Historical SourcePublic Domain
For the Further Improvement of Dancing - a Treatise of Chorography or the Art of Dancing Country Dances after a new character (Feuillet, tr. John Essex, London 1715)
Publisher: John Essex (English dancing-master, d. 1744; active at his house in Roode Lane, Fanchurch Street, London, 'where are taught all the ball dances of the English and French court') / translated from Raoul-Auger Feuillet's *Choregraphie* and the *Recueil de Contredanses mises en choregraphie* (Paris, 1700 and 1706 respectively), 'improv'd' and issued together with a collection of country dances composed and written in characters by Essex himself. London, [1715?] - sold by I. Walsh (at the Harp and Hautboy in Catherine Street near Somerset House in the Strand), I. Hare (at the Viol and Flute in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange), and by the author. Source: Gale ECCO, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, document identifier CW0109316092 (DATA/LIBRARY_OF_DANCE/ABBYY TXT/1715-Essex-Furthur_(Gale).txt). HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first English-press translation of Feuillet's country-dance *Recueil de Contredanses* and one of the two principal 1706-1715 English vehicles (alongside John Weaver's 1706 *Orchesography* translation of the *Choregraphie* itself) by which Beauchamp-Feuillet character notation entered the English-speaking dancing-master profession. The Essex edition bundles (i) Feuillet's theoretical chapters on the positions of Body / Head / Arms / Hands / Feet, with figure-symbol keys for the carriage of the figure through the notation system; (ii) enumerated step-name tables for Stamps ('with the Toe', 'with the Heel', 'with the Flat of the Foot'), Rigadoon Steps, Balances, and Right Hand and Left progression rules; and (iii) a collection of Essex's own English country dances — explicitly naming 'the Diligent' (a two-part country dance) and 'the handsome Minuet' (a three-part country dance) as examples in the prose commentary. The preface-dedication also cites 'a French Dance, which I presume to call the Princess's Passepied' as an additional French-court-derived inclusion. Has_Step_Detail = Partial: theoretical prose is OCR-extractable at section-heading and step-name granularity, but the individual country-dance step-tables are engraved plates that did not OCR. Subscribers and provincial distributors consistent with the 1706 Weaver-Isaac, 1711 Pemberton, and 1721 Weaver-Anatomical rolls - confirming the cohesion of the early-18c London-Bath-Dublin dancing-master profession.Year: 1715Family: essexCatalog: local
Dance manual/reference by John Essex (English dancing-master, d. 1744; active at his house in Roode Lane, Fanchurch Street, London, 'where are taught all the ball dances of the English and French court') / translated from Raoul-Auger Feuillet's *Choregraphie* and the *Recueil de Contredanses mises en choregraphie* (Paris, 1700 and 1706 respectively), 'improv'd' and issued together with a collection of country dances composed and written in characters by Essex himself. London, [1715?] - sold by I. Walsh (at the Harp and Hautboy in Catherine Street near Somerset House in the Strand), I. Hare (at the Viol and Flute in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange), and by the author. Source: Gale ECCO, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, document identifier CW0109316092 (DATA/LIBRARY_OF_DANCE/ABBYY TXT/1715-Essex-Furthur_(Gale).txt). HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first English-press translation of Feuillet's country-dance *Recueil de Contredanses* and one of the two principal 1706-1715 English vehicles (alongside John Weaver's 1706 *Orchesography* translation of the *Choregraphie* itself) by which Beauchamp-Feuillet character notation entered the English-speaking dancing-master profession. The Essex edition bundles (i) Feuillet's theoretical chapters on the positions of Body / Head / Arms / Hands / Feet, with figure-symbol keys for the carriage of the figure through the notation system; (ii) enumerated step-name tables for Stamps ('with the Toe', 'with the Heel', 'with the Flat of the Foot'), Rigadoon Steps, Balances, and Right Hand and Left progression rules; and (iii) a collection of Essex's own English country dances — explicitly naming 'the Diligent' (a two-part country dance) and 'the handsome Minuet' (a three-part country dance) as examples in the prose commentary. The preface-dedication also cites 'a French Dance, which I presume to call the Princess's Passepied' as an additional French-court-derived inclusion. Has_Step_Detail = Partial: theoretical prose is OCR-extractable at section-heading and step-name granularity, but the individual country-dance step-tables are engraved plates that did not OCR. Subscribers and provincial distributors consistent with the 1706 Weaver-Isaac, 1711 Pemberton, and 1721 Weaver-Anatomical rolls - confirming the cohesion of the early-18c London-Bath-Dublin dancing-master profession. (1715). Imported from local collection.