Waltz

The Waltz is a dance in 3/4 time (3 beats for every bar of music). It was derived from an old Austrian-German peasant dance, the Landler, which was popular in Bohemia, Austria, and Bavaria, and spread from the countryside to the suburbs of Vienna.

The peasants of Bavaria, Tyrol, and Styria began dancing a dance called Walzer, a dance for couples, around 1750. Some people, however, found the dance undignified, and in 1760 the performance of the Walzer was banned by the church in parts of Germany.

The waltz became fashionable in Vienna around the 1780s and its gliding, whirling movements immediately became the rage throughout the entire population.

The waltz spread to many other countries in the years to follow. By the late 18th century waltzing was common in Paris and other European cosmopolitan cities. People felt the same spirit in the dance that they had perceived in the great political events of the day - the French and the American revolutions.

It's not hard to see to work out why the Viennese waltz set Europe alight. In early 19th-century society public displays of affection were limited to firm handshakes and the occasional blush. The dances of choice were all French, like the gavotte, cotillion and minuet. All of them were formal and distant-the closest they got to intimacy was, was the odd flick of the fingertips. The waltz stood for freedom of expression and freedom of movement. Unlike more courtly dances, with their restricted steps and predetermined poses, the waltz allowed the performers to sweep around the dance floor, setting their own boundaries and responsible to nobody but their partners.

For the first time a woman could dance with any man who asked you to-and not just dance, but be held by him. It was the first time ever that a man's body could legitimately be pressed against a woman's outside marriage.

What looked suspiciously like licensed canoodling suddenly found itself a staple of the grand ballrooms of Vienna then Europe and then the globe.

The waltz was brought to England from Europe by Napoleonic Wars soldiers. When the waltz was first introduced to English ballrooms, it was considered shocking due to the physical contact involved. Its entry in the Oxford English Dictionary shows that the waltz was considered "riotous and indecent" as late as 1825. The Victorian Ladies' Pocket Book of Etiquette devoted ten pages into denouncing the dance.

Nowadays, of course, the waltz is a perfectly respectable dance and we are used to seeing much closer intimacy between dancing couples. Something that shocks one generation becomes normal and acceptable in the next.

In 1831 Frédéric Chopin left Poland for Vienna, where he found the Viennese just wanted to waltz. They weren't interested in his sort of piano music so he composed some Viennese Whirls (waltzes) himself.

Chopin's Waltz in D Flat Opus 64 no 1 (the theme to the BBC Just a Minute radio programme) actually lasts two minutes unless it's played at 78. Chopin originally named the piece "Petit chien" (Little Dog).

Johann Strauss II wrote over 400 waltzes, most notably "An der schönen blauen Donau" (better known to the English-speaking world as "The Blue Danube") In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely responsible for the ongoing popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.

Antony Hopkins composed a waltz in 1964 that was only released years later. The famous actor was afraid that nobody would like it and therefore never got to hear it being played up until 2011 thanks to André Rieu - a Dutch violinist who got sent the music sheets by Hopkins' wife.

815 Radio Times

Johann Strauss the Younger

Johann Strauss the Younger (also known as Johann Strauss II) was born in Vienna, Austria, on October 25, 1825. He was the eldest son of Johann Strauss the Elder (March 14, 1804 – September 25, 1849) who was popular in Europe as a conductor and composer.

Johann Strauss II

Young Johann wanted to be a musician from an early age and wrote his first waltz at the age of 6. The elder Strauss insisted, however, that his sons follow other careers and Johann became a bank clerk.

Encouraged by his mother, Johann secretly studied the violin with the first violinist of his father's orchestra, Franz Amon. He was given a severe beating by his father when he found him playing the violin, even those Strauss Snr was a successful composer. He wanted his son to pursue banking as a career.

When Johann was 17, his parents separated. He then openly devoted himself to music. At 19 he formed his own orchestra and gave his own concert which included six of his own waltzes and some of his father’s. It was deemed a great success.

His father died when Johann Strauss was 23 and the young Austrian composer combined their orchestras and gave concerts throughout Europe.

