Trouvaille du Jour: Fandango

The bolero, sort of a Spanish song, are very popular as we've mentioned a couple of days ago. 

Now we can affirm that dance follows suit, while most singers have abandoned Romances for the above mentioned, dancers have left the gavotte behind, and only want to dance the fandango .

We've actually danced the fandango the past few years during our Wildegg engagements, it's a catchy dance, easy to follow, gives you an agreeable turn and has everyone in giggles in no time. 

Clothing in Motion

Medea had an outing in September, when we went dancing on Wildegg Castle. A member of the public made a wee movie. Mind, we are all happy amateur dancers and the footwork is hardly coordinated as in a professional ensemble. It should give the impression of young people meeting and dancing towards the end of the summer, in preparation of the balls and dances a Winter in town would offer.

I do love the way the clothing becomes alive, and how it guides the movement of the dancers :-)

Medea - The Versatile LWD - Roman Style

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a woman can never be too fine wearing white mousseline.

The LittleWhiteMuslinDress of the period is one of my favourite period wardrobe staples, as it can be upgraded and downplayed with a few well placed accessories. It is an upper class or Sunday garment, as practical work is rather out of the question, though with train or without, I love the simple elegant flowing lines the LWMD creates.

My current favourite is last years Roman Style Dress, or Medea, as I nicknamed her after the first wear. She was created originally as a ball dress, but with the objective to be worn to elegant promenades as well. 

Last year in April, my friends C & F organised a most beautiful Bal de Souscription (Read Sabines report for more details), and amidst sewing for musicians and one other dancer, I thought that I actually also would love a new dress, preferably without train, even if trained dresses were still very much seen on the dancefloor. 

© The British Museum, Acc. No 1856,0712.609

A bit earlier I fell in love with this painting, respectively her dress, the hem. And her veil. And the flowers. In short: the whole ensemble.

© RMNGP

Anonyme portrait of a lady, presumably Caroline Murat.

Collection of the Château de Malmaison, and she also served as the poster girl for the Musée Marmottans Exhibition "Napoleons Sisters, Three Italian Destinies"

The only problems were the sleeves, as lovely as they were, I planned to wear my dress to a ball, where dancing would start at 4 in the afternoon until midnight. By the experience of our monthly and bi-weekly rehearsals it wouldn't be a walk in the park, but a sportive event, and I would need my full sleeve chemise as underwear to prevent stains on the dress.

That's when this painting, what went on sale at Sotheby's in the months before the ball came to my help: closed sleeves, and another hint that I will need a red shawl in the future.

Henri-Pierre Danloux

PORTRAIT OF JEAN-LOUIS GUSTAVE D' HAUTEFORT, AND HIS SISTER, MARIE-THÉRÈSE-THAÏS D'HAUTEFORT

Sold by Sotheby's on January 29, 2015

My dress itself is unlined, made from sheer Swiss cotton (very sheer). The bodice is as lowly cut as
the  one of the beauty from Malmaison, and the hem features a more time saving approach to the zigzags, by simple chain stiching. It's front closing with drawstrings, and generally a wonderful no-fuss dress, apart of the fact that one needs a petticoat underneath, a chemise on it's own will not do.

It worked a threat at the ball, and when I did my hair (I bought flowers for my head and ended up handing them out to ladies with greater need than I) I turned to my friends and asked 'Do I look like a crazy tragic actress personifying Medea in all her madness? Yes? Excellent.' That's where the dress received its name.

© Jeanette Klok-Heller

And did it work for dancing? Oh yes. It was light. It was flowing, it made me feel like a goddess, even when I started to become very very footsore

© Eliane Caramanna

© Jeannette Klok-Heller

And now we come to the versatility of it: 

Promenade prior to the ball? Add a shawl/Schall/Châle and you are good to go.

© Sabine Gaus / Empirepicknick.ch

A Summery afternoon in a landscape garden? Capote with veil and shawl in coquelicot, beige gloves and some corals makes if elegant yet not overdone for an outing out of town

© Fabrice Robardey

As I've said, this dress has become one of my well loved favourite dresses. It takes so little to turn a whole outfit upside down: 

Again, very casual during a visit to Bagni di Lucca. (And finally one can see the zigzags!) with a little jacket and a hat by the wonderful Charo Palacios who runs her own atelier Angelica Absenta. 

Picture © Antonia Mandic

But only a couple of hours later we sat in a beautiful little opera house in Barga, and casual wouldn't do for me. Off came the jacket and the hat, drape the shawl over one shoulder and enjoy the show (and thank the gods that you did a proper updo before you put your hat on...)

© Keane / Barganews.com

© Coltrane Koh at Coleshot.co.uk

© Coltrane Koh at Coleshot.co.uk
I am on the first range of boxes, on the right :-)

You see, I am an advocate of the Little White Dress, and even more so if the Little White Muslin Dress for earlier period. Cotton muslin is easy on the budget. It washes well (pre-wash it before you cut your dress!), can be embellished with some white embroidery (if you feel up to it) and depending on the accessories results in so many beautiful and different outfits.

There is close to no occasion where you will be out of place (Attending court wouldn't do. But I speak of more Bourgeois occasions), where you won't feel pretty and fresh and elegant. 

Trouvaille: Dancing is soo complicated and tiring these days...

