Those six weeks were a crucial preparation time for young attendees, not only because of the necessary, pleasurable, but also stressful details of arranging one’s sumptuous historical costume, but also because of the need to practice the steps for the various thematic dances, called quadrilles, whose performance was an integral part of the spectacle of balls during the Gilded Age. Broadly speaking, a quadrille is like a square dance, with rigidly choreographed steps.
