Footprints of the Dance: An Early Seventeenth-Century Dance Master's Notebook by Jennifer Nevile

Abstract

Reviewed by: Footprints of the Dance: An Early Seventeenth-Century Dance Master's Notebook by Jennifer Nevile Carolyn James Nevile, Jennifer, Footprints of the Dance: An Early Seventeenth-Century Dance Master's Notebook (Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe, 8), Leiden, Brill, 2018; hardback; pp. 286, R.R.P. €129.00; ISBN 9789004361799. Most of the knowledge we have about early modern European dance comes from formal treatises written by dance masters who aimed to market their skills to potential patrons. Jennifer Nevile's book presents a much rarer source: an anonymous, early seventeenth-century notebook of a teacher who probably operated a dance school in Brussels. Of unknown provenance before the mid-nineteenth century, the manuscript was acquired by the Kungliga Bibliotek in Stockholm in 1880 (Cod. Holm S253). It contains a record of the professional activities of a dance master and his associates, as well as a collection of recipes and other practical remedies for everyday ailments and for warding off dangerous illnesses such as the plague. Nevile's monograph focuses entirely on the dance-related material. It provides a facsimile of all the manuscript pages in this category and transcriptions and English translations of the texts. An introduction and six short chapters of analysis place the documents into the context of what is already known about the history of dance and the dance masters who worked in various parts of Europe between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. Written in fifteen different literary hands, eight of which appear only once or twice, and six musical hands, the Kungliga Bibliotek notebook includes a list of ballet titles, six ballet plots, brief descriptions and signatures of the students who attended the dance school, a canon of geometric figures for dance groups [End Page 248] of various sizes, as well as detailed instructions for a display of dancing with military pikes. These last two categories are undocumented elsewhere. The guide to an exhibition of dancing with a pike provides an unusual level of insight into the staging of a popular genre of entertainment that combined elements of martial drill with intricately choreographed dance sequences that displayed the rhythm, balance, physical strength, and dexterity of the participants. Nevile draws on her extensive knowledge of early modern dance to arrive at an educated guess about the geographical provenance of the notebook. She suggests that Brussels was its most likely place of origin, since that city was the centre of a thriving culture of dance and music in the early seventeenth century. A large entrepreneurial class, and the status of Brussels as the centre of royal government, ensured that there was a ready supply of wealthy and ambitious individuals who sought to advance themselves socially by becoming expert dancers. There was also an eager audience for the ballets, masquerades and other spectacles staged during carnival by the court and by the city's militia guilds, so there were plenty of opportunities for those who received dance lessons to display their skills in public and to attract the admiration of their peers. Nevile concludes that the notebook, almost all of it written in French, was likely compiled to record and showcase the range of lessons taught at a particular dance school and the fashionable spectacles that could be staged by its pupils. Signatures and brief descriptions of some 128 students, originally on separate folios, were pasted into the notebook, perhaps to provide evidence of the distinguished clientele that the school attracted. Most of the 120 names are German or Flemish, but French, German, English, and Danish students also attended lessons, sometimes as part of a trip abroad. Women as well as men took classes, although most female students probably received instruction at home, rather than in the premises of the dance master, so were more likely to be local pupils. As the author points out, the material included in the notebook shows that the dance master and his colleagues had close ties to Paris and were familiar with the musical culture of the French royal court, knowledge that was essential to attract students interested in learning the latest fashionable dances and airs from France. While this book will be interesting to non-specialists, its...