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In this chapter the choreography of the minuet as it was performed in late eighteenth-century Vienna is reconstructed. Unlike previous iterations of the dance, the minuet in this context was performed as a group dance, undertaken by many couples dancing simultaneously, and the minuet’s development as a group dance is considered in relation to its previous history. The choreography is reconstructed from German-language dance treatises written around the end of the eighteenth century. The minuet step is explained, and readers are taught how to perform it. The main figures of the minuet are given – the Z-figure, the révérences, the giving of hands – and comparative schemes for these figures from the different treatises are set alongside each other. The overall structure of the dance is established, and practical logistics of performing the dance alongside other dancers in a crowded space are considered. The minuet’s association with the enactment of ‘nobility’ is interrogated.
This chapter explores the dance culture of Vienna in the latter half of the eighteenth century. It describes the changing legislation that opened up the city’s dance halls to a paying public, and the subsequent establishment of new dance venues across the city and its suburbs. It considers the social make-up of attendees at these venues, and ways in which social class was both entrenched and destabilised in this setting, particularly through practices such as masking. Descriptions of the minuet, the German dance and the contredanse – the three main dances performed at the public balls during this period – are given. The chapter ends with a detailed account of a public ball hosted by the Gesellschaft bildender Künstler at the Hofburg Redoutensaal on 25 November 1792, for which Haydn composed the music. The aim of focusing on this one event is to paint as vivid as possible a picture of the scene, such that readers can readily put themselves ‘in the shoes’ of minuet dancers in Vienna at the end of the century.
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