Crompton's Campaign: The Professionalisation of Dance Pedagogy in Late Victorian England

Buckland, Theresa.
Dance Research, Volume 25, Number 1, Summer 2007, pp. 1-34 (Article)

Published by Edinburgh University Press

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http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dar/summary/v025/25.1buckland.html

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Cromptons Campaign: The Professionalisation of Dance Pedagogy in Late Victorian England

THERESA JILL BUCKLAND

In late Victorian England, dance teachers lacked national representation and means of communication among themselves to address professional concerns. By 1930, at least ten professional associations had emerged in Britain, some of which, such as the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), The British Association of Teachers and Dancing (BATD) and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), are still active today. Little has been written about the wider context of their foundation and of earlier initiatives to establish a professional body for dance pedagogy in England. A key gure in contemporaneous efforts to develop an infrastructure was Robert Morris Crompton (c.18451926), a London-based dancing master. Choreographer, writer, and founder-editor of the rst periodical devoted to dance in England ( Dancing, 18911893 ), Robert Crompton nally succeeded in establishing a national organisation that was devoted to both social and stage dancing in 1904. As the rst president of the ISTD, his visionary ideals of an annual technical congress, improvements in the status of the profession, and the future enhancement of dance as an art were placed on a rm institutional footing. Charlatan practitioners, declining standards in the ballroom, and unhelpful licensing laws, together with a scattered and highly individualised competitive profession, were challenges in the early 1890s that Crompton initially failed to overcome. Records of his dreams and anxieties in Dancing provide valuable insight into the problems that beset the teachers of the time. In tandem with other source material relating to the social context for dance of the period, consideration of the trials and aspirations that lay behind Cromptons campaign for a national professional association help to broaden understanding of the place of dance in late Victorian society in England. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the private dance sector in Britain witnessed the foundation of an unprecedented number of societies of dance teachers. These organisations represented the interests of their member practitioners and developed aims and objectives to advance the performance of dancing among the general public towards agreed national and international standards. By 1930 there were over ten associations in Britain with regional, national and in some cases international membership, all of which sought to place the teaching of dance on a more standardised professional basis.1 This widespread movement embraced social and theatrical forms and

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affected the teaching and learning experiences of both professional and amateur dancers. A number of these organisations remain operative today, notably the British Association of Teachers of Dancing (BATD), the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD). Although they have been the subject of in-house histories or referred to briey in larger works on the history of dance in England, these professional societies and, more specically, their precursors merit more detailed scholarly attention with respect to the context of their foundation.2 Firstly, these societies have made signicant contributions towards the enhancement of dance performance on both a national and international scale. Secondly, and from the perspective of this essay, the circumstances of their foundation provide important clues to the climate in which social dancing was viewed, practised and changed during a key period of modernity. The drive towards association occurred at a time when dance teachers had no national representation to protect their employment rights and were unable to exercise collective control over the artistic standards of their profession. To date, there has been little research into the activities of key individuals in the early years of the professionalisation of dance pedagogy in England. Such comparative neglect stems from the fragmentary nature of the historical record, the loss of archival material over the years and the existence of other priorities in dance historiography. One under researched individual who aspired to promote high standards of teaching and to create an infrastructure for the profession was a London-based dancing master, Robert Morris Crompton (c.18451926). His campaign to bring about such a vision has perhaps been overshadowed by that of P. J. S. Richardson (18751963) who in the twentieth century was a monumental gure in the initiation of now familiar organisations such as the Dancing Times, the RAD, and the British Dance Council.3 Without doubt, Richardson is himself long overdue for an in-depth evaluation of his remarkable and pervasive contribution to the institutionalisation of dance in England and beyond. This present article, however, focuses on the earlier gure of Crompton and on the context of dance teaching and practice in the 1890s, at a time when Richardson was honing his own skills as a social dancer. Robert Cromptons campaign of the early 1890s to establish a national body of professional experts in dance tuition initially failed, although he was to be more successful over a decade later with the foundation of the ISTD. In the process of his earlier lobbying, he helped to generate a sense of professionalism and community upon which others were to build. This was facilitated by his editorship of Dancing, a monthly periodical dedicated entirely to dance which fostered opportunities for professional debate and the transmission of past and present knowledge. Mine is not the rst attempt to return Crompton to the attention of dance historians. In 1984, Robert Sinclair Williams, a graduate student in dance at York University, Ontario, encountered Cromptons editorial legacy of Dancing. Williams acquired a full run of the journal and not only made it the subject of his masters dissertation but also had the vision and commitment to publish a facsimile and index.4 The 1890s volumes constitute the rst known English