Johann Strauss in his younger years

For nearly 100 years the Strauss family, father and sons, dominated the world of European ballroom dance with their music. After Johann Strauss the Elder popularized the waltz, his two younger sons, Josef (1827-70) and Eduard (1835-1916), also became noted composers. However it was Johann the Younger, who won world fame as the "waltz king."

Johann Strauss the Younger wrote over 400 waltzes, notably "An der schönen blauen Donau" (1867, trans "The Blue Danube") and "Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald" (1868, "Tales from the Vienna Woods").

Strauss was actually a terrible dancer. He told a friend: "That's why I have to give a firm 'no' to many tempting invitations to the dance.

The German composer Johannes Brahms was a personal friend of Strauss. Perhaps the greatest tribute that Brahms could pay to his pal was his remark that he would have given anything to have written "The Blue Danube" waltz.

An anecdote dating around the time Brahms became acquainted with Strauss is that the former cheekily inscribed the words "alas, not by Brahms!" on the autograph score of the "Blue Danube" waltz.

Strauss and Johannes Brahms photographed in Vienna

In addition to his waltzes, Johann Strauss the Younger also wrote polkas, marches, sixteen operettas, including "Die Fledermaus" (1874, "The Bat"), and a favorite concert piece, "Perpetuum Mobile."

Strauss had applied for the KK Hofballmusikdirektor Music Director of the Royal Court Balls position, but was denied several times before for his frequent brushes with the local authorities. He eventually attained the position in 1863, after which Johann relinquished leadership of his orchestra to his brothers.

In 1872 Strauss and his orchestra toured the United States, where, at the invitation of bandmaster Patrick Gilmore he was the lead conductor in The World's Peace Jubilee and International Musical Festival in Boston, Massachusetts. The jubilee, which consisted of over 1000 singers and musicians, honored the ending of the Franco-Prussian War. On June 29, 1872 Strauss performed his "Blue Danube" waltz, amongst other pieces, to great acclaim. 

World's Peace Jubilee coliseum, Back Bay, Boston, 1872

In 1878, following the death of his first wife, singer Henriette Treffz, Strauss married another singer, Angelika Dittrich.

Strauss was diagnosed with pleuropneumonia, and on June 3, 1899 he died in Vienna, at the age of 73. At the time of his death, he was still composing his ballet Aschenbrödel.

He was buried in the Zentralfriedhof (The Vienna Central Cemetery).

Sources Europress Family Encyclopaedia, Compton's Encyclopaedia

The Nutcracker

After the success of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty, the St Petersburg Opera commissioned the Russian composer to write another score. He was asked to compose the music to accompany an adaption of a 1816 German story, E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, that they wanted to perform as a ballet.

According to German folklore, nutcrackers are given as good luck charms, and help to ward off evil. Hard-shelled nuts were often hung from Christmas trees, hence the nutcracker doll becoming a 19th Century festive staple.

The story is about a little girl who dreams that she is transported to a land of sweets and magic by the Nutcracker Prince and at first Tchaikovsky was unhappy with the setting of a Christmas party for children. However. the choreographer persuaded him by giving exact specifications of the rhythms and tempos needed for each dance.

The ballet was premièred at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg on December 18, 1892. The original production was not a success, one critic called it "completely insipid." However, the 20-minute "Nutcracker Suite" that Tchaikovsky extracted from the ballet was well received - the Sugar Plum Fairy supposedly received five curtain calls.

The original production of The Nutcracker St. Petersburg, 1892 Wikipedia

One novelty in Tchaikovsky's original score was the use of the celesta, a percussion instrument, which produces a bell-like sound. The composer had secretly bought the newly invented glockenspiel-like instrument in Paris and he used it for the character of the Sugar Plum Fairy to characterize her because of its "heavenly sweet sound."

The Odeon label released the first ever long-playing album in 1909 when it released the "Nutcracker Suite" by Tchaikovsky on four double-sided discs in a specially designed package.

