The History of Western Dance
DANCE IN COLONIAL AMERICA
Attitudes.
The English colonists in
America had mixed opinions
about dance. There was the complete disapproval of those who
saw only its inherent licentiousness, but from others came at
least a tacit toleration of the obviously irrepressible urge
to dance. The South, more heavily populated by colonists with
aristocratic backgrounds, was generally more inclined to dance
than the North, where religious fervour had motivated much of
the migration from England. But what was allowed and even encouraged
in Connecticut was strictly forbidden in Massachusetts. The
general consensus was apparently that dancing in itself was
not bad, but that no punishment could be severe enough for what
was regarded as lascivious dancing. The Quakers, who had settled
mainly in Pennsylvania, were very much against dancing, and
in 1706 they complained bitterly about a dancing and fencing
school being tolerated in Philadelphia. They feared that the
school's teachings would tend to corrupt their children.
External and internal influences.
Nonetheless, Playford's The English Dancing Master
was by no means unknown in America. There were also dancing
masters and dancing mistresses to instruct in and lead the dances
that had been brought from the Old World. There were society
balls in the cities along the coast, and on the inland frontiers
the settlers of the widely scattered farmsteads often came together
for exuberant feasting and social dancing. Here dancing was
considered a socializing virtue expressed in this anonymous
observation:
I really know among us of no custom which is so
useful and tends so much to establish the union and the little
society which subsists among us. Poor as we are, if we have
not the gorgeous balls, the harmonious concerts, the shrill
horn of Europe, yet we delight our hearts as well with the simple
negro fiddle.
What the colonists saw of American Indian dancing they found
very strange and primitive, and there was virtually no exchange
of dancing customs between the groups. The situation differed,
however, with regard to the
black slaves, who in the
17th century had brought their own songs and dances from their
native lands in Africa.
During religious holidays in New Amsterdam, blacks danced in
the streets to the musical accompaniment of three-stringed fiddles
and drums constructed from eel pots and covered with sheep-skins.
Dutch families joined in the festivities. When New Amsterdam
became New York, however, the English discouraged dancing between
whites and blacks; blacks went on to develop the characteristic
dance style that would so deeply affect social dancing in the
19th and 20th centuries.
Early in the 18th century, rather rough theatrical entertainments,
acts of acrobatic skill or pantomimes in which dances played
an increasing role, began to spread through the American colonies.
These often amateurish showings got a mighty boost when the
first professional companies came from Europe, about the middle
of the century, to perform plays and harlequinades with incidental
dances.
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