It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind
--Jane Austen, Emma

This and other quotes at Leslie Hyll's Dance Quotes page.


Dances from Pride and Prejudice

Selected English country dances from the 1995 A&E/BBC production of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, as assembled by Colin Towns of Oakleigh, Australia.

Thanks also to John M. Conway for help in identifying particular scenes.
If you can fill in more details, please e-mail Robert Bley-Vroman vroman@hawaii.edu.

Dance instructions: The Earthly Delights website has good descriptions of how to do the dances. Also, in the Tune File pages below, you will often find links to alternative descriptions of the dances.

Tune files: All the selections below include tunes in MIDI and abc format. Unless otherwise noted, all MIDI files were sequenced by Robert Bley-Vroman. You may copy them to use on your web site, but please give appropriate credit and include a link back to the Contradancers of Hawaii page http://www.sls.hawaii.edu/contra/.

The Comical Fellow Episode 1: at the Meryton Assembly.
A Trip to Highgate
The Touchstone
The Barley Mow (to the tune of Linnen Hall) Episode 2: at Mrs. Phillps'.
The Shrewsbury Lasses Episode 2: at Netherfield. "Other way, Mr. Collins, for short!"
Mr. Beveridge's Maggot Episode 2: at Netherfield. The "big" dance, where Elizabeth and Darcy spar.
Grimstock Episode 3: at Mrs. Phillips'.
Lasses of Portsmouth (to the tune of Fete Champetre) Episode 3: at Mrs. Phillips'. The "Mary King Dance".
Mutual Love (to the tune of The Flight)
The Happy Captive (to the tune of Dusky Night)
The Pleasures of the Town (to the tune of Fair Maid of the Inn)

Some, but not all, of the dance music is available on the CDs in the The Pride and Prejudice Collection series by the Pemberley Players.

"The Shrewsbury Lasses" appears on "By Popular Demand" by Phil Merrill & Marshall Barron. "Mister Beveridge's Maggot" appears on "Popular English Country Dances of the 17th & 18th Centuries" by the Claremont Country Dance Band and is also part of a medley on the CD "English Country Dances from Playford's Dancing Master" by the Broadside Band. All these may be ordered from the Country Dance and Song Society bookstore.

For information about the non-dance music, see John Conways's post to rec.folk-dancing and Doug Short's summary of the music in P&P posted on austen-l. The soundtrack (not including the dances) is available on CD Angel 7243 8 36090 2 4.

Extensive information about the film adaptations of Austen's novels can be found at the beautiful Republic of Pemberley Web site. Especially interesting are the sections on music and dancing. Also, look at the Emma Adaptations site, which has excellent sections on music and dance.


Contradancers of Hawaii index of dances
Contradancers of Hawaii homepage