The Nutcracker was not performed in Western Europe until 1934 when it premiered in London. The complete Nutcracker has enjoyed enormous popularity since George Balanchine's 1954 production in New York and is now performed by countless ballet companies, primarily during the Christmas season,

The original manuscript of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite was found on December 9, 1946 in wastepaper bought to cover the walls of a flat in St Petersburg, then Leningrad.

Masque

The Masque was a spectacular kind of indoor performance combining poetic drama, music, dance, song, lavish costume, and costly stage effects. Originating in Italy, the entertainment flourished in England in the 16th and 17th centuries, with Ben Jonson as the most popular writer, aided by Inigo Jones, the famous designer.

The masque has its origins in a folk tradition where masked players would unexpectedly call on a nobleman in his hall, dancing and bringing gifts on certain nights of the year. At the end, the players would take off their masks to reveal their identities - hence the name.

The Masque was the first type of entertainment where music, dance and costumes were more important than plot and were the forerunner of ballet and opera.

Often, the masquers who did not speak or sing were courtiers. Members of the court would enter disguised, taking the parts of mythological characters, and enact a simple allegorical plot, concluding with a dance joined by members of the audience.

On August 30, 1594, James VI of Scotland (later James I of England) held a masque at the baptism of Prince Henry, his first child. The masque was written by the Scottish poet William Fowler and was performed in the Great Hall of Stirling Castle. The masque was a celebration of the birth of Prince Henry and the future of the Scottish monarchy. It featured allegorical figures representing the virtues of the young prince, such as Hope, Faith, and Charity. The masque also included a performance by a group of musicians and dancers.

 King James 1st’s queen, Anne of Denmark, frequently danced with her ladies in masques between 1603 and 1611. Ben Jonson's first masque, The Masque of Blackness in 1605, was specifically written to accommodate the longing of Anne of Denmark, to appear in an African role.

Charles I of England's queen, Henrietta was obsessed with dramatic performances at Banquet House. Sometimes she dressed up and acted in the masques herself, joined by the king.

William Shakespeare wrote a masque-like interlude in The Tempest, understood by modern scholars to have been heavily influenced by the masque texts of Ben Jonson and the stagecraft of Inigo Jones.

Chloridia: Rites to Chloris and Her Nymphs was the final masque that Ben Jonson wrote for the Stuart Court. It was performed at Shrovetide, February 22, 1631.

In 1632, Ben Jonson was replaced as royal masque writer by Aurelian Townshend, who, to add insult to injury, was paid £10 more by Queen Henrietta than was his predecessor.

Tempe Restored was a masque, written by Aurelian Townshend and designed by Inigo Jones, and performed at Whitehall Palace on Shrove Tuesday, February 14, 1632.  A French woman Madame Coniack had a strong vocal part in the masque marking the first appearance of a professional female singer on the English stage.

John Milton's musical Masque, Comus, which was commissioned by the Earl of Bridgwater, had its premiere at Ludlow Castle in 1634. The English poet wrote the lyrics and Henry Lawes the music.

By the time of the English Restoration in 1660, the masque was considered passé, but the English semi-opera which developed in the latter part of the 17th century, borrows some elements from the entertainment.

Discotheque

The word “discotheque” is an adaptation of “bibliotheque” meaning "a library."  It originally was meant to convey the idea of a "record library" but evolved to mean "a place for dancing to records".

The first discothèque the Scotch Club, opened on October 19, 1959 in Aachen, Germany. The first song played by DJ Heinrich was the chart hit "Ein Schiff wird kommen" by Lale Andersen.

Whiskey-a-Go-Go opened on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles on January 16, 1964. The nightclub gave birth to a new pop culture phenomenon when its female disc jockey, who was suspended in a cage above the dancefloor, began dancing to the records she was spinning between sets. Bright lights and mini-skirted dancers in cages became the club's prominent features. Numerous acts, including the Doors, would get their start here.

The world’s largest disco was held at the Buffalo Centre, New York in 1979 when 13,000 people danced into the Guinness Book of Records

Source Dictionary of Phrase & Fable by Nigel Rees

Dancing Mania

Dancing mania was a phenomenon seen primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. During such outbreaks, groups of up to thousands of people would dance uncontrollably, screaming, shouting, and claiming to have visions until they collapsed from exhaustion.

