Victorian era dance offers fun, fantasy in Nahant

NAHANT – Perhaps the 19th century Victorians were misunderstood: Their elaborate ball gowns are actually quite comfortable and their hours-long ballroom dances are simple enough for anyone to learn, say the organizers and attendees of Nahant’s famous Victorian Ball.”People in the past did fun things, and you can move in the clothing,” said Catherine Bishop, the owner of Vintage Victorian dressmaking and a member of The Commonwealth Vintage Dancers.View a photo galleryShe and her husband, Ben, have put on the ball at Nahant Town Hall for two decades along with help from the Nahant Historical Society. On Saturday night, at least 50 people attended the 21st ball, dubbed “An evening in Vienna.”Kelsey Peterson spent weeks making her late Victorian dress, with a dusky pink and gold full skirt with a bustle and a gold corset-boned top, for Saturday’s event.But there was one Victorian-era trend the costume designer didn’t include.”Not a train, because I didn’t want to trip on it,” she said.Peterson didn’t know how to dance any of the waltzes, polkas, schottisches or grand marches that were scheduled Saturday. So she and about a dozen others attended a pre-ballroom lesson held by Ben and Catherine Bishop a few hours before the actual ball.She said she wasn’t finding the steps impossible but that she hopes her partners will be strong leaders.”It seems simple, although it all happens faster than it seems,” she said. “But it doesn’t seem difficult when you do it with someone who knows what they’re doing.”Charlie Hu and Wenlan Lu of West Roxbury were also first-time vintage dancers. The couple didn’t have a period costume to wear but they did come to the ball with a dancing background after attending a country dance recently.?This is totally new to us; we just want to explore,” Lu said, having just finished rehearsing a group dance Ben Bishop said is the ancestor of the square dance.Saturday night’s time-travel ball appealed to Sarah Helmers of Andover for another reason: To indulge her passion as a history major.”It’s fun to pretend you’re in a different historical period for a little while,” she said.Helmers said Victorian-era dancing is actually less stuffy than modern ballroom dances, the latter of which she said favors more rigid lines and dancing with a single partner the entire night.”[Here] there’s a lot of group dancing and figures,” she said.The social aspect of vintage dancing is what draws Lynn resident Juliet Parry to Victorian-era balls around the nation.”You get to go back to a time when people were civil and polite,” she said.Participants at Saturday night’s dance floated from partner to partner with the help of pocket-sized programs, with space for potential dancing partners to initial next to the dance they would like to perform together.Ben Bishop said the cards help establish a free flow to the night.”You’re chatting with people, socializing, and you say ?Would you like to dance?’ And they say, ?Well, I don’t waltz or polka,’ and you point to your card and say, ?Well, what about contradance?'” he explained.After each dance, Parry said the gentlemen escort their partners back to their chairs or the refreshments or even their next dance partner.”They don’t just dump you in the dance floor,” she said.And Perry agreed with others that the dances are simple enough for anyone to learn after a lesson or two – a throwback to when times were also simpler, she said.”These dances were devised to keep people occupied during long, desperately long winters with no social activities, no internet,” she said. “They just encouraged the passage of time in a pleasant way.”To pass the time at next year’s Nahant Victorian Ball, visit the Nahant Victorian Society at www.nahanthistory.org.Amber Parcher can be reached at [email protected].