Celebrate Independence Day with Monticello!

Your gift helps support our civic and educational programming for millions of Americans every year.

GIVE NOW

Dancing, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “is a healthy exercise, elegant and very attractive for young people.”

Dance is an aspect of Jefferson's legacy that we honestly had not considered in detail before.  The recent events involving the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC provided an opportunity for the Washington Post's dance critic, Sarah Kaufman, to reflect on how Thomas Jefferson--especially through the Louisiana Purchase--contributed to the history of American dance.

Read Kaufman's piece in the Washington Post »