Dancing mania was initially considered a curse sent by a saint, usually St. John the Baptist, so it was called "St. John's Dance."

Music was typically played during outbreaks of dancing mania, as it was thought to remedy the problem.

A painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, after drawings by his father.

One of the first major outbreaks of dancing mania, wherein crowds of people danced themselves to exhaustion, took place in Aachen (present-day Germany)  on June 24, 1374, before spreading to other cities and countries.

The “Dancing Plague” was an uncontrollable dance mania that killed dozens of people in Strasbourg, France in 1518. It began when a woman found herself dancing in the streets of Strasbourg for somewhere between four and six days. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers.

Believed to have been caused by the bite of a tarantula, tarantism is literally a sickness that causes a person to randomly break out in dance.

Dancer

Among the most beloved dancers in Europe during the first half of the 18th century was Marie Anne de Dupis, called Camargo, who was brilliant technically and daring; she is credited with shortening her skirt a few inches to allow audience members to better see and appreciate her intricate footwork. Marie Salle was also a great favorite and brought a new freedom to the dance through her expressive use of costume and masterful use of gestures.

Although theatrical dancing was occasionally imported from Europe to entertain the citizens of the colonies, no native-born dancer of note emerged in America until the late 18th century. The best known of these early American artists was John Durang, who made his debut in Philadelphia in 1785 and went on to found America's first dynasty of dancers.

Vernon (1887-1918) and Irene Castle (1893-1969) were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They were famous for developing and promoting dancing in the period of the First World War.

The Castles' greatest success was on Broadway, in Irving Berlin's debut musical Watch Your Step (1914). In this extravaganza, the couple refined and popularized the Foxtrot, which vaudeville comedian Harry Fox invented.

The Castles helped remove the stigma of vulgarity from close dancing. The Castles’ performances, often set to ragtime and jazz rhythms, also popularized African-American music among well-heeled whites.

The Bluebell Girls are a troupe of high-kicking girls in the Folies-Bergère tradition, established in the 1930s by an Anglo-Irish dancer, Margaret Kelly, who was herself known as Miss Bluebell (apparently from the color of her eyes). They began at the Folies-Bergère and still perform mainly in Paris, though many of the girls are British.

Gregory Hines was a highly acclaimed American tap dancer, actor, and choreographer, born on February 14, 1946, in New York City. He started his career in entertainment at a young age. Alongside his brother Maurice, he performed as a tap dancing duo called "The Hines Kids." As he grew older, Hines became known for his solo performances, showcasing his exceptional skill, rhythm, and innovative approach to tap dance.

In addition to his success as a tap dancer, Gregory Hines also made a name for himself in the worlds of film and television. He appeared in a variety of movies, including The Cotton Club (1984), White Nights (1985), and Tap (1989), where he co-starred with fellow tap dancer Sammy Davis Jr. Hines earned critical acclaim for his performances, demonstrating not only his dancing prowess but also his acting abilities.

British dancer Benedict Devlin holds the record for the most heel clicks in 30 seconds in the traditional Irish dance style. He performed 191 on the set of Guinness World Records, in London, UK, on April 23, 2009. He was able to perform up to four clicks with his heels while both feet were midair.

Nepalese dance artiste, Bandana Nepal set a world record by dancing continuously for 126 hours in Kathmandu, Nepal. She started her effort on November 23, 2018 and reached the milestone over five days later on November 28.

Her record was broken by a 16-year-old Indian girl, Vatsala Akka, who danced non-stop  for 127 hours at Dayanand College, Latur, India from May 29 to June 3, 2023.

Nevada state in the USA has the most out of work dancers.

Sources Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc, Wikipedia

Dance

Rock paintings of dancing figures in Indian caves suggest that dance has been with us for at least 9,000 years.

Dancing was an integral part of Ancient Egyptian life. It evolved from the most simple rituals used by hunters to find their prey. Performing the dances was believed to help in later hunts. A leader, called a priest-dancer, was responsible for seeing that the dances were performed correctly so that the hunt would be successful.

