Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows two unidentified children in a dancing pose. In the 20th century one might think that they were participating in a dancing competituin, but performance dancing dfor children was not common at the time. Rather we think this is a portrait of children taking social dancing dancing lesons at a school. The children may or may not be related. The girls wears a white dress and flower garland in her hair. The noy wears a Fauntleroy suit which was popular at the time. Most boys, howeverm dis not have added sashes, Notice the bows on the shoes. The portrait is undated, but looks like the 1890s to us. The studio was P. Cl. Johnson in Cumberland. Wisconsin.

There are two basic types of dancing schools the popularity of which varied over time. First were the schools teaching social dancing. They were not very common in the early-19th century. America was still very rural and the small middle-class and limited urban populations was not a situation in which dancing schools thrived. This changed with industrialization and in rge second have of the century we do see dancing schools opening. These were schools attended by ordinary childre and in the case of the boys usually with no real interest in dance. Usually the boys were sent to these schools, in many cases rather unwillingly, at the insistence of their mothers. The other type of dance school is the schools teching different type of perfornance dance (classicl, modern, and ethnic) to children, mostly girls, with a real interest in dance. These schools were not very common throughout the 19th century as performance dancing was not seen as appropriate for children. This was a problem because to be an outsraning dancer one has to becin as a child. As American became more sophisticated we see more performance dancing schools opening. Again this was mostly for girls. Although there was some interest in tap among the boys. Unlike social dance, there was usually interest along the children, mostly girls. And for the girls who stuck with it into their teens, an abidng interet.

Created: 6:29 PM 12/30/2017
Last updated: 6:29 PM 12/30/2017