Vintage Eras

VINTAGE ERAS
This chart shows my own personal view of what "Vintage Eras" are. my loose definition is = "any music or dance that is not "contemporary" and has a recognizable style." A "vintage dance" era has a style of movement, a style of music, a style of dress (costume) and a style of manners that "match" and somehow hints or suggests a particular period of historial time and place. The actual dates of the "Era's" (so-called vintages) are also loosely determined. Some of the eras we use are listed below. (Other people will undoubtedly name them differently.) Samples of the vintage music that matches the dances.
Name of Era	Dates	Comments	Dance Title Music Title (Composer, if known)
Ancient	10,000 B.C. or earlier and up to present day in some places.	From "early man" to modern people. Ceremonial. Often spiritual, religious, social status. Male and females often have separate ceremonies.	Moon Dance? Sun Dance? Rain Dance Harvest? Midwinter? Royal, Relgious and other Elites celebrations. Belly dancing. We know they had musical instruments from archeological evidence, including instruments and cave paintings.
Folk Dance	1500 onwards (esp. 1800-1900's). Very "nationalistic" since about 1800.	Not true partner dances (Dancers mixed during a named dance) People danced in Formatioins of Lines/Circles/Squares	Sir Roger de Coverely (later to become the Virginia Reel, and othersl) Virginia Reel. - traditional reels Circle Dances. - traditional reels, jigs, horn[pipes, waltzes
"Regency" (E.C.D.)	1750 - 1820	Still not true partner dancing. Dancers mixed during dance Still in formations. New formations were Quadrille and Cotillions.	Duke of Kent's Waltz. - Duke of Kent's Waltz trad. Spanish Waltz - Contradance (Beethoven) - Cinderella Waltz (Rossini) - Landler, Opus 606 #1 (Mozart) Varsovienne - Varsoviana trad. Quadrilles (Squares) - The Lancers 5th Fig (Danish)
"Victorian"	1815 - 1900 (before Q. Victoria's reign)	True partner dancing begins! Dancers stay with a partner for an entire tune! This was not always popular, so some mixed dances were re-introduced. (Quadrilles etc) Some dances were "free-style" others were "Sequences." "Leading and Following" starts. Rotary Waltz & Polka are hits Many other dance forms start up.	Quadrilles continue - Waltz Cotillion (they are more "social") - Lancers 5th (U.K.) (Finke-Linke) Waltz "Allemande" - Viennese "Landler" (Lanner) Rotary Waltz - Strauss (etc) Polka - Bohemian National Polka (Strauss) Galop - Veto Galop ("Make Peace") plus Gavotte / Mazurka / Redowa / and other dances
"Romantic" (includes Victorian) (Ragtime Early Jazz. Swing, Rock & Roll)	1890's - 1950's	"Everybody Danced" just for social fun. Close hold, cheek-to-cheek, Many partners. It was almost rude to monopolise a partner. Men loved dancing but there were never enough of them for the women - so the women often danced together. "Taxi-Dances" existed. (Don't ask) "Salon Orchestras" - large or small "Big Band" - Glen Miller etc (1940's) Rock & Roll Bands (electronic) Radio and then T.V. helped the spread of new dances and bands.	Waltz (always popular) Two-Step (1890's) - many Cake Walk (1890') - several Tango (1890's) Rumba (1890's) *One Step (1912 revival) - Too Much Mustard* Shim-Sham (1910's) Solo (like a line dance) The Toddle (1920's) The Charleston (1920's) The Shag (early 1920's) Lindy Hop (and Jitterbug and "Jive") (Late 1920's) Blues (fast & slow) (1910's and later) Balboa (1940's) West Coast Swing (late 1930's) Swing (1930's) Rock & Roll (Jive) (1950's)_
Old Time Sequence Dances	1901 - 1958 (+1958 - now)	Often called "Old Time Dancing" it was a hold over from the dances of the Victorian era. Over 4,000 dances exists! A mere sampling is to the right -----> After 1958 the holds became more reliant on the modern "frame" an d lots of Latin dances with arm and hip movement became popular. It was no longer "Old Time." (in my opinion)	Veleta (Waltz) - *Veleta* (Smith) Destiny Waltz - *Destiny* Waltz (Baynes) Hesitation Waltz - *Merry Widow* (Lehar) La Rinka (waltz) - *La Rinka* (Hurndall) Yearning Saunter (smooth foxtrot) *Yearning* (N. Moret) - Square Tango - many traditional tango tunes Palais Glide (novelty) - *Poor Little Angeline* (Gross) Barn Dance (Schottische) - The Trout (Schubert) / Gavotte (??) Swedish Masquerade - traditional (slow march / fast waltz / fast jig)
		One Step / Tango / Shag / Lindy Hop / Blues / Swing / Charleston / Balboa / W.C.S.	Charelston Shim Sham The Toddle - The Toddle Lindy Hop (& various forms of "jive") - many tunes suitable Blues many dances & tunes available
Mid 20th Century	after 1940's	Jive & Latin; also many fads	We tend to just continue social dancing - mostly jive / Lindy