Waltzing Through 1814

The London Times (July 1816)

“We remarked with pain that the indecent foreign dance called the ‘waltz’ was introduced (we believe for the first time) at the English Court on Friday last. This is a circumstance which ought not to be passed over in silence. National morals depend on national habits: and it is quite sufficient to cast one’s eyes on the voluptuous intertwining of the limbs and close compressure of the bodies, in their dance, to see that is indeed far removed from the modest reserve which have hitherto been considered distinctive of English females. So long as this obscene display was confined to prostitutes and adulteresses we did not think it deserving of notice; but now that it is attempted to be forced upon the respectable classes of society by the evil example of their superiors, we feel it a duty to warn every parent against exposing his daughter to so fatal a contagion…

We owe a due reference to superiors in rank, but we owe a higher duty to morality. We know not how it happened (probably by recommendation of some worthless and ignorant French dancing master) that so indecent a dance has now for the first time been exhibited at the English Court; but the novelty is one deserving of severe reprobation, and we trust it will never be tolerated in any moral English society”

It is hard to believe that this article from the 1816 London Times is referring to the romantic, sweeping waltz that we know today. Waltz compositions existed in Regency England prior to the popularisation of the dance but followed a 2/4 rhythm rather than a 3/4 and the dancing involved more leaping and skipping than the graceful and stately movements we often imagine. The ‘closed waltz’ came into being (in England) around 1810 but just because it was there did not mean it was acceptable for higher bred individuals to dance it. When dancing, couples did not ’embrace’ one another. There was strictly no ‘intertwining of limbs’ or ‘compressure of bodies’ and couples were not to form a singular unit on the ballroom dancefloor.

Steps of the Regency Waltz from Thomas Wilson’s Dance Manual

The closed waltz may have crept into some dancing halls and clubs by 1814 but it was not likely accepted into higher society before it was danced at the English Court. And it is said that debutantes would have needed permission from a parent or chaperone if it was danced at all. Reading the above excerpt from The London Times allows us to imagine the censorious glances that dancing the closed waltz at a prestigious event would invite.

In my novel, Becoming Lady Beth, Beth attempts to dance the waltz with Lord Robert Asherton at the Season’s opening ball. Being a modern day girl suddenly thrown back through time to 1814, it is the only dance she knows and she fails to realise the differences in our modern day waltz and the dance habits of her new peers. Her attempts to ‘embrace’ the young Earl at the Asherton Ball causes more than a raised eyebrow and illustrates the first of many mistakes our modern day heroine will make in this uptight society. Here is a little snippet of her mother’s reaction the morning after the ball, at breakfast:

Beth arranged her bounty around her with some glee. She poured herself a cup of tea, sniffed the contents, finding the familiar scent immediately comforting, then mouth salivating she prepared to tuck in.

            ‘I see your wanton behaviour is to continue into this morning, Elizabeth,’ her mother spoke. ‘Are you attempting to ignore what happened last night with the Earl? The shame you have brought upon your head? How we are to show our faces in company again, I’m sure I do not know.’ Her voice lost some of its strength towards the end of her speech and Beth felt terrible when she detected a catch in her mother’s throat. (BECOMING LADY BETH by Olivia Bright)

When researching the acceptance of the ‘closed’ waltz by the Beau Monde, Almacks is mentioned frequently. Almacks was a social club where both women and men of high social standing could while away the evenings. In 1814 it was considered ‘The Place’ to be seen. It was located somewhere along King’s Street, St. James in London.

Almacks Assembly Rooms: Social Club in London

Sometime between the 6^th and 27^th of June 1814, during the post-Napolean defeat celebration, Tsar Alexander came to England. He visited Almacks Assembly Rooms and it’s said that he danced the waltz there, thus introducing it to higher society. But although the waltz was deemed okay to dance by some, it was far from accepted immediately. It is very difficult to trace how quickly the ‘closed’ waltz progressed outwards from London but we know that it was occasionally danced in 1814 and from there it was likely that the dance slowly became more popular. Even though this was the case, it remained something that was associated with scandalous behaviour. Byron wrote a satirical poem about it.

Seductive Waltz!—though on thy native shore

Even Werter’s self proclaim’d thee half a whore;

Werter—to decent vice though much inclined,

Yet warm, not wanton; dazzled, but not blind—

Though gentle Genlis, in her strife with Stael,

Would ever proscribe thee from a Paris ball;

The fashion hails—from countesses to queens,

And maids and valets waltz behind the scenes;

Wide and more wide thy witching circle spreads,

And turns—if nothing else—at least our heads;

With thee even clumsy cits attempt to bounce,

And cockneys practise what they can’t pronounce.

Gods! How the glorious theme my strain exalts,

And rhyme finds partner rhyme in praise of “Waltz!”

