Cravats and Bluestockings Hosts Regency Ball
Written by Victoria Kelly
At the end of the fall semester, Hillsdale students once again attended a classic event newly moved to autumn: the annual Regency Ball hosted by Cravats and Bluestockings. This club, named after men’s Victorian neckties (cravats) and women with literary interests (bluestockings), is a student organization dedicated to learning about Victorian-era England. The Regency Ball is the group’s pinnacle event in which they invite all of campus to a night of historical finery, conversation, food, and country dances inside Mauck Residence Hall’s beautiful lobby.
Alexandra Gess, ’24, a Cravats and Bluestockings officer who leads planning the event, explained that Regency Ball provides a unique opportunity to welcome people into the bygone era of Victorian England while building community in the present. Country dances, the main attraction of the night, have a special social importance as they help people get to know one another. The environment remains relatively low-stress (even for those who have never before learned any dancing) since attention never centers on any one person and partners change frequently.
Having attended the ball, I saw that Alexandra was right: students really do get to know each other through dancing and have lots of fun with their new friends. I overheard attendees saying Regency Ball was the most fun they had ever had at a dance, and that they finally understood why people used to dance until sunrise.
Alexandra explained that when she first took over planning this event, she and her fellow officers spent time researching the Victorian Era and watching historically accurate movies. Then came weeks of organizing and advertising, all leading up to the big night. Students enter a night from another era, as many attendees wear period-inspired attire and enjoy punch, sandwiches, and home-baked desserts. Club officers call the country dances, in which everyone forms lines or circles and rotates through dancing with each other (think Pride-and-Prejudice-movie-style dancing), after which partners can sign each other’s dance cards. Mauck Hall’s lobby is filled with students wanting to dance.
Regency Ball, though it has had a very successful turnout the last two years, is not the only opportunity the club provides for engaging with Victorian-era England. Everyone on campus is invited to join Cravats and Bluestockings every Wednesday afternoon for tea in the Formal Lounge of the Student Union. This gives students a chance to sit, chat, and enjoy tea and cookies. Sometimes faculty even drop by to talk about Victorian history and customs. And with Regency Ball now taking place in the fall semester, the Cravats and Bluestockings leadership look forward to welcoming back students to new events–which they hope will also become traditions–throughout the spring.
Victoria Kelly, ’24, is a proud country girl from upstate New York. On the rare occasion she is not studying or hanging out with all her favorite Hillsdale people, you can find her debating politics, practicing Tae Kwon Do, or swing dancing, preferably outside under the stars.
Published in February 2023