David Garrick and the Dancing Master's Apprentice

Abstract

All too little is known about the recruitment and training of dancers for the theatre in eighteenth-century London. A substantial number of the best-publicized dancers were French imports, a vogue for foreign dancers and singers having started as early as 1698.1 Throughout the century dancers continued to come across the Channel, both for short engagements and for fullseason jobs. A few who found conditions to their liking accepted positions as ballet master to Drury Lane or Lincoln's Inn Fields. The French never totally displaced English-born dancers, but their more complex idea of theatrical dancing gave impetus to the separation of dance from acting as a performance speciality. Like native dancing masters, the foreigners offered lessons in both social and theatrical dancing, and their students and imitators gradually increased the number of polished dancers available to the theatres. Many professional dancers belonged to theatrical families, and their careers developed as a matter of course. But not everyone was so lucky in birth. How did an outsider break into the business? Who initiated advanced training, the eager student or the dancing master with an eye for talent? How long did it take to become more than an accomplished social dancer? What did it cost? Did a theatre job come automatically or only by competition? What sort of income might a talented novice hope to make, and how much more money if he or she graduated to the rank of soloist?