Professional performers entertained at social events in Ancient Egypt, and traveling troupes gave performances in public squares of great cities such as Thebes and Alexandria.

Movements of Egyptian dances were named after the motion they imitated. For instance, there were "the leading along of an animal," "the taking of gold," and "the successful capture of the boat."

Probably many of the poses and motions were highly acrobatic, though in certain instances Egyptian dance steps look remarkably like steps in classical ballet.

Ancient Greek dance can be divided into large and small motions--movements and gestures. Movements were closely related to gymnastic exercises.

In ancient Greece, dance was seen as a gift from the gods. The main qualities of dance, such as order and rhythm, were also qualities of the gods.

In general dancing was not highly thought of by the Romans. Dancing schools in Rome were ordered to be closed in 200 BC.

In Europe formal dances began to receive recognition in the late 16th century, when a French writer called Jehan Tabourot published a study of the social dances of the day, including popular mediaeval dances such as the pavane, galliard and branie.

Polonaise, a courtly processional dance for couples arranged in line by rank has been known since 1645. It is the national dance of Poland,.

The Minuet was the most popular dance in Europe in the mid eighteenth-century. This dance required multiple partners, holding hands at a respectable distance, to move together in formation.

The waltz developed from the Bavarian country dance called the ländler. It was first introduced to English ballrooms on May 11, 1812. Most observers considered the waltz disgusting and immoral due to the physical contact involved. The Victorian Ladies' Pocket Book of Etiquette devoted ten pages into denouncing it.

Frontispiece to Thomas Wilson's Correct Method of German and French Waltzing (1816), showing 9 positions of the Waltz

The 1847 definition of choreography was “the art of representing dancing by signs, as singing is by notes."

The can-can is a high kicking and risqué dance popularized in Paris. It is normally danced with four women in 4 / 4 time. Although danced to many tunes, it is associated with Offenbach's opera Orpheus in the Underworld, which was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris on October 21, 1858. It was actually composed as the musical backdrop for Orpheus descending into hell in one of the opera's scenes. He turns around at the last second and traps his wife in the Underworld forever. The Can-Can is him celebrating freedom from his wife.

The Can-Can became a particularly scandalous dance in the 19th century because women wore pantalettes, which had an open crotch, and the high kicks were intentionally revealing.

Thr cakewalk was a 19th century dance, invented by slaves in the antebellum South. It was intended to satirize the graceful walking during the ballroom promenades of white plantation owners. Couples promenaded through the ballroom, bowing deeply and frequently. The couple who performed the best were awarded a cake awarded as a prize.

The immense popularity of dancers Vernon and Irene Castle in the years before World War I led to the popularity of social dancing. Ballrooms and nightclubs for dancers began to appear across the country, and the waltz, fox-trot, and a new dance from Argentina, the tango, were danced by many.

The foxtrot was invented by Harry Fox in 1914.

Dancing to jazz music and tango bands was criticized in Paris in the early 1920s. It seems that dancing was detracting the French from their postwar reconstruction, according to La Revue Mondiale

In 1923, the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, passed a law forbidding dancers to stare into each other’s eyes.

Taxi Dance Halls of the late 1920s and early '30s were places where lonely men looking for human contact could pay 10 cents a song to dance with women for a few minutes. In 1931, there were at least 100 taxi dance halls in New York, visited by up to 50,000 men each week.

Chubby Checker sung "The Twist" for the first time on TV in 1960 when he performs on American Bandstand. The song would go to #1 and start a huge dance craze.

Break dancing began in the 1970s in New York as a non-lethal form of street fighting between street gangs.

The 1984 film Footloose starring Kevin Bacon is based on events that took place in Elmore City, Oklahoma, which banned dancing until 1980.

A world record for the longest conga dance line was set by 119,986 people in Miami in 1988.

Unlicensed dancing in public is illegal in Sweden including "illegally moving your feet to music"

Marathon dance contests are illegal in the state of Washington.

Dancing may be good for your brain and can keep you mentally sharp, according to a study published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

20 minutes of dancing can burn 100 calories.

