
Below is the entire text of the book “Modern Dancing”, written in 1914 by the famous husband-and-wife ballroom dancing couple, Irene and Vernon Castle. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. They were inventors of a number of dances, including the Castle Walk that bears their name, and they also helped to popularize dances such as the Foxtrot, the Hesitation Waltz, the Maxixe and the early ballroom form of the Tango. In the text below, you will find descriptions (from which you are expected to learn!) the Tango, the Maxixe, the Castle Walk, and other dances. There are also notes on grace and etiquette, Irene Castle’s take on proper dancing costumes for women (remember, Irene Castle was one of the most influential women in fashion leading up to the 1920s – she bobbed her hair more than a decade before it was fashionable for flappers!), the idea of modern dances as fashion reformers and beautifiers, notes on proper dance music, the dances of the past, and the effect of dancing on one’s health by “an Eminent New York Physician.”
The book does bash a lot of dances I personally adore (like the Turkey Trot, the Grizzly Bear and the Bunny Hug), and no, the Castles were not jazz dancers (at best, some of their dances were performed to ragtime). But I love to watch them, and they laid the groundwork for the Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers style of Hollywood ballrooming that is still so influential today.
Although the Castles’ dances seem tame to modern eyes, reading the book reminds me of the Puritan, anti-dancing mentality they were fighting against at the time. It was the same mentality that Lindy Hoppers struggled against two decades later.
If you’re not familiar with the Castles, watch this clip first:
MODERN DANCING
By Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Castle
New York, March 1914
FOREWORD
WE feel that this book will serve a double purpose. In the first place, it aims to explain in a clear and simple manner the fundamentals of modern dancing. In the second place, it shows that dancing, properly executed, is neither vulgar nor immodest, but, on the contrary, the personification of refinement, grace, and modesty.
Our aim is to uplift dancing, purify it, and place it before the public in its proper light. When this has been done, we feel convinced that no objection can possibly be urged against it on the grounds of impropriety, but rather that social reformers will join with the medical profession in the view that dancing is not only a rejuvenator of good health and spirits, but a means of preserving youth, prolonging life, and acquiring grace, elegance, and beauty.
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