A crowd of more than 50 community members gathered on Saturday at the downtown San Jose Women’s Club for an evening of dancing to Ludwig Van Beethoven’s classical arrangements played by the San Jose State symphony.
Attendees were transported back in time and learned the history of Beethoven’s music and Viennese dance along the way.
People arrived in varying displays of costume from the Regency era, which took place from 1811 to 1820, and brought more magic and fun to the ball. The music at the event included pieces that haven’t been played in over 200 years, including Beethoven’s “Twelve German Dances” and minuets.
The costumes varied, with many dressing up in regalia that was common at the time along with some dresses inspired by the wildly popular romance-drama Netflix show, “Bridgerton.”
SJSU business senior Michaela Gundayao, was there for a dance assignment for a beginners’ swing class but ended up enjoying the event as the night went along.
“I had never danced the waltz physically before,” she said. “I can hear how [the music] sounds in my head but dancing to it is completely different.”
The event was categorized into three sets, each featuring Mountain View-based dance troupe The Academy of Danse Libre, performing waltzes and minuets of the 1700s. There was a workshop prior to the event for people who wanted to learn the dances more intensely.
Joan Walton, the dance mistress for the event and SJSU dance professor, taught various dances to the audience after members of The Academy of Danse Libre danced the waltz or minuet.
According to Dance in history, a minuet is a French dance, the name also used to describe the music it accompanies. The minuet is commonly danced in ballrooms where two people slowly and stately move around. A waltz is a ballroom and folk dance, performed in a closed position as two dancers spin all around the dance floor.
“This is the first time I've done one specifically for Beethoven, which took some study and some choreography, which was great [and] fun,” Walton said. “New stuff is always fun.”
During the event, Buurman said not many people know that Beethoven created music not only for listening but also dancing.
Saturday’s event is one of the several ways Beethoven’s legacy is visible in San Jose.
Erica Buurman, director of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library and School of Music and Dance associate professor, oversees the largest collection of Beethoven materials in the Americas.
“It started as a private collection, which was donated to the university,” Buurman said. “ Now it runs as a museum and an archive for researchers and there's exhibitions that we put on and there's also events that we run, like this and concerts and things like that.”
Music performance junior Natalie Bui, who was part of the symphony, talked about how enjoyable the event was.
“It makes performing easier in a sense of like, people are enjoying what they're hearing,” Bui said. It almost makes me want to also be a part of it as well rather than being on the stage.”
