When Helen (Yale Smith Ellsworth) was travelling in Europe in 1873, she wrote to and received letters from her friends as well as family.  One of the larger and more entertaining collections, 43 in total, is from Edward B. Hooker*, a close friend. 

Here he describes a dancing lesson:

“I have become a dancing teacher! Who would have thought! In the first place who would have imagined I could do such a thing, and in the next place that I would. The members of the noble class of ’74 do not all know how to dance, so we go up to the hall on Friday afternoons and practice. I have the honor to be the instructor, and have begun Polka and Lanciers*….The polka boys are making fine progress and will soon be able to make miserable any girl of ordinary ability, by stepping on her toes and ramming their knees against her…I did not learn the polka of Mr. Reilly* and only know how he teaches it from observation. It created considerable amusement to see those fine boys, with coats off, standing on one foot and hopping.”

*from the Hooker family, prominent at the time on the Connecticut literary/theatre scene.

*a type of quadrille, I think!

*a former instructor judging by the rest of the context.