Footprints of the Dance: An Early Seventeenth-Century Dance Master’s Notebook

Jennifer Nevile, Ph.D. (1992), UNSW, holds an honorary research position at that university. She is a leading authority on Renaissance dance and its relationship with contemporary artistic and intellectual practices, publishing over thirty book chapters and articles, and a monograph.

"The book's greatest value lies in making the notebook’s rare resources available to scholars of early modern dance and to historians of staged spectacles. The translation into English of the ballet plots and of the pike exhibition (in this latter case undertaken by Margaret McGowan) will also allow undergraduate students interested in the themes covered by the book to have access to valuable new primary material."Carolyn James, Monash University, in Parergon 38.1“Theatrical entertainments loomed large in the early modern period, literally and figuratively. In addition to illuminating the inner workings of a dance school, Jennifer Nevile’s Footprints of the Dance takes us several steps closer to understanding Renaissance spectacles and increasing our knowledge and appreciation of those who designed and developed them.” Emily F. Winerock, University of Pittsburgh. In: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 72, No. 4 (Winter 2019), pp. 1535–1536 “In her newest book, musicologist and dance historian Jennifer Neville has made a substantial contribution to our knowledge of early seventeenth-century dance and its social and political importance in the towns and cities of Western Europe. […] Neville’s opening his notebook to us is a gift to dance research.”Judith Rock, in: Journal of Jesuit Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1 (March 2019), pp. 183–186.“Footprints of the Dance is a valuable addition to dance studies, extending our understanding of the professional life of a dancing master, the choreographic activities of the time and the interaction of dance with other cultural elements such as pyrotechnics, health and travel. The analysis and contextualisation draw on extensive understanding of early modern dance and the culture of Brussels. Through it, readers will derive an excellent understanding of this special manuscript.” Anne Daye, in: Historical Dance, Vol. 4 ,No. 4 (January 2021).

• AcknowledgementsList of Tables, Illustrations and Musical ExamplesA Note on Transcriptions and TranslationsIntroduction1 A Dance Master’s Notebook2 Dance in Early Modern Europe3 Ballet Plots, Dance Figures and Fireworks4 Dance Teaching, Schools and Pupils5 Danced Combat and the Pike Exhibition6 Dance Music, Dance Songs and Airs de CourConclusionFacsimile of Dance-Related Material from S 253Appendix 1: Transcription and Translation of the Six Ballet PlotsAppendix 2: The Pike Exhibition (ff. 94r–99v)BibliographyIndex