The Permitted Embrace

Available for over a year

Dancer, writer and broadcaster Deborah Bull, looks at the link between dance and courtship and the enduring appeal of dance as a vehicle for getting up close and personal. The scandalous Elizabethan dance, La Volta, and other courtly dances offered a rare opportunity for people to assess up-close the attributes of their potential romantic partners. Regency country dances have so often been central to the romance in screen adaptations of Jane Austen's novels. But the introduction of the Waltz into British society in the early nineteenth century caused outrage. Producer: Hannah Rosenfelder A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.