Here is a list of songs about dancing.

Sources Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998, Daily Express

Cheerleading

Cheerleading began in Great Britain during the 1860's, when students began cheering routines at competitive sporting events and soon the idea spread to the United States.

American cheerleading began at Princeton University in the 1880s with an all-male club charged with leading chants at basketball and American football matches.

The term "Cheer Leader" had been used as early as 1897, with Princeton's football officials having named three students as Cheer Leaders.

The official date that organized cheerleading started was November 2, 1898 at the University of Minnesota. On that day, student Johnny Campbell became the first cheerleader when he directed a crowd in cheering "Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-u-mah, Hoo-Rah! Hoo-Rah! Varsity! Varsity! Varsity, Minn-e-So-Tah!" towards the football team.

It remained all-male till 1923 when University of Minnesota students formed the first ever female cheer squad.

George W. Bush was the head cheerleader during his high school senior year. At Yale, he also was a cheerleader.

In 1982 the Super Bowl was broadcast in the UK for the first time, bringing cheerleading with it. Two years later the British Cheerleading Association, was founded.

Gwen Stefani wrote "Hollaback Girl" in response to Courtney Love calling her a cheerleader in an interview.

In 2009, 40-year old Laura Vikmanis joined the Cincinnati Ben–Gals squad, making her the oldest cheerleader in the NFL

Of the United States' 2.9 million female high school athletes, only 3% are cheerleaders, yet cheerleading accounts for nearly 65% of all catastrophic injuries in girls' high school athletics.

The U.S. pharmaceutical industry actively recruits college cheerleaders as prescription drug reps to increase sales to male doctors.

Source Radio Times

The Blue Danube

Johann Strauss wrote over 400 waltzes, most notably "An der schönen blauen Donau" (better known to the English-speaking world as "The Blue Danube"). Written to celebrate the River Danube that flows through Vienna, it was premiered as a choral piece on February 13, 1867 at a concert of the Vienna Men's Choral Association. 

The title of the waltz comes from a poem by Karl Isidor Beck, which ends with the line "By the Danube, beautiful blue Danube."

The Danube is actually not blue, but Strauss chose the name because he thought it would be more appealing to the audience.

Its initial performance only got a lukewarm response and Strauss is reputed to have said "The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda—I wish that had been a success!"

Strauss adapted it into a purely orchestral version for the 1867 Paris World's Fair, and it this form that it is best known today.

Demand for the sheet music for the orchestral version of "The Blue Danube" was so high that it wore out the printing presses.

The German composer Johannes Brahms was a personal friend of Strauss. An anecdote dating around the time is that Strauss's stepdaughter, Alice von Meyszner-Strauss approached Brahms with a customary request that he autograph her fan. Brahms cheekily inscribed a few measures from the "Blue Danube," and then wrote beneath it: "Unfortunately, NOT by Johannes Brahms."

The piece's popularity was bolstered after its prominent use in the Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was used to accompany the scene in which a spaceplane is seen docking with a space station after Kubrick made an association between the spinning motion of the satellites and the dancers of waltzes. The waltz was also used to accompany the film's closing credits.

The piece was also used as the gastrointestinal bypass surgery music in the 2003 film Super Size Me.

The waltz is often played at weddings and other special occasions.

"The Blue Danube" is considered to be Austria's unofficial national anthem.

Source Songfacts (also written by myself)

Ballroom Dancing

Ballroom dancing encompasses several different styles, including the Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Quickstep, Viennese Waltz, Rumba, Cha-Cha, Samba, Paso Doble, Jive, and more.

The 1385 marriage of Charles VI of France and Isabella of Bavaria-Straubing is recognized as the first French court ball.

The term "ballroom" originally referred to a large room in which balls and dances were held, typically in palaces or grand residences.

The waltz, a dance in 3/4 time, was first introduced to the Austrian court in the 17th century. It probably evolved from an old Austrian-German peasant dance, the Landler.

Some people, however, found waltzing undignified, and in 1760 the performance of waltzes was banned by the church in parts of Germany.

