Round Dance
Round dancing, or couple dancing, is an established part of many communities where square dance flourishes. It's worth remembering that this sort of dancing was not always viewed favorably. In this essay, the author decries the sexual passions that are inevitably aroused in the participants:
"Before marriage the sexes must experience for each other only a spiritual bliss, a kind of anticipation of a soulful time after a while, when the spiritual can be properly blended with the physical. Hence the coming in contact, as they do in round dances, body to body, eye to eye, with the man's arms around the girl, arouses a sexual instinct, that should not be permitted to rise until after marriage. . . .
"An innocent young girl thus coming into contact with the body of a man in the round dance feels the fires of delightful passions thrill her, and she trembles with the joyful feeling of something she does not know about, except that she wants to enjoy it as often as possible. She feels a pleasure she does not understand. . . .
"Kissing in the parlor is tame wickedness compared with the seductiveness of the round dance. Parents, teach your children to understand these truths, and keep them out of temptation. 0, fathers and mothers, bring your daughters up to shun the round dances and keep away from public balls, and then your sons will stay away, too. Public balls are all, places of evil, gotten up almost altogether on a financial basis, where promiscuous dancers attend whom pure woman would only touch, outside of a dance, with gloved hands."
There are many examples of couple dances included in the SDHP collection. Click on this link to go to a listing.
Subjects: Couple dance
Tags: couple dance, round dance
Item Relations
| This Item | is related to | Item: Round Dance history - the early years |
| This Item | is related to | Item: Round Dances |
Citation
Dublin Core
Title
Subject
Description
Round dancing, or couple dancing, is an established part of many communities where square dance flourishes. It's worth remembering that this sort of dancing was not always viewed favorably. In this essay, the author decries the sexual passions that are inevitably aroused in the participants:
"Before marriage the sexes must experience for each other only a spiritual bliss, a kind of anticipation of a soulful time after a while, when the spiritual can be properly blended with the physical. Hence the coming in contact, as they do in round dances, body to body, eye to eye, with the man's arms around the girl, arouses a sexual instinct, that should not be permitted to rise until after marriage. . . .
"An innocent young girl thus coming into contact with the body of a man in the round dance feels the fires of delightful passions thrill her, and she trembles with the joyful feeling of something she does not know about, except that she wants to enjoy it as often as possible. She feels a pleasure she does not understand. . . .
"Kissing in the parlor is tame wickedness compared with the seductiveness of the round dance. Parents, teach your children to understand these truths, and keep them out of temptation. 0, fathers and mothers, bring your daughters up to shun the round dances and keep away from public balls, and then your sons will stay away, too. Public balls are all, places of evil, gotten up almost altogether on a financial basis, where promiscuous dancers attend whom pure woman would only touch, outside of a dance, with gloved hands."
There are many examples of couple dances included in the SDHP collection. Click on this link to go to a listing.