Grecian bend

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The Grecian Bend was a dance move introduced to polite society in America just before the Civil War. There were many songs published with "Grecian Bend" in their titles. Contemporary sheet music illustrations show a woman with a very large bustle and a very small parasol, bending forward. The "Bend" was considered very daring at the time. The bustle was, of course, prominently displayed during a "Grecian Bend." It was definitely not a way of walking.[1]

The term, by 1869, was a fashionable phrase for the much-admired effect of the bustle on ladies' dresses.[2]

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The term was also given to those who suffered from the bends or decompression sickness due to working in caissons during the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The name was given because afflicted individuals characteristically arched their backs in the same manner as the then popular "Grecian Bend" fashion.[3]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ America's Music: From the Pilgrims to the Present (Music in American Life) by Gilbert Chase - Nov 1992
  2. ^ Place Names of San Mateo County, pg. 37, Dr. Alan K. Brown. © Published San Mateo County Historical Association
  3. ^ Kumar V., Abbas A., Fausto N. (2005), Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, 7th ed. Elsevier Inc. ISBN 0-7216-0187-1
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