I have been researching areas for my essay on Historical dance and have narrowed it down to look at space requirements for the various dances that could have been danced at a ball in 1821. I am still working on it so don’t expect to read anything here about it, except that 3,000 words isn’t very long.

Here are two unrelated items that I have found that will be of interest:

The mechanical metronome was made widely available from 1817, and I have found three metronome markings in Quadrille publications, I haven;t found any in Country-dance publications. What I have found in Quadrille that the beats per minute (bpm) range from 88bpm to 120bpm. Dances in 6/8 time are generally played slightly faster the those in 2/4,and the average comes out at 100bpm. Many figures included in Quadrille dancing are very similar to those used in Country-dances at the time (turns, circles, leads etc.) and I suggest that Country-dances were probably performed at the same speed.

I have also looked at speed. James Cunningham writing about dancing at the Inns of Court suggests that in the 1630s dancing had slowed down and people were walking. In the 1820s, Thomas Wilson and others are moaning about people speeding up the dances, especially the waltz. They are romping about! This suggests to me that there is no set speed for Country or related dances. Do what you will!