LONDON (AP) – Ellie Potts dances with friends most weeks. But they don’t pretend to be the latest Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran. I like the British country dance, which was popular over 200 years ago.
When the music begins, about 20 men and women have a bad stomach, their bows dance in circles or skip in each other’s elaborate patterns before reaching out their gloved hands to their partners.
Like many of her fellow Hampshire Regency Dancers, Potts is Jane Austen And everything from the Regency period. Not only did they study books, saw all screen adaptations, but they also studied music, made dresses for their own era, immersed themselves in Austin’s dance, and her character would have enjoyed it for centuries.
“I’ve been interested in Jane Austen since I was eight or nine,” Potts said.
This year, there is no shortage of epic costume balls and historic dances, marking the 250th anniversary of Austin’s birth. This weekend, thousands of fans calling themselves “Jenites” are descending from Bath for a 10-day festival, celebrating beloved writers of “pride and prejudice” and “sensation and sensibility.”
The highlight is the promenade of Regency costumes on Saturday, where around 2,000 people in the best bonnets, bows and costumes parade the bus town. Organizers say luxury holds Guinness World Records For “the biggest gathering of people dressed in Regency costumes.”
Fans will be coming from all over the world
Indiana native Bonnie Wise is taking part in Bath’s sixth Jane Austen Festival. This time, she brings her four era dresses she made and leads a tour group of 25 Austin enthusiasts from across the country.
“I started planning the tour four years ago when I realized this was a big year for Jane,” Wise, 69. She believes that her obsession caused her 1995 adaptation of “sensation and sensitivity.”
“The film just opened up a whole new world for me,” she said. “You start with books, movies, then you start to get into hats, tea, manners.
Wise said in Austin’s book that he loves wit, humor and social observation. She also finds the author’s own life story to be inspiring.
“I admire Jane and her for her management as a woman in that era, her perseverance, and the process of becoming an author,” she said.
The Jane Austen Association, the world’s largest organization, says it is dedicated to its authors.
“Jane Austen is timeless, so we’re constantly growing,” said Mary Mintz, president of the group. “We have members from India’s Japan. They come from all continents except Antarctica.”
Bridgeton Effect
Many festival attendees make a pilgrimage to Stephenton, a small rural village in southern England where Austin was born in 1775.
The author lived in Bath, a fashionable spa town in the 18th and 19th centuries for five years. Two of her novels, “Persuasion” and “Northernger Abbey,” feature scenes set in the World Heritage city.
The bus is also a part of the filming location. “Bridgeton” Netflix’s extremely popular modern take is loosely based on the regent period. This was the decade when future King George IV rose to become future regent, as his father was considered unsuitable for domination due to mental illness.
Thanks to the show, the style of Austin and Regency – thinking of romantic flowing gowns, elegant ballrooms and high society soires – has become trendy for a new generation.
“I think Jane Austen is on the rise,” Potts said. “She has definitely become more popular since ‘Bridgeton’. ”
Going back in time together
The Church Hall in Winchester is home to several streets from where Austin was buried, and Hampshire Regency Dancers meet weekly to practice many of the performances they are staging this year in honor of the author.
The group chooses a dance that appears in the screen adaptation of Austin’s novel, and members go to painstaking details to ensure the outfits up to buttons and stitches.
“We get into a lot of trouble and get as close to the original as possible,” said Chris Oswald, a retired lawyer who now chairs the group. “For me, it’s about getting a better understanding of what life is like and, in the process of doing that, it’s about getting a better understanding of Jane Austen herself.”
Oswald is passionate about his group’s showcase in Hampshire, or what he jokingly calls “Jane Austenland.”
“People are pretty impressed because they’re walking where Jane Austen actually walked. They dance in the room where Jane Austen danced,” he said. “For anyone who’s very interested in Jane Austen, it’s very special.”
Many “Janeans” say they have great fun bringing Austen’s words and images back to life in a community of like-minded people.
Lisa Tims, a pianist who studied music in Austin’s life and performs on antique pianofortes, puts it succinctly. She and her Regency friends “go back in time together.”
“I think it’s a runaway for a lot of people,” Tims added. “Perhaps we are eager to escape the speed, noise and abrasiveness of the era we find ourselves, and return to the elegance and luxury joy of a very fleeting era in history.”