The waltz became fashionable in Vienna around the 1780s, spreading to many other countries in the years to follow.

Its entry in the Oxford English Dictionary shows that the waltz was considered "riotous and indecent" as late as 1825 in England.

Polka, a sprightly, hopping, round dance in 2/4 time originated in Bohemia about 1830. It became a ballroom craze in the mid-19th century, spreading throughout Europe and the Americas in many versions

The Rumba evolved in Havana, Cuba in the 1870s. It became an internationally popular ballroom dance for couples in the 1930s.

The immense popularity of dancers Vernon and Irene Castle in the years before World War I led to the popularity of social dancing in the US. Ballrooms and nightclubs for dancers began to appear across the country, and from Argentina, the tango, were danced by many.

In 1914 Harry Fox and his Orchestra introduced a new dance at the New Amsterdam Roof Garden in New York City. The word 'foxtrot' describing the dance appeared for the first time in the 1915 Victor record catalogue.

Dancing to jazz music and tango bands was criticized in Paris in the early 1920s. It seems that dancing was detracting the French from their postwar reconstruction, according to La Revue Mondiale.

Ballroom dancing was popularized through various mediums, including movies. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are renowned for their elegant ballroom dance routines in classic Hollywood films.

Ballroom dancing offers numerous physical and mental benefits, including improved coordination, cardiovascular fitness, balance, flexibility, and social interaction.

Ballroom dancing for an hour will burn around 352 calories.

Ballet Dancer

Italian dancer and choreographer Carlo Blasis (1797 – 1878) is regarded as the founder of classical ballet, since he defined the standard conventional steps and accompanying gestures. He is well known for his very rigorous dance classes, sometimes lasting four hours long.

Austrian dancer Fanny Elssler (1810-1884) was the first ballet celebrity to be embraced by American audiences. With a glorious European career behind her,  Elssler made her New York City debut in 1840 and for the next two years toured the United States. So popular was she that when she visited Washington, D.C., she was feted by the entire United States Congress. Elssler's visit stimulated a keen interest in classical dance.

After gas lighting became popular in 19th-century theaters, scores of ballet dancers died after their tutus caught on fire.

Vaslav Nijinsky (March 12, 1889 – April 8, 1950). was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent who was regarded as the greatest male dancer of the 20th century.  He could dance en pointe, a rare skill among male dancers at the time and was admired for his seemingly gravity-defying leaps. Nijinsky's last public performance was in 1917 and he spent the final three decades of his life in and out of psychiatric hospitals before dying in London. 

 Vaslav Nijinsky costumed as the God Vayou in the ballet Le Talisman.

Legendary Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev (March 17, 1938 – January 6, 1993) was a star of the Kirov Ballet in the Soviet Union before defecting to the West while on tour in Paris in 1961. He then became the most prominent ballet dancer in the world before dying of Aids, aged 54.

Nureyev in his dressing room c. 1974, By Allan Aarren - Wikipedia Commons

Dame Margot Fonteyn (May 18, 1919 – February 21, 1991), was born on May 18, 1919, in Reigate, Surrey, England. Fonteyn had a natural talent for ballet and began dancing at a young age. She joined the Vic-Wells Ballet School in 1933 and made her professional debut with the Royal Ballet (formerly the Sadler's Wells Theatre Company) in 1934. She quickly rose through the ranks and was promoted to principal dancer in 1938.

Fonteyn was a versatile dancer and excelled in a wide range of roles. She was particularly known for her interpretations of classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Giselle, and The Sleeping Beauty. She also starred in many modern ballets, including Frederick Ashton's Façade and The Two Pigeons.

Fonteyn was the Royal Ballet's prima ballerina for 45 years, before retiring to become a cattle rancher in Panama. At one time, Dame Fonteyn was considering retirement when Rudolf Nureyev defected. At first she was reluctant to partner him because of their 19-year old age gap but they became an iconic partnership. It helped pay for looking after her Panamanian politician husband, Roberto Arias, who was shot in an argument in the street and became a quadriplegic.

