Regency dance

Each couple in turn as they reached the top would likewise dance down until the entire set had returned to its original positions.

The scotch reel of the era consisted of alternate heying (interlacing) and setting (fancy steps danced in place) by a line of three or four dancers.

In the 1810s, the era of the Regency proper, English dance began an important transition with the introduction of the quadrille and the waltz.

The Waltz was first imported to England around 1810, but it was not considered socially acceptable until continental visitors at the post-Napoleonic-Wars celebrations danced it in London—and even then it remained the subject of anti-waltz diatribes, caricatures, and jokes.

Even the decadent Lord Byron was scandalized by the prospect of people "embracing" on the dance floor.

The Regency version is relatively slow, and done up on the balls of the feet with the arms in a variety of graceful positions.

[3] Sir Roger de Coverly, mentioned by Charles Dickens, is the ancestor of America's Virginia Reel.

Regency dance has gained popularity at science fiction conventions, in part due to the efforts of John Hertz.

In Silicon Valley, the Bay Area English Regency Society sponsors local dance classes and formal balls in churches, community centers, and other venues.

Some enthusiasts go to extremes: Cisco Systems founders Sandra Lerner and Len Bosack created a foundation that bought a Regency-era country house once owned by Jane Austen's brother.