Grecian bend

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The Grecian Bend was a dance move introduced to polite society in America just before the American 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]

The term was also given to those who suffered from decompression sickness, or "the bends", 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] Appearance in popular music

The term 'Grecian bend' appears in the song 'The Garden Where The Praties Grow' by Johnny Patterson:

Have you ever been in love my boys
Or have you felt the pain?
I'd sooner be in jail myself
Than be in love again
For the girl I loved was beautiful
I'd have you all to know
And I met her in the garden
Where the praties grow

She was just the sort of creature boys
That Nature did intend
To walk right through the world my boys
Without the Grecian bend
Nor did she wear a chignon
I'd have you all to know
And I met her in the garden
Where the praties grow

[edit] Notes