Social Dancing in Peter the Great's Russia

Elizabeth Clara Sander. Social Dancing in Peter the Great's Russia. Teipsichore: Tanzhistorische Studien Herausgegeben von Walter Salinen fur das Deutsche Tanzarchiv, 6. Koln: Georg Olms Verlag, 2007. 143 pp. Bibliography. Appendices.The topic of Elizabeth Clara Sander's work-the function and significance of dance at the court of Peter the Great-is one that social and cultural historians have often touched upon, yet rarely examined in great depth. By contrast, Sander's monograph offers a highly detailed analysis of dance as a barometer of both cultural continuity and change duiing the Petrine era. Sander draws on numerous accounts of Western observers at the court; tlie primary source for her work, however, is the Tagebuch, or diary, of Friedlich Wilhelm von Bergholtz, composed between 1721 and 1725, when he accompanied Karl Friedlich, Duke of Holstein, to Russia.As Sander observes, many European visitors to the court recorded their impressions of social interaction. None, however, left accounts of such length and with the obsessive attention to detail of Bergholtz. The author acknowledges that Bergholtz's diary is often characterized by unfailing attention to the trivial (p. 123), yet argues that tins document is unique in its attention to social pastimes at comi. In particular, Bergholtz was an avid observer of customs related to music and dance: more than 400 of the 750 pages of the published edition of the diary are devoted to these topics.After a chapter exploring the history of the diary and a discussion of Bergholtz's survey of the performance of music in both secular and religious settings, Sander embarks upon the central theme of her work: an analysis of dance as a window into cultural borrowing, and one that epitomized the often uneasy juxtaposition of tradition and Western novelty in the Petrine era. Sander first considers the role of dance in the assambiei, or assemblies, that Peter introduced in 1718 and winch were marked by the Petiine stamp of cultural enforcement (p. 45). Although the assembly was intended, at least in part, asa form of entertainment that would foster the interaction of men and women and compel elite women to assume a public role at comi, it was entertainment that was highly regulated. As Sander notes, the assambiei frequently were less the source of amusement than discomfort for members of the comi. Bergholtz devoted considerable attention to the presence of women, remarking upon the reluctance of many to dance, particularly with foreigners-the result, Sander ventures, not only of feminine modesty and unfamiliarity with Western forms of dance, but also of the dubious hygiene of Bergholtz and his compatriots in comparison to Russians, who frequented the bath-house as often as once or twice a week. That being said, the assemblies were overseen by the Chief of Police, and women were often the subject of directives instructing them to attend the gatherings, to dress appropriately, and to take part in dancing.The dances themselves ranged from formal to informal and from Western to Russian (p. 60). Sander quotes at length from Bergholtz as she attempts to identify the range of dance forms present in Russia by the beginning of the eighteenth century. …

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