Ballroom dancing at the heart of the City of Bordeaux, during the long eighteenth century

As new economic and social models are taking shape during the long eighteenth century, more and more emphasis is put on leisure and entertainment, and ballroom dancing plays a significant role in urban sociability.

The archives of Bordeaux are repositories of a number of documents related to dance, but few were exploited, and most of them are still unpublished. Chronicles, diaries, travel journals of foreigners staying in the city, orders and decrees, police reports, trials and sentences issued by the courts, accounting records, administrative or private correspondence, original drawings and architects plans, and so on, bear witness to the love of dance shared by every class of Bordeaux society, the key role that dancing-meeting places played in social and political life, and the fortunes and misfortunes of a great variety of venues, which number is rising along with the spread of ‘dansomania’ at the turn of the century.

Some of these documents enable a special focus on the ‘Bordeaux Wauxhall(s)’: in 1769, with the shareholder company holding the privilège des spectacles he just set up (and controls), the Marshal Duke of Richelieu, Governor of the Province in Bordeaux, launches a large-scale project, claiming to follow the ‘English example’ in order to gather ‘all kind of citizens’ in a new and innovative venue. The chosen architect is a Parisian, Nicolas Le Noir Le Romain whose ‘Wauxhall de la Foire Saint-Germain’ ensured his fame and reputation as un homme admirable pour créer, comme par enchantement, des lieux d’assemblée riches, élégants, & commodes. But very soon this ambitious undertaking becomes a major issue of rivalries between local governments.