pdf, with thanks to the original sharer
'The
beat of the music is hastened, the dancers' movements become more rapid, more
animated, more aggressive, and finally the contredanse evolves into a great
gallop. . . . Though at this stage individual indecent movements are no longer seen,
the dancers' behaviour and facial expression bear witness to a more intense
voluptuousness ... for the music gets quicker and quicker, until one finally
sees masked women, like ecstatic maenads, with flushed cheeks, breathless
heaving breasts, parched lips, and half-undone flying hair, careering round the
room, less on their feet than being dragged along bodily.'