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In the 19th century, the dance card became common; here ladies recorded the names of the men who had booked a particular dance with them. The grandest balls were at the French court in the Chateau de Versailles, with others in Paris. At royal balls, most guests did not expect to be able to dance, at least until very late in the night. [3]
Today historical dances are danced as performance, for pleasure at themed balls or dance clubs, as historical reenactment, or for musicological or historical research. Dances from the early 20th century can be recreated precisely, being within living memory and after the advent of film and video recording.
Typically, it would have a cover indicating the sponsoring organization of the ball and a decorative cord by which it could be attached to a lady's wrist or ball gown. From the 19th century until World War I, dance cards for the elite of Austria-Hungary were often very elaborate, with some even incorporating precious metals and jewels.
The London social season evolved in the 17th and 18th centuries, and in its traditional form it peaked in the 19th century. In this era the British elite was dominated by families of the nobility and landed gentry , who generally regarded their country house as their main home, but spent several months of the year in the capital to socialise ...
A ball in Zürich is featured in the novel Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. A masquerade ball is central to the plot of Mikhail Lermontov's 1835 play Masquerade. The play was censored and never staged during Lermontov's lifetime, partly because of the implied criticism of the masquerade balls staged by the aristocratic Engelhardt family.
In 17th-century France, the minuet, also called "the Queen of Dances", was the first dance. In the Victorian era of Great Britain the first dance was a quadrille. [1] In 19th century Russian Empire balls were opened with Polonaise. [2] Another meaning is the first occurrence of a young lady in a social gathering.
Table games involving sticks and balls evolved from efforts to bring outdoor games like ground billiards, croquet, and bowling inside for play during inclement weather. . They are attested in general by the 15th century, although the 19th-century idea that bagatelle itself derived from the English "shovel-board" described in Charles Cotton's 1674 Compleat Gamester [2] has since been disrega
The ball inspired a number of writers and artists in the nineteenth century. [31] Sir Walter Scott mentioned it in passing in Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk. [32] It was described by William Makepeace Thackeray in Vanity Fair and by Lord Byron in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Byron emphasises the contrast between the glamour of the ball and the ...