danced all over the world. It can be done as a round dance or as a set (square) dance. We will be dancing it as a round (couples dancing around the room) dance. This dance is easy and fun and has many various actions to do to keep it an exciting and enjoyable dance.

The last dance we will be working on is the Virginia Reel. This is a set dance. A small set of ten couples works best. There is a head couple that goes through the whole dance finally ending up at the close of the set and a new head couple begins. This dance every man will dance with every lady and every lady has the opportunity to dance with each of the men in the set.

Quadrilles, Mazurkas, Varsoviennes, Redowas, two-steps, and Cotillions will not be attempted in this Ball at this time. There are Civil War Balls throughout the year, which would be good practice and maybe offer some of these dances. There are many types of Quadrilles and many dances can be done as couple dance in the round or form into a squares to be done as a Quadrille. Quadrilles are done with walking steps and many other dance forms added within the dance.