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specialist periodical on dance, predating the rst series of the Dancing Times by three years. Through his re-publication, Williams made accessible a unique and fascinating resource on the dance culture of late Victorian England which, together with his own dissertation, clearly established Crompton as a pioneer in dance publishing and as a prominent dance activist for the national organisation of dance teaching. In 1992, Sheila Dickie drew on this facsimile edition of Dancing to extend existing knowledge on Crompton in his capacity as founding president of the Imperial Society of Dance Teachers as the ISTD was rst known. Her account of Cromptons crusade, as she aptly terms his unstinting work, is a welcome appreciation of his dedicated efforts.5 Beyond the work of Williams and Dickie, however and in spite of the availability of the reprint of Dancing in major dance libraries, its contents and their editor have rarely attracted the notice of dance historians. This is partially no doubt because of the periodicals focus on social dancing, a subject which has tended to be neglected in dance studies. Recent mainstream interest in the discipline of dance studies has also moved away from pre-twentieth century areas that require close archival investigation. A wider contextualisation of Cromptons work was understandably beyond the scope of the studies by Williams and Dickie. To redress this situation, this article aims to extend knowledge of the factors that drove Crompton in his campaign to professionalise dance pedagogy.
POTENTIAL MODELS FOR THE ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF DANCING

When compared with the ease of present day professional liaison, the teacher of dancing in Victorian England was a somewhat isolated gure. He or she may have owned large enough establishments to employ assistants and to take on articled teachers, especially in the larger towns and cities. But for many teachers their business was often a family run or single person affair with little regular opportunity for those in the provinces to meet. One exception to this, particularly for those who wished to stay abreast of seasonal fashions in social dancing and to acquire new dances popular in the theatre, was to take classes with more high prole teachers usually in London or Paris.6 The costs of tuition, travelling and accommodation meant that for many in the provinces this was not always a viable option, at least not on a frequent basis. Institutional structures, accessible literature on standards and developments in dance, together with opportunities to share problems and enthusiasms in their profession were at best limited. One earlier attempt to establish a national organisation in England was the Provident Society of Dancers and Teachers of Dancing of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland of 1844. Drawing together social and theatrical dance teachers, the Provident Societys primary purpose was to provide nancial support to its members should they become too ill or old to earn a livelihood. The Society also aimed to act as a forum for professional discussions, to establish agreement upon one uniform mode of teaching all Fashionable Dances [italics in original], to hold a register of members to facilitate employment, and to operate

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a free library of books on dancing.7 By the 1890s, or indeed earlier, the Society appears to have been forgotten. Across the Channel, the Socit Acadmique des Professeurs de LOpra based in Paris was founded in 1856. According to Georges Desrats somewhat acerbic description, this society suffered from internal jealousies and intrigues problems that were to prove the bane of several attempts to professionalise in England. It came to concentrate principally on the creation and acceptance of new social dances for fashionable circles but was disbanded as a result of the Franco-Prussian War of 187071.8 By the early 1890s, regional associations of dancing teachers were also operating in Germany and there was an abortive American led attempt to facilitate liaison between societies and individual dance teachers on an international scale.9 Likely models for Cromptons vision of a British association of dance teachers were the American Society of Teachers of Dancing (established in 1879 and incorporated in 1883) and the Scottish Association of Teachers of Dancing based in Glasgow in 1884.10 In the late 1880s, two high prole English dancing masters, Edward Scott (18521937) and Edward Humphrey (born 1839) became honorary members of American societies. Humphrey also advertised his own position as vice president of the Scottish Association.11 Although enhancing the reputation of these individual dancing masters, such international recognition through institutional afliation was beyond the reach of most dance teachers in England. What was needed was a national sense of community. To progress this ideal, it was essential to develop a geographically wide-ranging, frequent and comparatively cheap mode of communication. Cromptons periodical, Dancing, aimed to full this need.
THE RISE OF SPECIALIST DANCE PERIODICALS

