The Compleat Dancing Master

Winner of The Society of Dance History Scholars De la Torre Bueno Prize.

"The Compleat Dancing Master" is a translation of the "Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister" (1717), by Gottfried Taubert, a monumental and encyclopedic treatise on the universe of dance during the musical High Baroque and the dawn of the Beauchamps-Feuillet dance notation system. Taubert (1679-1746) worked in Danzig (now Gdansk) and later in Leipzig at the same time as Johann Sebastian Bach. His work is in three parts, covering the history, morality, and social utility of dance; the theory and practice of dance; and the metier of the dancing master, the teacherstudent relationship, and the occasions and customs connected with social dance. Due to its sheer vastness and linguistic difficulties, the "Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister" has been largely ignored until recently, even by those who read German.

Volume I of "The Compleat Dancing Master" provides an overview of Taubert's magnum opus and a master key to some of his most important themes and ideas - in short, a mode of entry into Taubert's world - and includes a biographical sketch and essays on specific topics whose wider significance is discussed in the order of their presentation by Taubert. Volume II is an English translation of Taubert's entire, 1231-page text, including front and back matter - the first complete translation of this book in any language. "The Compleat Dancing Master" is addressed to dance historians, historical dancers, choreographers, musicologists, students of German eighteenth-century culture, and "dix-huitiemistes" of all types."