Books published by The Noverre Press

Kellom Tomlinson was one of the most important figures in the history of dance in England in the early 18th century. This treatise, The Art of Dancing, completed by 1724 but due to high production costs not published until 1735, is the only substantial English work of its kind not derived from a French original. Tomlinson was one of the most prolific of the dancing masters working in England at this time, although details of his life and career are few. He was born c. 1693 and was apprenticed between 1707 and 1714 to the well-known and highly regarded dancing master Thomas Caverley. During this time he was also instructed in dancing 'in the theatrical way' by René Cherrier, a French dancer and teacher who performed frequently in London. Although there is no record of Tomlinson as a performer himself, he was associated from 1715 with the professional theatre, particularly that in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and also began at that time to establish himself as a dancing master to the nobility and gentry. In this treatise, in two parts, Tomlinson sets forth the principles of Baroque dance. The book is divided into two parts: part one contains detailed written descriptions of twenty nine steps; book two discusses the minuet, including four methods of performing the minuet step. The present facsimile reprint also includes six dances, in the Feuillet notation system, published by Tomlinson between 1715 and 1720: The Passpied Round O, The Shepherdess, The Submission, The Prince Eugene, The Address, and the Gavot (sic).

Theodore Stier's With Pavlova Round the World is one of thefew first-hand accounts of what is was like to work with thegreat ballerina. Stier began to conduct for Pavlova in 1910and was her musical director for the next 16 years, duringwhich time, as he proudly relates, he conducted 3,650 ofher performances. During this time his relationship withPavlova gradually changed from employer and employeeinto a close friendship.The book brings Pavlova alive with Stier's anecdotes andinsights into her life and work. Not so much a chronologicalbiography, it is more a series of episodes which illuminatePavlova as a person as well as a great dancer.

The first part of this manual, first published in 1725, discusses the performance of various steps including demi coupe, bouree, chasse, and pirouette. Through the use of text and tables, Rameau also provides discussion on an improved and simplified version of Feuillet notation, the eighteenth-century system of recording dances. The second part of the text consists of notations for twelve duets choreographed by French dancer and choreographer, Guillaume-Louis Pecour.The text is entirely in French, with many examples in Feuillet notation.

Some of the earliest dance treatises come from Italy and were written in the second half of the 15th century by dancing masters working at the Courts of the great ruling families of Northern Italy such as the d'Estes, Gonzagas and Medici. For the first time we have descriptions of the social dances performed at these courts, though the writers often assume a prior knowledge of technique and leave out much that we would like to know today. Although Antonio Cornazano was not a dancing master, he was an enthusiastic amateur, and his work gives us valuable insights into the interpretation of steps such as saltarelli and piva, as well as some poetically descriptive detail on style, presentation, and technique. Most of these early Italian sources are only available in manuscript form, and up to now none have been translated in full. This book will therefore be an invaluable addition to the library of all dance scholars and historians, as well as being of great interest to dance students wanting to know more about the origins of their art.

A facsimile of Feuillet's 1704 dance manual, 'Recueil de Dances contenant un tres grand nombres des meillieures Entrees de Ballet de M. Pecour tant pour homme que pour femme dont la plus grande partie ont ete dancees a l'Opera.'Apart from a brief introduction in French, the book consists entirely of notation examples in Feuillet's own notation system.

A facsimile reprint of the second edition published in Paris, 1780.Malpied's instructional manual describes Baroque dance steps and their correlation with music using the notation system published by Raoul-Auger Feuillet in 1700. Additionally, the manual contains information on the minuet and also provides an extensive discussion on hand and arm positions. Malpied's Traité is also important in that it describes, for the first time, the five positions for the arms, in conjunction with the five position of the feet. The work also notes detailed treatment of the arms, hands and fingers. Malpied's method shows a marked advance on the work of Feuillet and Rameau in the simplification of the recording of dance steps, and his book is noted for the simplification and clarification of the Feuillet method.

A transcription of the original French text, with full English translation, of de Lauze's dance and deportment manual of 1623.Among the dances covered are the Bransle, Gaillarde, Capriole, Gavotte, and Courante.

A facsimile reproduction of Giambatista Dufort's manual, published in Naples in 1728, with text entirely in Italian.Part one of the book consists of thirty-four chapters devoted to instructions for steps required in Italian Baroque dance including pirola (pirouette), sfuggito (echappé), passo unite (assemblé), and cadente (tombé). Each step is fully described and notated in Feuillet notation, the dance notation system first published by French choreographer Raoul-Auger Feuillet in 1700. The second part of the manual contains six chapters devoted to performance of the minuetto (minuet) and concludes with a section on the contradanza (contredanse) and riverenze (bows).

Dezais' ''II Recueil de Nouvelles Contredances" was published in Paris in 1712. Apart from a brief introduction (in French) it consists entirely of Feuillet notations, with melody line music, of the following dances:La Folette, L'Alliance, La Petitte Ieanneton, La Badine, La Charpentier, La Maréchal, La Conti, L'Argentine, Sont des Navets, La Villars, Madame Robine, La Samardique, La Gigue Espagnole, La Baptistine, Le Rigaudon d'Angleterre, ha-Voyés donc, Les Mariniers, La Cribelée, La Gentilly, La Victoire, Milord Biron, L'Empereur dans la Lune, Les Folies d'Isac, La Triomphante, Plaisirs sans crainte, Marche du Tékéli, and La Jeunesse.

This was the first manual to be published in France,here in the version translated into English by the English dancer, dancing master and writer John Essex.The manual describes, using Feuillet's own dance notation system, motions for the feet and arms, how the dance corresponds to the music, and rules for performance. Additionally, floor plans and music for ten dances are given. Feuillet also suggests appropriate steps.Performed as a series of figures by a column of men facing a column of women, the English country dance was a popular ballroom dance during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.