1800–1830 · Britain and Europe
Indecent foreign dance spreads through the ballrooms!
The waltz
Panic meter
The verdict
The waltz was thought too intimate for polite society. A couple of generations later it was the most respectable dance of all.
Reality meter
What was said?
When the waltz arrived in British ballrooms in the early 19th century, it caused offence. Partners held each other and spun round in a close embrace, which was something quite different from the dances of the day, in which people mostly just held hands.
After a ball given by the Prince Regent in 1816, The Times wrote that the dance was indecent and that parents ought to keep their daughters well away from it. Caricaturists such as James Gillray poked fun at waltzing couples.
The verdict: what happened next?
The waltz became a ballroom staple during the 19th century and came to be associated with precisely the respectable and the bourgeois: the Viennese waltz, New Year's concerts and the first dance at weddings.
The pattern repeats with almost every new dance that followed. The tango, jazz dancing, the twist and rock'n'roll all stirred up the same sort of outrage.
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