[MUSIC PLAYING]
JULIE MONTAGU: In a historic house like this,
there's ample room for fun and games, and not just for kids.
But without the internet or TV, what did
people do to amuse themselves?
Jennifer Thorp, a dance specialist,
has offered to tell me about a favorite pastime
of some of the 18th-century inhabitants.
There's a lot of time on people's hands who lived here,
so what did they do for fun?
Oh, well, they had very, very exciting social lives.
JULIE MONTAGU: Did they?
JENNIFER THORP: And particularly, Duke John, who
was the second Duke of Montagu.
And there he is up there.
And he held his own balls and masquerades.
JULIE MONTAGU: So really, the second Duke
was the life of the party?
He was indeed.
He not only organized everything,
but he also took part in a lot of the dancing.
JULIE MONTAGU: What kind of dance were they doing?
Obviously, they weren't doing, you know,
the type of dancing that we have now.
They're not two-stepping here, are they?
Right.
No, they're not.
No, the first part of the evening
would have been these very specialized
French-style dances.
JULIE MONTAGU: With a great hall tailor-made for dancing,
Duke John was always enthusiastic to learn
the latest moves.
Jennifer has brought a manuscript to show me what
was all the rage in the 1720s.
It is simply beautiful.
They look like musical notes to me.
They call them dance notation symbols.
They've got the tracks of the two dancers here.
There's the man.
There's the woman.
And so they're going to move forward and take
these geometrical patterns.
And then each of these different little symbols
tell you whether you're bending the knees, jumping in the air--
JULIE MONTAGU: Oh, my gosh.
JENNIFER THORP: --moving forwards, hopping on the spot,
that sort of thing.
So can we try something like this or could you teach me?
JENNIFER THORP: I can show you something
that's very interesting and a lot more complicated.
If I'm reading that correctly, it says The Montagu.
That's right, yes.
It is actually a dance.
And this was created in 1720 by a dancing master
called Ferdinand Le Roussau.
And he dedicated it to John, second Duke of Montagu.
JULIE MONTAGU: Thus the name, The Montagu.
That's right, yes.
OK, so I have to learn this dance then.
How long have you got?
I'm a quick learner, Jennifer.
I'm a quick learner.
I was a cheerleader before.
Right.
So you know, doesn't that kind of help a little bit--
my cheerleading skills, right?
It should help a little bit, yes.
JULIE MONTAGU: The dance is in seven parts, each spelling out
a letter of the name Montagu.
I definitely need to dance to at least one letter in my name.
It means learning a minuet step.
OK.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Oh, OK.
Can you do that one more time?
OK, so we're going to start off-- yeah--
we're going to start with a bend.
Step onto it.
That's one.
Bend that knee, two.
Where's your foot there?
It comes right in next to the heel.
Two.
Three.
Four.
- Four. - Five.
Five.
Six.
That's much tougher than I thought it was going to be.
It was going to be--
I thought it was going to be a simple like, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Oh, no.
OK.
And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Down, up, down, up.
Stay there.
Uh, they must have had a lot of time on their hands
back then.
Down.
OK?
OK, OK, OK, OK, OK.
Yep, right.
I think it's making sense.
Down, up, down, up.
Pause, step, step.
Jeez.
Down, up.
Step, bend.
Step, pause, step, step.
Brilliant.
Oh, I got it.
That was good.
I mean, it was OK.
It wasn't great, but--
It was excellent.