#64: The Dancing Master

Instructions for taking off one's hat

Time to dance

‘I long for a dance. Mary — play Grimstock!’ demands Lydia Bennet of her bookish sister at the piano during a tea party in the BBC’s 1995 Pride and Prejudice. And so three couples get up, including Lizzie Bennet and her favourite, Wickham, who throws a flirtatious glance at a certain Miss King on the way.

‘Grimstock’ is one of the dances in John Playford’s book The Dancing Master, the centrepiece of a tiny exhibition in the foyer of Oxford University’s Weston Library. The book was published from 1651 right through to the nineteenth century and the exhibition has no less than eight editions on display. It is small, neat and rectangular, probably ideal for the master to tuck next to his pocket fiddle (also displayed) to use with the young masters and mistresses eager to learn the latest steps.

Leaping and… farting

Other dancing books displayed include John Weaver’s Anatomical and Mechanical Lectures upon Dancing, which gives a guide to ‘leaping or springing’. This is different from walking, he tells us, because ‘in leaping the whole body is thrown into the air, both feet being at the same time elevated from the ground or floor’ and ‘cannot be performed, except the joints of the limbs are first bent’.

Song lyrics were often ‘amusing, irreverent and coarse’. So one dancing book tells the story of how a lady and her maid ‘made a match at farting’ and the lady manages to both light candles and put them out with her farts. ‘In comes my lady with all her might and main, and blew them out, and in, and out, and in, and out again.’ One can only imagine what Mary Bennet would have made of that.

Dancing symbols

A freestanding audio-visual display with choreographic symbols from Mr Isaac’s ‘the Union’ invites the visitor to try dance themselves, though the symbols, which look like graceful, willowy music notes, are not easily understood. This visitor had a go:

Lovely labels 

What of the labels and audiovisuals? The top-notch labels will delight any interpretation nerd (such as me):

1. Connections with what the audience knows – Jane Austen:

2. Especially delightful! Present tenses on a label:

3. Humour, and research presented with a light touch:

Tiresome tech 

But the technology was mainly a letdown. Each book has a QR code next to it, promising to let us hear the songs. However, activating one on my phone led to a frustrating and unsuccessful 10 minutes trying to register with the SoundCloud app, which I suspect not many visitors would have the patience to navigate. The display could have used a few more sets of screens and headphones and a bit more video to add colour and movement. Why not just link to the YouTube videos instead of an app which needs registration? Failing that, try Grimstock or the Black Nag at home.

The Dancing Master is at the Weston Library until mid-January 2024.