That's January 16, 1804

Dancing today is so complicated, so intricate and fatiguing, that in an assembly twenty good dancers meet four good gentlemen dancers: after five or six years of training, a dancer is exhausted; the ladies, who are more graceful by making less of an effort, or rather to whom this kind of exercise is more favorable, the ladies, as I say, are dancing well, dancing much and are dancing for a long time.

Trouvaille du Jour: Dance practice

Courtesy: The British Museum

"Why do people attend balls if they don't know the dances?"

Ever caught yourself asking this question during an event? Or ever been asked this question? 

Fear not, you are not alone, nor is it a recent phenomenon.

We're still in December 1803 ;-) yes, this edition proved to be a mine of interesting bits and bobs: 

Today's dances are so difficult that they ceased to be entertainment, and became work. Once upon a time, if one asked a lady to dance, she would accept, whether she learned that dance or not.

Though nowadays at least two years of lessons are required, before one ventures into a contredanse. Of twenty ladies asked to dance, nine-teen refuse by saying "I am just beginning, and by no means advanced enough".

In some circles of society, where the hostess isn't yet advanced enough, four sprightly dancers are asked to dinner, and as many good female dancers, who will throughout the evening delight the assembly: This way one will be entertained as well.... By watching others dancing.

Trouvaille: How to dance with a trained dress in 1806

The "Toilettengeschenk für Damen" - or "A Gift for Ladies"

CC Zero, courtesy of Universitäts-und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf

I feel blessed and privileged to have the fourth issue in my personal library, the year 1808 to be precise. This is a marvellous annual publication, published by Georg Voss in Leipzig.

The first three issues are available for download at the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf

Erstes Toilettengeschenk für Damen (1805)

Zweytes Toilettengeschenk für Damen (1806)

Drittes Toilettengeschenk für Damen (1807)

If you follow this link, you will find yourself at the main page, where a click on "PDF" next to the publication allows you a One-PDF download, instead of the "bit by bit" on the direct links.

The Publication is destined to every lady who wants to improve her accomplishments, includes treaties on elegant movement, music (for beginners and more proficient musicians), embroidery (and knitting!), literature, poetry, drawing, dancing and domestic economy. 

CC Zero ULB Düsseldorf, a knitting pattern and instructions.
Zweites Toiletten-Geschenk, 1806

I'd say, if I'd be a lady back then, this might have been one of my yearly subscriptions of choice, and even today I am scouring antique dealers to find other volumes.

I hope in time I will be able to digitise the year 1808, as it's too good a publication not to share, and it's one what is not online at the moment.

But today I'd like to invite you into the year 1806. It was inspired by a conversation I've had with a dear friend today, the old chestnut of "Should dance dresses have trains, or not?" and I remembered the Zweite Toiletten-Geschenk: 

While perusing the delightful publications, an illustration in the dance section of the second tome caught my eye. It was a lady, coming out of a minuet*, holding a train. 

I've immediately let go of the bit I was actually reading, and searched the description. Yes! It is the illustration of how to hold a trained dress when dancing. because the writer thought, that as trains will remain fashionable for quite a while, he'd better give a hint on how to manage it as elegantly as possible: 

Transcription of the German text (page 121)

Figur 6 hat eine Schleppe. Da solche noch lange Mode bleiben dürften, ob sie gleich beym Tanz unassend sind, so ist doch zu bemerken, dass, wenn es einmal eine Schleppe seyn muss, sie am Tanzkleide recht lang seyn möchte, um, mit Geschicklichkeit aufgenommen, der Draperie eine gefällige Leichtigkeit zu geben - wobey die Füsse die notwendige Freyheit behalten. Eine kurze Schleppe ist für das Auge unangenehm beym Tanze. Das Kleid ist gespannt um die Füsse, und Steifheit tritt an die Stelle der Freyheit.

Translation:

Fig. 6 has a train. As those will remain in fashion for quite some time, despite being ill suited for dancing; it should be mentioned that IF it needs to be a train, it should be rather long on a dance dress, thus be taken up with skill, to create an airy drapery - and the feet keep their freedom of movement. A short train is ugly to the eye when dancing. The dress pulls around the feet, and stiffness takes the place of freedom.

Voss emphasises the round arms, and despises too edgy figures;
thus encourages his readers to practice wavy movement and carrying of their arms

Even after all those years since I've read this passage, it makes me happy and giddy to have come across yet another glimpse, yet another facet, yet another angle of the time, and finally I found the time and the inspiration to sit down and share this nugget with you. 

If you stumble about original sources dance dresses with trains and how to deal with them, please do not be shy, I'd be happy to see other sources. Many people go by Jane Austen, when in Northanger Abbey it is mentioned how Catherine and Isabella pin up their trains "They called each other by their Christian name, were always arm in arm when they walked, pinned up each other’s train for the dance and were not to be divided in the set;[…]", yet I am more than curious to read other references.

I'd like to end this post with two more drawings on elegant movement (the issue also included exercises on how to achieve such elegance):

Dance Positions

Positions of dance and again, elegant hand and arm positions by the dancers

*Yes, the minuet was still part of a dancer's curriculum. Every ball of consequence would open with one, and it was deemed to be _the dance_ what needed to be mastered to be able to dance (slow movements give away sloppy footwork much more easily...)