According to the Webster New Riverside Dictionary - Office Edition - a quadrille is: 1) a square dance of 5 figures performed by 4 couples and 2) music for the quadrille. >>> [log in to unmask] 04/30/02 12:41PM >>> At 7:50 PM -0400 4/29/02, HistorianCindyA wrote: >What kind of dance was the quadrille? Or is it slang and not really a >dance? (See below) > >The Daily News >Batavia, Genesee Co., NY >Thursday Evening, April 7 1881. > >MERE MENTION. >--The Cuba News is now engaged in writing up the "nice young men" of that >place. Their remarks in regard to the boys are unusually sharp. >--Can you dance the quadrille? My brother Bill can dawnse[sic] the >quadrille, and goes to the bar and gets his fill, like any other pill--so >be still. A real dance. I dont know how to decribe it though. How about a formal square dance with no calling. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Jazz is freedom. - T. Monk http://www.panix.com/~cassidy