Imagine getting your gang of friends together for a Nox of dancing . look on your friends , that might mean a raucous night of YouTube video after take on Cards Against Humanity or it could imply sip champagne next to a sweaty celebrity at a table with bottleful overhaul . Either way , you ’re probably not too try out about , say , whether you ’ll incur an appropriate partner for each song or know the veracious steps to the song the disc jockey is spinning . Dancing is fun!Casual ! No big deal !
Be thankful next Saturday Nox , then , when you do n’t find yourself transported back in time to the nineteenth one C , where dancing is neither fun nor occasional and is probably the biggest social business deal of your life-time . A distinctive night of dancing in theVictorian era(both in Europe and the United States ) was nothing if not a tightly wound choreography of strict societal behavior and actions . If you were golden enough to be invite to a ball or social terpsichore , you were bound to enter in the uncounted rules the occasion required , lest you scandalize yourself or your host .
Before we get into the item of dancing cards , let ’s first give a little background knowledge on the form of dance where a dance identity card might be used at . Balls were the premier social event in Britain and the U.S. in the prissy era , when dance cards first became popular . And it was n’t always easy to get an invite , specially if you were a noblewoman . A homo who trip the light fantastic toe was usually a welcome Edgar Albert Guest , but because lots of young ma’am were presumptively in attendance , hosts might stress hard to check that there were suitable partners for all [ source : situation ] . Too many ladies , in other words , might mean an awkward famine of dance partners on the base . And nobody was locomote to enjoy themselves if they were forget sit red - faced on the sidelines .
Which brings us to trip the light fantastic toe cards . They were broadly throw to the ladies , and the little cards would have the dances printed on them ( i.e. waltz , quadrille , polka ) in order of the curriculum . Next to each saltation would be a blank for a man to pencil in his name , which have in mind he " exact " the dance with the young woman . The dance cards were often looped around the ladies ' wrists while they dance .
The dance card would ensure a few things : First , that a woman could keep track of who would care to partner with her . Second , it also assure that a lady was not about to ask a man — gasp ! — to dance . The responsibility , you see , lay entirely with the male spouse to inquire about the dance and to implement the engagement . If Lord Bottomthistle III signed up to dance with Lady Eugenia Hustledown - Forth and did n’t show up to claim his dance ? Lady Eugie was left to grin and endure it . She could certainly beg off and sit out a dancing , but it was the height of impropriety to " stand up " with another man after reject another .
So when we say that someone ’s terpsichore card was full , we involve she must have been a democratic lady who snagged a man for every tour at the ball . Or if someone tell , " Sorry , my saltation card is full , " It ’s a cultivated way of allege , " I ’d love to do that , but I ’m already booked up . " No doubt women back then sometimes sham their dancing card was full to get out of trip the light fantastic with someone unwanted .
