Ballroom

A ballroom (Italian ballo: Dance ) ( obsolete: Redoute ) is an upmarket, prestigious place, be held at the dance balls. Today, these rooms appear historically.

From the aristocratic to the bourgeois public sphere

In contrast to simple dance floor was the ballroom at 17-18. Century, an aristocratic institution and a component of locks. The redoubts, which came into vogue in the late 17th century, were provided for masquerade balls and the minuet as the main dance.

As long as no fixed rows of seats were installed, also the floor of theaters could be used as a ballroom - like today at the Vienna Opera Ball, for which the now fixed seating will be dismantled on the ground floor.

In the 19th century, many middle-class ballrooms were built, which were financed through entrance fees. Many of these ballrooms were combined with restaurants. There waltzes and other couple dances were danced to main thing.

The large dance floor in ballrooms allows contra dances, so dance games between several pairs like the quadrille. To the dance floor around there were spectators, often lodges and private rooms. Since the Congress of Vienna 1814/1815 Diplomacy and ballroom were closely connected. The ballroom was the epitome of the " mundane ".

Structural characteristics and current uses

Ballrooms had high ceilings and are therefore difficult to heat and maintain costly. Because the dance music was played live, had to have a suitable acoustic ballrooms. For the elegant shoes of the dancers ( cf. dance shoe ), it also needed a suitable hardwood. For the music attended specialized dance bands, consisting primarily of string instruments and under the direction of the first violinist ( as Johann Strauss (father ), and Johann Strauss ( son ) ) played throughout the night. They had not yet sounded strong as the marching bands of the 20th century and needed plenty of reverb. The General Musical newspaper complained in 1870 that the now acclaimed for its acoustics Hall of the Vienna Musikverein was built more as a ballroom for a concert hall.

Some ballrooms like the old halls were used depending on the season as indoor swimming pools. Since the social significance of the balls disappeared, so increasingly after the end of World War I, most ballrooms were redeveloped or demolished. Only a few ballrooms are still as night clubs or discos in use such as the 1886 built Webster Hall in New York City, which is now a historical monument.

Many hotels (and large passenger steamer ), which were built around 1900, had ballrooms. Many today are too large to be used in normal operation can. In the ballroom of the Hotel Post in Vienna today, the Vienna Chamber Opera is set up in the ballroom of the Hotel National in Berne there is a cinema, the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan is primarily used for concerts.

Often confused with the ballroom is the ballroom, such as the famous ballroom at Versailles, was played in the ball, an early form of tennis, the Jeu de Paume was called. Some of these bale houses have been converted after the waning of the ball game fashionable in theater spaces or ballrooms.

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