Curtsy

A curtsy (also spelled curtsey or incorrectly as courtsey) is a traditional gendered gesture of greeting, in which a girl or woman bends her knees while bowing her head.

In Western culture it is the feminine equivalent of bowing by males, although men will commonly curtsy in some churches as a simplified genuflection.

According to Desmond Morris, the motions involved in the curtsy and the bow were similar until the 17th century, and the sex differentiation between the actions developed afterwards.

In the Victorian era, when women wore floor-length, hooped skirts, they curtsied using the plié movement borrowed from second-position in classical ballet in which the knees are bent while the back is held straight.

The young woman slowly lowers her forehead towards the floor by crossing her ankles, then bending her knees and sinking.

During her coronation, Queen Elizabeth II performed a curtsy, or rather a half-curtsy, half-neck bow to King Edward's Chair.