The late rapper Tupac Shakur was a ballet dancer in high school and ended up portraying the Mouse King in a production of The Nutcracker. Later, he was a member of the 127th street ensemble, which is a Harlem based theater company.

Mick Jagger is a skilled ballet dancer, and still does ballet as part of his daily work outs. 

The world's tallest ballet dancer is Frenchman Fabrice Calmels who stands at 199.73cm (6 ft 6.63 in) .

Professional ballerinas use about twelve pairs of toe shoes per week.

Source Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc

Ballet

The first important dramatic ballet, the Ballet comique de la reine, was produced in 1581 by Catherine de Medici 's director of court festivals, Baltazar de Beaujoyeulx for a wedding celebration at her Parisian palace. It was a five hour spectacle, performed by male courtiers, with ladies of the court forming the corps de ballet and an audience of 10,000.

In 1588 a book crucial in the development of ballet, Orchesographie by Thoinot Arbeau, was published. It set forth the dance steps and rhythms that became the ballet postures and movements in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In 1661 a group of dancing masters asked King Louis XIV to establish an authorized academy, and he responded by giving them a room in the Louvre for their use. Thus was founded the Académie Royale de Danse, to which all subsequent ballet activities throughout the world can be traced.

Ten years later, Pierre Beauchamp was appointed director of the Académie Royale de Danse. Some credit him with the invention of classical ballet's five positions.

Until 1681, female roles in ballets in France were taken by young men.

The Loves of Mars and Venus was the first ballet performed in Britain. It was premiered on Saturday, March 2, 1717  at the Drury Lane Theater in London. English choreographer John Weaver created the ballet using as his primary source Peter Anthony Motteux's play, The Loves of Mars and Venus.
The role of Venus was performed by the beautiful English theater star Hester Santlow, She was paired with the suave and elegant French court dancer, Monsieur Dupré, Weaver himself played Mars

Long, flowing court dresses were worn by the ballet dancers until the 1720s when Marie-Anne Camargo, the first great ballerina, shortened her skirt to reveal her ankles, thus allowing greater movement à terre and the development of dancing en l'air.

International Dance Day is celebrated every year on April 29, the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), the creator of modern ballet.

Jean-Georges Noverre (Perronneau, 1764, Louvre)

Prior to Jean-George Noverre, ballet's were large spectacles that focused mainly on elaborate costumes and scenery and not on the physical and emotional expression of the dancers. Between 1758 and 1760 he produced several ballets at Lyon, and published his Lettres sur la danse et les ballets. Noverre's treatise on dancing and theater expressed his aesthetic theories on the production of ballets and his method of teaching the performance dance.

In the early 19th century a Paris costumier, Maillot, invented tights, which allowed complete muscular freedom.

The 1830s saw the new calf-length white dress and the introduction of dancing on the toes, sur les pointes. The technique of the female dancer was developed, but the role of the male dancer was reduced to that of being her partner.

The tutu, designed by Eugene Lami, was first used as a ballet skirt in La Sylphide in Paris in 1832.
However the word “tutu” only appeared in English in 1910.

Russian ballet was introduced to the West by Sergei Diaghliev, who set out for Paris in 1909 and founded the Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet). Diaghilev pioneered a new and exciting combination of the perfect technique of imperial Russian dancers and the appealing naturalism favored by Isadora Duncan.

American ballet was firmly established by the founding of Balanchine's School of American Ballet in 1934. From 1948 the New York City Ballet, under the guiding influence of Balanchine, developed a genuine American neoclassic style.

With more than 220 professional dancers on its books, The Bolshoi Ballet is the largest ballet company on the Earth.

Bolshoi means 'big' in Russian.

The Seattle-based Pacific Northwest Ballet is said to have the highest per capita attendance of any ballet in America.

Ballet pointe shoes take several days to make by hand with a multi-step process but only have a usable life of ten to twenty hours for students, less for professionals. 

The New York City Ballet has a shoe budget of $780,000. The average lifespan of a pointe shoe for their dancers is two days, with 8,500 shoes used in a season.

Source Hutchinson Encyclopedia © RM 2012. Helicon Publishing is division of RM