lancers

The term "lancers" can refer to two distinct subjects: a type of soldier and a dance.

As a military term, a lancer is a soldier who carries a lance, a long wooden shaft with a sharp metal point, used in mounted combat. Historically, lancers were part of light cavalry units. While the lance was largely outmoded by firearms, it saw a revival in the 18th and 19th centuries and was even used in the early stages of World War II.12

In the context of dance, "lancers" refers to a variation of the quadrille, a popular 19th-century dance for four couples in a square formation. The lancers dance consisted of five sections, each in a different meter, and was still performed in folk dance clubs in the mid-20th century.13