George Washington's Favourite
This dance comes from the Asa Wilcox 1793 manuscript held by the Newberry Library of Chicago; St. Louis dance leader John Ramsay found it in Leland Tichnor’s George Washington’s Birthday Balls, 1990, and taught it to the Dance Discovery performing group who dance it in this video.
Caller Colin Hume discusses the dance here, and comments: "Asa Willcox calls it “G: Washingtons Favourite” (British spelling rather than American) and beside the title he notes that it is a Cotillon. Despite what some people will tell you, it's not called “George Washington's Favourite Cotillion” — click on the source above to see the original wording and here to see the index (with all three words misspelt)."The late 18th century French Contradanse was in square formation — a French version of the English Country Dance, which then returned to England as the Cotillion or Cotillon and was documented in 1770 by Giovanni Andrea Gallini."
Hume presents directions for the dance, based on a reconstruction by dance historian Susan de Guardiola, and adds: "The cotillion was popular during the first two decades of the nineteenth century — Jane Austen enjoyed dancing cotillions. It was then gradually replaced by the quadrille, which dropped the standard set of changes and just concentrated on figures (in the plural). In fact the change-over wasn't as simple as that, and some people still referred to quadrilles as cotillions, making for much confusion among researchers. To add to the confusion, the word “cotillion” acquired a second meaning — by the mid- to late 19th century it was a series of dance games and mixers, some quite silly, in which small groups of couples danced by turns. There were hundreds of figures, and these dance-games were known variously as “German Cotillions”, “Cotillions” and “Germans”.
SDHP editor's note: Though Washington's dancing abilities are well documented, apart from the title we have no indication that General Washington did, in fact, dance this or enjoy it above all others.
Subjects: Cotillon / cotillion
Tags: colonial, contredanse française, cotillion, George Washington
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: La Nouvelle Carel, French cotillion 1762 |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Cotillon / Cotillion / Contredanse Française |
| This Item | is related to | Item: The Birth of the Cotillion and the Quadrille, French Contredanses |
| This Item | is related to | Item: La Strasbourgoise Cotillion -Regency era |
| Item: Marlbrouk Cotillion | is related to | This Item |
| Item: Contredanse française – La réverbère | is related to | This Item |
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This dance comes from the Asa Wilcox 1793 manuscript held by the Newberry Library of Chicago; St. Louis dance leader John Ramsay found it in Leland Tichnor’s George Washington’s Birthday Balls, 1990, and taught it to the Dance Discovery performing group who dance it in this video.
Caller Colin Hume discusses the dance here, and comments: "Asa Willcox calls it “G: Washingtons Favourite” (British spelling rather than American) and beside the title he notes that it is a Cotillon. Despite what some people will tell you, it's not called “George Washington's Favourite Cotillion” — click on the source above to see the original wording and here to see the index (with all three words misspelt)."The late 18th century French Contradanse was in square formation — a French version of the English Country Dance, which then returned to England as the Cotillion or Cotillon and was documented in 1770 by Giovanni Andrea Gallini."
Hume presents directions for the dance, based on a reconstruction by dance historian Susan de Guardiola, and adds: "The cotillion was popular during the first two decades of the nineteenth century — Jane Austen enjoyed dancing cotillions. It was then gradually replaced by the quadrille, which dropped the standard set of changes and just concentrated on figures (in the plural). In fact the change-over wasn't as simple as that, and some people still referred to quadrilles as cotillions, making for much confusion among researchers. To add to the confusion, the word “cotillion” acquired a second meaning — by the mid- to late 19th century it was a series of dance games and mixers, some quite silly, in which small groups of couples danced by turns. There were hundreds of figures, and these dance-games were known variously as “German Cotillions”, “Cotillions” and “Germans”.
SDHP editor's note: Though Washington's dancing abilities are well documented, apart from the title we have no indication that General Washington did, in fact, dance this or enjoy it above all others.