Do we know with certainty how people danced in 16th-19th century Europe? How they danced to Mozart's Minuets, Chopin's waltzes, Lully's Passacailles? How do we know this? Are there any contemporaneous descriptions?

by neet2alife
neet2alife

Also, and I should probably ask this question separately, but when did dance in the Western world shift from slow, "refined", orderly movements, to faster-paced movements that focused on the hips?

mimicofmodes

There is definitely a lot more to be said, but I have written an answer that focuses more on the 18th and 19th centuries in England and America:

Did they really dance like that at Victorian Balls?

/u/dhmontgomery has also written about French dance in the early 19th century:

What happened to courtly dance after the French Revolution? Was there any effort to “republicanize” the ballroom?