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Footprints of the Dance — An Early Seventeenth-Century Dance Master’s Notebook by Jennifer Nevile provides new, fascinating and detailed information on the life of an early-seventeenth-century dance master in Brussels. The dance master’s handwritten notebook contains unique material: a canon of dance figures and instructions for an exhibition with a pike; as well as signatures and general descriptions of his students, ballet plots and music associated with dancing. Reproduced for the first time are facsimile images of all the dance-related material, with transcriptions and translations of the ballet plots and instructions for the pike exhibition. The dance master is revealed as an active choreographer and performer, with strong ties to the French court musical establishment, and interested in fireworks and alchemy.
Price: $170.00
Pages: 286
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe
Publication Date:
16 August 2018
ISBN: 9789004361799
Format: Hardcover
"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).
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).
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.