Bringing Jane Austen to Life

So, a couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine invited me and my best friend, Laura, to a Jane Austen Regency dance up on campus. Being the Jane Austen enthusiast that I am, I willingly agreed to see what the event was all about. It turned out that an older woman, who was well-educated on Old English dancing, taught us all the dances from Jane Austen's time, including some of the dances seen in the Pride and Prejudice and Emma movies! It was fun pretending to go back in time and become a character in one of Austen's novels. A lot of people (even guys!) dressed up for the dance, and there was a surprisingly large turn-out. I honestly think more people love Jane Austen and her time period than they'll let on to, especially since the movies are mostly seen as "chickflicks." But after taking a Jane Austen class last Fall and reading all her novels, it surprised me at how universal and pertinent some of the issues in her books really are. If you haven't read them, you need to give them a try--they're not simply romance novels, as the media makes them out to be, but extremely thought-provoking and relatable for our day. I recommend starting with Pride and Prejudice, as most Romantic Era British literature classes do. It's my favorite. =)

Anyway, back to the dance...a couple of camera men came from BYU Weekly, an on-campus news show that keeps students and alumni updated with events happening around campus. Well, this past week I found out that the Jane Austen Regency Dance was one of the stories on BYU Weekly and that I had been on TV! It was pretty exciting, I must say, so I felt the need to post the link on my blog. I'm not sure how long it will work for, but if you're interested, click on the link below to watch it. You'll probably have to download something in order for it to work.

http://www.byub.org/byuweekly/

After you click on the above link, make sure the date of the site is June 13, 2009. Once it begins to play, click "Jane Austen Regency" on the right of the screen. I'm wearing a white top and a yellow skirt. Try not to laugh too hard--I know I'm not the best dancer (or walker, for that matter), but it was a lot of fun to try dancing like couples from the later 1700s and a lot easier to learn than it looks.

Sometimes it blows my mind at how influential one author and her works can really be, even 200 years later! Austen has definitely been a role-model for me as a young, blooming author. Her characters are real and complex, her plots are revolutionary, and her novels are the kind you want to read over and over again. Honestly, where would the world be without Jane Austen?