I’ve been watching Ovation TV this past week, shows about the Phantom of the Opera (the play not Gerard Butler, alas!), West Side Story, Annie, and A Chorus Line. So I’ve been steeped in music, song and dance.

I’d love to write a Regency Historical about a dancer. The theater performances during the Regency had “ballet dancers” performing and I’d love to make one my heroine. Mostly Regency ballet dancers are mentioned as easy company for gentlemen, but I wonder if any of them had the love of movement and music that I associate with dancers today.

Consider this clip from West Side Story (my favorite sequence). Don’t you think the dancers loved performing this?

Love of dance transcends even ego. Watch mega star Mikail Barishnikov dance the finale of A Chorus Line.

Certainly Regency characters loved dancing and singing as part of their entertainment. This little clip recreates what I imagine might have been the after dinner entertainment at a country house party.

A part of me always wants to break out in a song or dance the way they do in the movies. Unfortunately, I don’t have the talent to pull it off, except in my imagination, but this clip shows it can be done! And romantically, too.

My very favorite is the Liverpool Train Station video. It always makes me smile.

On July 15, after the Literacy Signing, at the Marriot Wardman Park in Washington DC the Beau Monde will be hosting its annual Soiree. We’ll have a chance to dance the Regency dances there! And at the Harlequin party on July 17, I’ll get a chance to dance like they did in Liverpool.

What’s your favorite dance performance, movies or theater? If it is on YouTube, share the url!

P.S. This has nothing to do with dance or song or music, but it is Regency and it made me laugh. I couldn’t resist.