At the end of the nineteenth century, the availability of cheaper paper, technological advances in printing and a reliable swift postal service made the foundation of specialist periodicals nancially viable. A classic feature of national institutions, the nineteenth century trade journal was a signicant adjunct to the institutionalisation and professionalisation of occupational activities. Not only did the number of trade journals increase in the late Victorian period, but there was also an explosion of new periodical titles. This was expedited by increasing levels of literacy and a rising middle class with greater leisure opportunities who sought to consume entertainment both within and outside the home.12 The earliest known dance periodical written in English emerged in North America. This was closely associated with the promotion of the profession of dance, rather than with a wider readership. In 1884, E. Woodworth Masters, president of the American National Association of Teachers of Dancing began to publish a monthly periodical entitled The Galop for members of his association.13 This was followed in the 1890s by new American periodicals, The Two-Step and The Director.14 Across the Atlantic, Crompton began regular publication of Dancing from his central London studio at 54 Berners Street, near Oxford Street from

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June 1891 until May 1893. In September 1894, two new English periodicals appeared: The Dancing Times and The Ballroom. Both were published from London dance studios, the former title from the Cavendish Rooms of editor Edward Humphrey The latter from 1901 was distributed from the Hanley Private Academy of Dancing, an establishment owned by Mr. H. R. Johnson and his wife in Finsbury Park.15 Humphrey and Johnson each organised highly successful series of balls and dances and through their monthly publications reached both the middle and lower upper class patrons of their academies, as well as a wider national readership of dance teachers and dance enthusiasts. Through correspondents, subscriptions and possibly complimentary copies, Dancing and the Dancing Times secured an international readership, reproducing news from their sister journals in America and from their German contemporary, Der Tanzlehrer. Dancing, however, was conceived on a more ambitious scale than its contemporaries. Notice of its forthcoming publication was made via a private circular issued to dance teachers in May 1891 and also through editorial notice and advertisement in The Period.16 The latter was a monthly publication, rst appearing in October 1890, which was devoted to society and London fashions. It evidently shared some of its organisational and proprietary personnel with those of Dancing.17 In February 1891 The Period carried an anonymous article on the current state of dance tuition calling for the establishment of a British Association of Dancing Preceptors and inviting correspondence on the proposal.18 Claims were made in the circular that the newly constituted Syndicate representing Dancing and Journalism would rectify the lamentable fact that the most ancient of arts, should occupy the anomalous position of being entirely destitute of any journalistic representation in this country. In its specic address to professors of dancing on one side of the document, the circular promised a publication that would act as the mouthpiece of their Profession. It would provide opportunity for professional debate and focused advertising, particularly for trades people who catered for dances. On its obverse, the circular took the form of a general notice, announcing the new periodical as a Newspaper exclusively devoted to the Terpsichorean Art, Physical Culture, Fashionable Entertainments, etc. and listing the intended scope beyond matters of specic relevance to dancing teachers alone. The content was to cover
biographical sketches of famous dancers of the past and present; anecdotes and historical episodes associated with dancing; graphic descriptions of dances in vogue at different periods in all parts of the world; accounts of celebrated ball and assembly rooms; and impartial discussion of all current topics concerning dancing or dancers.

