Dance History Reading List

[whitelight]

Hello, Ballet Talk members! It's been a while since I've been here, and it's nice to be back.

I've always been a dance history enthusiast, but as I'm largely self-taught, I'm embarking on a project to fill in the gaps and deepen my understanding. I'm reading about the development of Western dance, in depth, chronologically. And I'd appreciate your suggestions.

Right now, I'm in the very early stages-- I read Leonie Frida's bio of Catherine de Medici (which has very little to do dance, but painted a vivid picture of the era and politics that produced Ballet Comique de la Reine) and Mark Franco's Dance as Text: Ideologies of the Baroque Body (very dry and academic, but definitely clarified the development of ballet from Ballet Comique to Louix XIV). I'm looking for other texts to fill in the gaps of the pre-romantic era that gets little mention in the history books I've read. Your feedback and recommendations are welcome.

Here's my pre-Romantic list, in (roughly) the order I'm intending to read them:

Pre-Classic Dance Forms (Louis Horst)

Famed for Dance: Essays on the Theory and Practice of Theatrical Dancing in England, 1660-1740 (Ifan Kyrle Fletcher)

Art, Dance and the Body in French Culture of the Ancien Regime (Sarah R Cohen)

From the Royal to the Republican Body: Incorporating the Political in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century France (Kathryn Norberg)

Letters on Dancing and Ballets (Noverre)

The Ballet of the Enlightenment: The Establishment of the Ballet D'Action in France (Ivor Guest)

The Code of Terpsichore: A Practical and Historical Treatise, on the Ballet, Dancing, and Pantomime: With a Complete Theory of the Art of Dancing (Carlo Blasis)

The Lure of Perfection : Fashion and Ballet, 1780-1830 (Judith Chazin-Bennahum)

In my searching for similar topics on this board, I came across The Pre-Romantic Ballet by Marian Hannah Winter. Could anyone tell me more about this book?

Thanks in advance for you help. Also, I know I may never (probably won't) finish this project, but it's fun to try. It would really go much faster if I didn't read everything on the subway.

[rg]

you might search for comment on M.H.Winter's book on the web. it's been out a while and is well-respected, so far as i know, esp. for focusing on a period not much covered in other books in english.

it's not easy to find copies of this work nowadays, i think the publishing run wasn't large and the supply of copies after it first appeared were destroyed in a fire, so it's on the 'rare' side of availability.

it's hard cover and includes numerous illustrations.

others here might have more specific comments.

here's the NYPL cat. listing:

Winter, Marian Hannah.

Title :The pre-Romantic ballet / Marian Hannah Winter.

Imprint :Brooklyn, N.Y. : Dance Horizons, 1975, c1974.

Description :xxii, 306 p., [4] leaves of plates : ill. ; 28 cm.

[Ray]

I'm looking for other texts to fill in the gaps of the pre-romantic era that gets little mention in the history books I've read. Your feedback and recommendations are welcome.

The Sarah Cohen book is excellent and recent; be sure to mine her bibliography for further reading. Without knowing the precise scope of your inquiries, here are some more suggestions (there's more where they came from; message me if you want other titles):

Brainard, Ingrid. "New Dances for the Ball: The Annual Collections of France and England in the 18th Century." Early Music 14.2 (1986): 164-73.

Chazin-Bennahum, Judith. Dance in the Shadow of the Guillotine.

Goff, Moira. She's written numerous articles, mostly on the late 17th-early 18th-c scene in England (sometimes in collaboration with Thorp).

Hilton, Wendy. Dance and Music of Court and Theater: Selected Writings of Wendy Hilton. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon, 1997.

Howard, Skiles. The Politics of Courly Dancing in Early Modern England. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1998.

Lewis, Elizabeth Miller. "Hester Santlow's Harlequine: Dance, Dress, Status, and Gender on the English Stage, 1706-1734." The Clothes That Wear Us: Essays on Dressing and Transgressing in Eighteenth-Century Culture. Ed. Jessica Munns and Penny Richards. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1999. 80-101.

Lindberg, Mary Klinger. "'A Delightful Play upon the Eye': William Hogarth and Theatrical Dance." Dance Chronicle 4 (1981): 19-41.

Lindstrom, Kristin. "Problems of Doing Research in Dance History." Journal for the Anthropological Study of Movement at New York University 9.3 (1997): 125-30.

Macaulay, Alastair. "The First British Ballerina: Hester Santlow c.1690-1773." Dancing Times Dec. 1990: 248-50.

Pierce, Ken. "Dance Notation Systems in Late 17th-Century France." Early Music 26.2 (May 1998): 286-299.

Pierce, Ken. "Dance Vocabulary in the Early 18th Century as Seen through Feuillet's Step Tables." Proceedings of Dance History Scholars (1997). 227-36.

Thorp, Jennifer. She's written numerous articles, mostly on the late 17th-early 18th-c scene in England (sometimes in collaboration with Goff or Pierce).

As far as primary texts go, there are 17th and 18th-c writings by John Weaver, Kellom Tomlinson, John Essex, and John Playford.

[whitelight]

Thank you so much, Ray! These look like great recommendations and I will definitely be checking them out.