“I can waltz!” Hyacinth raises a hand, eyes glued to Jonas. “I’m really good at it. Have you waltzed in this very hall?”
He nods. “Once, ten years ago. My parents held a debutante ball here to mark my sister Celeste’s eighteenth birthday and present her to society.”
“That’s so sweet!” Julia coos. “Thing is, the waltz would still be seen as too scandalous for a small-town public ball in the 1790s England.”
Slowly, Jonas lifts his chin. “Ah, I see. Dancing it on the show wouldn’t be fully authentic.”
“I’m not chasing complete authenticity,” Sandra says, crossing the hall to her director’s chair. “If I were, you’d be dancing all evening, breaking for supper in the middle of the night, and then dancing again till dawn.”
“As in all historical productions, it’s a trade-off,” Liam adds. “We want just enough authenticity to recreate the ethos of the period. The vibe if you’d like. But not more.”
Julia flashes Jonas a smile. “The good news is that one of the dances I picked, the ländler, is a precursor of the waltz.”
Sandra settles into the elevated chair from where she’ll watch the class. “Last night, I viewed the first video tutorial Julia posted for our audience. It’s a slow couples’ dance in three time. Seemed fairly easy.”
“That’s the other reason for my choice,” Julia says. “Sixty or so audience members have signed up to be dancing extras at the Meryton and Netherfield balls. Plus, we have the seven Elizabeths who we want comfortable enough to move with grace… We needed a dance with limited steps and figures, something they could learn at home.”
As we voice our approval, she claps her hands once. “All righty, let me give you a rundown of the proper etiquette of Regency dancing.”
I expect her to show us how to bow like Beau Brummell and curtsy like Lady Byron, but it soon becomes clear that Julia intends to cover more ground than that. She waves a dog-eared 1837Pocket Book of Etiquetteand her copy ofPride and Prejudicewith dozens of color-coded sticky notes poking out on the side.
“Ladies, you must wait for a gentleman to ask you to dance,” she begins. “No initiative taking, no dancing on your own or with another woman. When you receive an invitation, you can’t decline it, lest you offend the gentleman.”
My chin jerks high. “Male egos are such delicate flowers!”
I notice Jonas roll his lips to hide a smile.
Julia finds a passage in her etiquette book and reads, “Should the lady commit such an oversight, a true gentleman will forgive her, mindful that the various emotions which may agitate the female heart will furnish abundant cause for her decision.”
Everybody laughs, including Jonas.
I wonder if he’s self-aware enough to realize that his theory of women is more sexist than this Regency view. I also wonder if he actually believes the rubbish he spewed last night, or if he was just trying to smash the goody-two-shoes image we’d formed of him thanks to his generosity…
Stop finding excuses for his unacceptable behavior!
Melody raises her hand. “I remember reading somewhere that a lady of quality shouldn’t walk around the assembly rooms by herself. She must ask her dance partner to accompany her.”
Julia holds up and waves her book. “The author of this manual is of the same opinion.”
“But we’re not going to be religious about that rule,” Sandra says from her makeshift podium. “As Liam said earlier, we’re after the vibe, not perfect accuracy.”
Julia checks her bookmarks. “What else? Ah yes! A gentleman engages a lady for a set of two dances. While they dance, as you already know fromPride and Prejudice, they make conversation.”
If I end up in a set of two long dances with Peter this afternoon, I don’t know if I can handle more of his conversation so soon after last night’s marathon.
Julia doles out a few more dos and don’ts, and then moves on to demonstrate the quadrille and ländler routines that we’ll be practicing today. She’s very good and I applaud heartily when she’s done.
“Let’s begin with the quadrille,” she says, showing us the basic step. “Start with the right foot, then left. One and two, three and four, five and six, seven and eight. Eight counts.”
We repeat the steps over and over again, while she remains in the center of the room, watching and providing feedback. When we have the basic routine down, she shows us more advanced figures. As we progress, Julia gets into the finer details of the dance, and coaches us on our hand and arm movements, emphasizing the importance of good coordination.
I’m enjoying myself immensely, which is no surprise, given how much I love to dance. What’s unexpected is to realize that our semiprofessional intruder Jonas is doing better than I thought. Now that I can’t turn my back to him, like last night at the bar, it’s hard to miss that the man possesses a sense of rhythm and a great deal of natural grace.
As soon as he catches me staring, I look away.
Julia splits us into pairs. Each pair is directed to approach each other, “high-five” in slo-mo, and step away. As we execute, Julia walks around the room, making corrections.
“Touch, don’t bump, and don’t caress,” she instructs us. “Remember, you’re a gently bred country set.”
