Order Helpline: +44344 561 6664

Dancing Cheek to Cheek: An Intimate History of Dance

Stacey MacNaught |

From the Harlem Shake to Twerking over the last few years we have seen some brilliant, unusual and controversial dance crazes. But what’s new? The history of dance is just one long list of fads and novelty moves, Gangnam style was simply 2012’s minuet. This Monday TV historian Lucy Worsley known for donning costumes in order to bring the past to life will be donning her dancing shoes, and coupling up with Strictly’s Len Goodman, to explore the historic dance crazes for BBC 4’s new programme Dancing Cheek to Cheek: An Intimate History of Dance.

From the cushion dances of the seventeenth century to the 1920s Charleston, Lucy and Len will be exploring the dances crazes of the past and trying to master them with the help of amateur dance groups, before recreating some of the most iconic in a grand finale; complete with costumes of course! Next week Lucy and Len will be exploring how dancing progressed from being considered a dangerous and debauched pastime in the 1600s to an essential skill for any self-respecting Georgian. After joining performing arts students on Ickwell village green to learn the cushion dance, Len goes to Middle Temple Hall to investigate the history of English country dancing and help some young barristers replicate the dance moves of their seventeenth century selves. In the meantime Lucy explores how the dance fashions of King Louis XIV of France influenced dancing in the British court, before visiting the York Assembly Rooms to learn how these new buildings made dancing more accessible in the eighteenth century. Len then goes to the Bodleian Library in Oxford where he investigates a rare dance manual, which provides teaching guidance for dancing masters. Finally they are reunited at Syon Park for a Georgian ball where they put their skills into practice and perform a minuet; wigs and all!

The three part series starts at 9 pm on Monday 17th November and promises to be an informative, good fun journey through the ballrooms of the past.