”Anorna hafva mer välde i contradans än växelbref” : Sällskapsdans och klassamhällets ankomst vid slutet av 1700-talet

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this paper is to examine how the arrival of class society is expressed in the social dance of high society during the second half of the eighteenth century. The study is based on the idea that culture and society develope in interaction; that changes in the economic, political and social life determine the cultural expressions as well. What I wish to examine is whether cultural themes from the developing bourgeois culture – individualism, to be precise – is expressed in the social dance during the second half of the eigthteenth century. // The study shows that public balls definitely gave people a chance to show off on the dance floor in spite of social rank. The assemblies were open to everyone, and there were no formal distinction between the estates. The equality was enforced furthermore in the bal masques. // In spite of this formal equality, there are also signs of public assemblies not being quite the arenas for individual triumph beyond the boundaries of estate that they could be. Comments about dance and individuals are for example way more common in connection to private gatherings than public. When writing about public balls focus is primarily on the attender’s social rang, and more seldom on the dance at all. It’s clear that the mixing of estates was a source of agitation, and also that it was hard for peasants and merchants to compete with the nobility on their home ground. In theory the dance culture was boundary-crossing, but in reality the rift between the estates was still wide.