I recently watched the 1995 version(the best version, in my mind) of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion.” There is a brief dancing scene that shows the Musgroves and Captain Wentworth dancing what looks to me to be “Gathering Peascods”, and dance we’ve done before in our group. Only it didn’t look like that when we did it. Room for improvement, people!

There’s also a short dance scene in the 2007 version of “Persuasion.”

Another excellent movie with dancing is BBC’s “Lorna Doone.” I haven’t seen it in a while, but I found two short scenes. This one, I recognize the tune but can’t recall the dance. They seem to be dancing awfully slowly. And another short scene following Annie’s wedding.

I recently read this fascinating article about dancing in the regency era. While our group is not strictly based on the regency era, I do try to focus on historical dances done in the correct way, or as correctly done as possibly when many attendees are beginners! It was helpful for me to read this account, and I hope our dancers are aware of my attempt to keep the history in the dancing.