Eighteenth Century Dance Instruction: The Course of Study Advocated by Gottfried Taubert

Abstract

imminent departure of its respected dancing master provided the impetus for the creation of the most voluminous dance treatise of the eighteenth century. Its author, Gottfried Taubert, that most thorough and conscientious German dance master who practised his profession in Leipzig and Danzig, recorded his considerable insight into the history, theory and practice of the dance of his time in his Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister (Leipzig, 1717).' The body of the work consists of three volumes totalling 1176 pages. A preface, a detailed table of contents, and an index further swell the work to 1271 pages. This formidable length is initially discouraging, but a closer examination of Taubert's work is highly informative since he tackled an unusually large array of topics. The vastness of Taubert's work is due in part to his thoroughness but also to the different roles he assumed. He was not only a dance and etiquette instructor, but also saw himself as an historian and moralist. He exercised this latter role to justify the existence and practice of dance, to increase the respectability of his profession, and to save it from destruction at the hand of impostors and zealots alike. Therefore his defence of dance is lengthy and ever present throughout the work.2 Finally he saw himself as a public servant in the guise of an educator presenting his expertise for the benefit of the general public. Therefore he included in his work a translation into German of Feuillet's Choregraphie.3 His reasons for doing so concern the rarity and great cost of the work, the fact that it was inaccessible to those not familiar with the French language, and the fact that the French dance masters had deliberately kept it a secret. Apparently many foreigners studied in France and returned without having heard of the notation system since only a considerable bribe could produce some information. Although the discussion concerning the French style of dance and his translation of Feuillet's Choregraphie form the centrepiece of his work, Taubert's concerns extend to many other areas of the