Good Form

• From the Ballroom to Hell: Grace and Folly in 19th-Century Dance by Elizabeth Aldrich
  Northwestern, 255 pp, $42.95, February 1992, ISBN 0 8101 0912 3

‘In the simple mechanic movements of address, the foot takes the second position, the other the third, then the body gently falls forward, keeping the head in direct line with the body. The bend is made by a motion at the union of the inferior limbs with the body, and a little flexing at the limbs.’ These instructions for a gentleman’s bow are not too difficult to follow. But what about the ones for the waltz?