Papers Past
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This was seen this in a museum north of Kaitiai on New Zealand’s North Island. It was from a lady’s dance card, unfortunately the date was not provided, but it is a least 1850-60s because of the inclusion of the Schottische, Mazurka and Varsoviana. Note that: the late Shirley Andrews said that New Zealand’s tradition of dances was different to Australia, perhaps because of the higher population of Scottish settlers.
Part 1 1. G.M. & Triumph |
Part 2 12. Mazurka |
from formal balls held at Government House in Auckland in the late 1800s.
These cards were found in the local records section of Auckland City Library.
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Maypole dancing in Devonport
Brophy dancing an Irish Jig to a brass band
Further research on local folk dance activities could easily be done simply by browsing through old copies of the newspapers. These are now all scanned and available online at Papers Past up to about the mid-1940s. Using keywords for searches such as "hornpipe" "clog dance" "morris dance" "sword dance" "efdss" etc. all produce interesting results. Also searches could be made of old copies of N.Z. Graphic and other local magazines at various libraries.
Reports of formal balls at Government House and elsewhere would elicit the social dances enjoyed at that time, although most reports concentrate upon the ladies' ball gowns!
Fancy Dress Costumed Balls of many and various themes were in vogue in Australia and New Zealand throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s, as indeed they were throughout the U.K. and Ireland (a rarely researched area of formal social dance). So too were 'coming out' balls for the young women.
Interestingly but not surprisingly during the period 1900-1960 both in Australia and New Zealand nearly everyone wanted to emulate the fashions of contemporary British society. The word 'home' at that time very much meant the 'home country,' that is the British Isles.
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