Excerpt: The Waltz, Byron (1813)

When Beth finds herself no longer a girl of the noughties but an Earl’s daughter in 1814, the ‘closed waltz’ would have been known about and warned against. It would not have been an acceptable dance at the Asherton Ball and it definitely would not have been appropriate for a debutante. We can see this from Byron’s poem, where he describes how observers of the ‘closed waltz’ were dazzled by the shocking and wanton movements. The piece from the London Times, dated over two years later, prophesises a loss of national morality and warns parents against allowing their daughters to become exposed to this ‘deadly contagion’.

Here’s another little teaser from Becoming Lady Beth, where Beth discovers that waltzing in 1814 is viewed somewhat differently to waltzing in 2014.

All eyes were observing the strange scene. Lady Elizabeth was quite the most beautiful debutante present at the ball. When Lord Asherton had extended his hand to her, most of the circle had experienced the bitter taste of jealous resentment but most could not deny that they made a very handsome couple indeed. And then this! The most flagrant display of wanton behaviour. The Lady’s actions had set the viewers’ fans beating and their tongues wagging. (BECOMING LADY BETH by Olivia Bright)

BECOMING LADY BETH by Olivia Bright is to be published in December 2014. Keep a look out!

 

Introducing Lady Beth Goldsworthy

My latest completed novel sees me travel into the world of Jane Austen or 1814 to be exact. Stepping into this world felt like a relief to me in some ways. I believe that from the first moments I turned the pages of Pride & Prejudice at the age of fourteen, I fell in love with all that was Regency. After reading as much of Jane Austen as I could get my hands on in that year, I found myself re-reading her novels on occasion over the years. Perhaps I knew, that one day I would write a novel set in Regency England.

I’m not sure why it has taken me so long to get here but after years of trying to ignore the story I truly wanted to write – if nothing else but for my teenage self – I found that, come last August, my mind would settle on nothing else. I completed the first draft of Lady Beth Goldsworthy in a shockingly short two months. Before you all roll your eyes, let me just say that although I can occasionally work fast, this was most definitely the quickest my fingers had typed in a long, long time. To give you an idea, my last novel took almost four years from the first shady paragraphs to the finished product.

I think the first draft of Lady Beth took so little time to write simply because the idea had been bubbling away in the recesses of the brain for so long, ignored but developing all the same. When it came down to it, the protagonist’s voice was so strikingly clear in my head that it was all I could do to shut her up. It was a fresh burst of imagination that took me away from the seriousness of my adult novels and into the youthful rush of teen romance and nostalgia, and I loved every minute of it.

Here is a wee blurb to whet your appetite:

To the outside world Beth Goldsworthy has it all; a huge house, designer shoes, all the clothes a sixteen-year-old girl could want. But in a year that will all end if her parents have their way. They think it will be character building for Beth to step into the world unaided financially. But Beth has no desire to free herself of the comfort and trappings of wealth. What’s wrong with having others make your decisions and spending your life in luxury? It suits her just fine. Or it does until an ancient clock transports her to Regency England and into the world of the annoyingly arrogant but equally handsome Earl of Mendhip Heights.

Suddenly Beth’s life feels tighter than her corset and she finds herself drawing on all of her modern day skills just to survive the gauntlet of Bath’s social circuit and avoid falling for the yummy Earl in the process.

 

The completed novel was something that I was proud of, if only because I felt that I had been true to the story and to myself as a writer. I do not think I compromised on the authorial tone, the narrative standpoint or the pace and rhythm of the dialogue that was spoken at the time but (there is always a but) I am told that the young adult readership of today are not very interested in time-travel/historical novels. Sigh.

After going through a gauntlet myself – that of the submission process – I have been fortunate to have some high praise of Lady Beth. Some agents loved it but felt they could not take it on as they thought it impossible in the current market to sell such a genre to an editor. Cue many, many tears from me. Apparently, the teen of today is all about dystopian (although I hear the market for that is almost saturated) futures and gritty contemporary wrist-slitting characters in pain. And not historical romantic adventures that border on comic.

But I can’t agree. I know that the teen of today enjoys a gritty story, I did too when I was one but I also enjoyed lighter reading. I enjoyed romance, I enjoyed horror, mystery, literary and contemporary hard-hitting novels. A person is allowed to have varied tastes in literature, are they not? So I am venturing out to find these readers on my own. I hope you will join me.

My goal is to publish Lady Beth Goldsworthy in December 2014, possibly on Jane Austen’s birthday, the 16^th (date to be confirmed). My aim is to take you, my readers, through the self-publishing process. It might be trial and error in some departments as I am still learning but I hope to share each success and error with you. I’ll be publishing Lady Beth under the pseudonym: Olivia Bright.

Deciding to use a pseudonym is tough choice nowadays but I feel it’s the right thing to do as I plan to continue to write for adults, I am already working on a children’s novel and I feel in my bones that I have not heard the last of Lady Beth Goldsworthy. So for ease of differentiation I believe it wise to use a pseudonym for my YA/teen & children’s novels.

So please join me on my journey through the publishing process as an independent author and maybe with a little help from friends Lady Beth can find her readers.