Regency dance

Regency dance refers to the historical dance of the English Regency, which lasted from 1795 until 1820.

The dance of this era was immortalized in the books of Jane Austen. In the modern era, these dances are reenacted by groups in the USA, as well as other countries.

Many dances from this era are forms of English Country Dance; however, the appropriate footwork for these dances is considerably more complicated than that used by the modern ECD revival.

Numerous instruction manuals survive from the Regency era. Several by Thomas Wilson are in the US Library of Congress online collection.

For further reading:

• The treasures of Terpsichore (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/musdibib:@field(NUMBER+@band(musdi+191))) at the Library of Congress
• Regency Dance Society (http://hometown.aol.com/regencydnz/regency.html)
• Bay Area English Regency Society (http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Strasse/1815/)
• Tapestry Regency Dance (http://members.aol.com/tapestrylj/TAPESTRYSITE/regency.html)