In 1738, Leach Glover (1697–1763) was appointed as a dancing master to Britain’s royal family. He had been a leading dancer in John Rich’s company for some twenty years, first at Lincoln’s Inn Fields and then at Covent Garden, and would retire from the stage in 1741. This article focusses on Glover’s work as a teacher of dancing, beginning with his training by the French dancer and member of the Paris Académie Royal de Danse Romain Dumirail, and revealing Glover’s later close relationship with him. The article investigates the role of a royal dancing master and discusses the context for Glover’s own appointment. As part of his duties, Glover created the ballroom dance The Princess of Hesse for the marriage of Princess Mary in 1740. The dance was published in notation and is analysed here as a late example of a surviving choreography to celebrate a royal occasion. Glover’s later life and his family connections are also considered for what they can tell us about his status within the society of his time.

Leach Glover (1697–1763) danced in London's theatres from 1717 until 1741 and was a leading dancer for nearly twenty years. In 1738, he was appointed as a dancing master to Britain's royal family, a post he retained following his retirement from the stage. This article looks at Glover's family and professional background and places his theatrical career within the wider context of dancing on the London stage. It looks in detail at his first and last seasons working for John Rich, manager of the Lincoln's Inn Fields and then Covent Garden theatres. It examines not only Glover's repertoire but also his changing status in the dance company that existed within the theatrical company. As part of this investigation, it discusses some of Glover's contemporaries alongside its appraisal of his own work and looks at the challenges as well as the opportunities he experienced within the commercial environment of the London stage.

John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was accepted for production by John Rich, manager at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and received its premiere in January 1728. With its twin satirical targets of Italian opera and political corruption, and its fresh approach to musical entertainment, the opera had an unprecedented success during its first season and continued to be performed every year in London for the remainder of the century. Alongside the many songs, the libretto indicates three contrasting ensemble dances, introduced at key moments of the drama. These dances have been overlooked in most studies of The Beggar's Opera. The article investigates the significance of the dances within the ballad opera, the dancers who may have performed them and what they may have been dancing. Each dance and its music is analysed in detail, and placed within the context of the dance repertoire and wider theatrical background at Lincoln's Inn Fields. The authors also demonstrate the importance of dance in attracting audiences at Lincoln's Inn Fields; and show how, as box office receipts for The Beggar's Opera eventually declined, Rich stimulated demand by introducing divertissements and entr'acte dances unrelated to the show.

George Desnoyer first danced in London in 1721 and 1722, and returned to pursue a successful performing career there between 1731 and 1742. He may have been born around 1700 in Hanover, for he was the son of the dancing master ‘Denoyé’ employed by Georg Ludwig Elector of Hanover (later King George I of England) from at least 1694. 1 Musicians named ‘Desnoyers’ can be found in Paris records from the 1650s. 2 The elder Desnoyer may have been related to Antoine Desnoyers, who was a member of the ‘violons de la Chambre’ at the court of Louis XIV from at least the late 1670s until about 1694. 3 He may also have been the Desnoyers who danced in the 1689 and 1690 revivals at the Paris Opéra of Lully's Atys and Cadmus et Hermione respectively. 4 Whatever his lineage, George Desnoyer was already a skilled exponent of French belle dance style and technique when he first appeared in London, at the Drury Lane Theatre, early in 1721. Desnoyer's father died on 18 April 1721, and he was presumably appointed to succeed him for he left England during the summer of 1722 to become dancing master to George I's grandson Prince Frederick, who had remained in Hanover. His appointment at the electoral court formally ended early in 1730, and the following year Desnoyer returned to London. He was billed as ‘first dancer to the King of Poland’ when he appeared at Drury Lane in late 1731, and for the next few years he divided his time between London, Dresden and Warsaw. Desnoyer's London career lasted until 1742. Over the years, he performed solos, duets and group dances as well as appearing in a variety of afterpieces, and he enjoyed notable partnerships with several leading female dancers. Although virtually all the choreographies he performed are lost, there is much other evidence to shed light on Desnoyer's dancing style and technique. I have documented the lives and careers, as dancing masters, of George Desnoyer and his son Philip elsewhere. 5 In this article I will explore and analyse George Desnoyer's repertoire during his first two periods in London, 1721–1722 and 1731–1733. In a second article, I will look at his repertoire and his dancing partnerships between 1734 and his retirement from the London stage in 1742. 6

This article looks at George Desnoyer's repertoire and dancing partnerships during the final phases of his career, at Drury Lane between 1734 and 1740 and at Covent Garden from 1740 to 1742. Following his appearances in John Weaver's The Judgment of Paris and his departure from London, presumably in April 1733, Desnoyer seems to have returned to work for Augustus III of Poland.1A letter from Raymond, dancing master in Württemberg, dated 18 December 1733 (New Style) records ‘nous avons l'honneur d’être connu de Monsieur Desnoyer qui est au service de Sa Majesté le roi Auguste de Pologne’.2After the troubled 1732–1733 season at Drury Lane, George Desnoyer prudently stayed away from London for some time. It was not until 17 October 1734 that the Grub Street Journal reported ‘A few days ago arriv'd Mons. Denoyer from Poland’. On 4 November, Drury Lane advertised entr'acte dancing ‘Serious and Comic, by Monsieur Denoyer, the first time of his performance since his arrival from Poland’. By this time, the company's quarrels had been settled and Drury Lane was under the management of another gentleman-amateur, Charles Fleetwood, with Theophilus Cibber as his deputy manager actually carrying out much of the work.3Desnoyer's erstwhile partner Mrs Booth, briefly one of the theatre's patentees following the death of her husband, had retired from the stage a year earlier. Desnoyer returned to a stable but much changed Drury Lane company.

Work is in progress on a bibliographical study of notations for court and theatre dances published in England between c. 1700 and c. 1740. The aim of this research is to provide a secure documentary basis for the study of baroque court and theatre dance, by means of a systematic record and analysis of the extant notations. Such background is essential to any attempt to place baroque dance in its proper historical context and also provides a valuable starting point for modern reconstruction and performance of the dances concerned, as well as throwing light on developments in theatre dance after the early 18th century. We have excluded country dances (published or manuscript) from the project, since they form a source extensive enough to demand study in their own right, and because they illustrate an aesthetic and cultural aspect of early-18th-century life which may be regarded as quite distinct from that represented by court and theatre dance.