Dance Demonstrations and Artifacts Display at Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitor Center

The years 1861 to 1865 were not all blood and mud, death and destructions.  On the Homefront there was grace and beauty, music and dancing.  Almost everyone in America was dancing during the Civil War, North and South, young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural.  Dancing was one way to forget, at least for an evening, what Abraham Lincoln called the “fiery trial.”

The Victorian Dance Ensemble, the performing troupe of the Civil War Dance Foundation, will bring this other side of the Civil War to life on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28th.  The dancers will present demonstrations of some of the most common dances of the Civil War at 1:00 PM and 3:00P M.  At the end of each demonstration, visitors will be invited to come and learn a dance from the era.

From 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM, the CWDF will also present a display of civilian artifacts, including jewelry, photographs, fans, dance cards and newspapers depicting dancing during the Civil War.

These special programs are part of the educational outreach programming of the Civil War Dance Foundation.  In addition to conducting Civil War balls, dance demonstrations and classes, the CWDF also presents military and civilian artifact displays and lectures on a variety of Civil War topics.  The CWDF’s programs have raised over $260,000 for various preservation and education projects.  In 2011, the CWDF was named the Reenactment Unit of the Year by the Civil War Trust and in 2018 it received the President’s Volunteer Service Gold Award.