Moehlenpah, Amanda Danielle. "'Les assemblées qu'elle occasionne': Danced Sociability in Eighteenth-Century France."

Moehlenpah, Amanda Danielle. "'Les assemblées qu'elle occasionne': Danced Sociability in Eighteenth-Century France." Eighteenth-Century Studies 54, no. 3 (Spring 2021): 577-593.


Abstract:
Eighteenth-century sociability has often been depicted as a network of interactions. Modes of "being together," such as conversation, print-culture, coffeehouses, salons, theaters, etc., established autonomous collectivities and communities that echoed Enlightenment-era societal values. Dance, however, and particularly the French contredanse, has been largely unconsidered in studies of sociability. I analyze André Lorin's "Les Cloches" and its English inspiration, John Playford's "Christchurch Bells," in light of early modern models of conversation to demonstrate the unique mode of being-together that the contredanse enacted, one echoing Enlightenment-era sociable values such as natural spontaneity, self-government, and the pleasure of reciprocity.