Today the waltz and the quadrille are omnipresent in most parts of the world. This wasn’t always so. The waltz originated from the southern part of the German cultural sphere around the middle of the 18th century, the quadrille developed around 1800 in Paris. Hence both dances spread from their local situation, but the pace at and the scale on which this happened increased remarkably between 1800 and 1815. During this years the Napoleonic Wars were fought, leading to a severe economical crisis. Time was apparently not ripe for new dances to gain in popularity. Nevertheless, a dance craze raged in large parts of continental Europe which was, among other things, ostensibly triggered by the presence of the French military. In the Southern Netherlands and the Pays de Liège more balls were organised and the numbers of new ballrooms in the cities soared. More diverse social groups could participate regularly in a public social dance culture. This dissertation wanted to investigate how European armies could actively have contributed to the dissemination of new dancing repertoires. The waltz and the quadrille are investigated as two separate case studies within the geographical confines of the Southern Netherlands and the Pays de Liège.