Promising an editorial staff drawn from the ranks of established writers in the world of letters, dancing, and music, the circular sought contributions from dance teachers in the form of notices of professional events, newspaper cuttings and original material on dancing. Composers of dance music were also requested to forward their creations for review. It was proposed to designate correspondents from major towns in the United Kingdom who were to be appointed following selection on application, from leading teachers in the

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provinces. Further aeld, representatives would be established in Paris, Berlin, Milan, St. Petersburg, Vienna and New York, as well as in signicant colonial towns of the British Empire, to ensure that all parts of the fashionable world were kept informed of the latest developments in dancing. Priced at 2d, the nancing of the periodical was to be partially undertaken through costs for various sizes and numbers of advertisements, including those for ordinary trade and for professional trade cards of teachers.19 During its two-year existence, Dancing maintained much of its promised content and direction, especially the publication of articles that had
for their aim the promotion and encouragement of all efforts to extend the practice of dancing in all its branches, to elevate the tone and prestige of the art, both as a profession and recreation; to advocate the attainment of a high standard of technical instruction amongst teachers, and a better cultivation of the pastime by all pursuing it as a pleasure.20

But who was the editor of this new journal? The Civil Service Guardian atteringly characterised Robert Morris Crompton as a high priest of dancing and his efforts to establish the rst dance journal in England were met with appreciation.21 The tone and content of letters published in Dancings correspondence columns, together with the knowledge and condence aired in Cromptons editorials, suggest a well-known and committed teacher of dancing, rather than a parvenu who merely exploited a gap in the market.22 Yet Crompton and his reputation as a national leader of dance pedagogy in 1891 remain difcult for the historian to evaluate, particularly given the relative paucity of documentation on his rise to prominence.

ROBERT MORRIS CROMPTON (c.18451926): PIONEER AND PUBLICIST OF THE 1890s

Born in Bolton, Lancashire during the mid 1840s, Robert Morris Crompton appears to have had no family connections with the profession of dancing.23 At the time of his marriage in 1869, he was a compositor (typesetter), an occupation which he maintained until at least 1880 when his occupation became solely that of dance teacher.24 The reckoning of his jubilee suggests that he had already begun teaching dance while resident in Bolton in 1867.25 By 1873 the Cromptons had moved to Lambeth, South London, then a working class area with good commuting connections across the river to central London.26 Undoubtedly the wages for compositors were higher in the capital with more employment opportunities than in Bolton. One can only make suppositions, however, about Cromptons specic choice of residence, close to the pleasure gardens and music halls of Lambeth where a number of actors and dancers lived. Around 1887, Crompton published The New Lancers, a composition of entirely original gures which is the earliest known of his many dance arrangements.27 The following year his Private Academy of Dancing, Deportment, and Physical Exercises at 27 Mortimer Street is rst listed in London trade directories. He soon moved a few doors away to larger premises at 54 Berners

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Fig. 1. Robert Morris Crompton as pictured in the Dancing Times, second series, July 1911, p. 243. Photograph by kind permission of the Dancing Times.

Street where he remained until 1915.28 Initial evidence of his rising prole as a dancing teacher in London dates from 1889 when together with his pupils, he presented an entertainment which included various types of waltzing at the wellknown Portman Rooms, Baker Street.29 Robert Williams speculates that Cromptons knowledge of dance derived from an apprenticeship, employment or junior partnership with the nearby wellestablished school of Edward Humphrey.30 This suggestion remains a feasible option. Edward Humphreys London Academy of Dancing, founded in 1863, in Mortimer Street, attracted a well-heeled clientele for dances at its Cavendish Rooms. He and his chief instructor Walter E. Humphrey (his son born in 1866) undoubtedly knew Crompton since his choreographic and directing activities are mentioned on several occasions in the early Dancing Times. Indeed, Crompton and Humphrey may well have provided copy for one anothers periodicals, although such an idea awaits more detailed literary analysis; the identity of

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authorship in both journals is often masked by the typical Victorian convention of anonymity or use of pseudonyms. In 1891, Crompton claimed to have provided technical instruction to over 200 professors of dancing.31 Styling himself as the acknowledged authority on the art Crompton was not difdent about his abilities, as the rubric of the advertisement testies:
Guarantees the Highest Prociency in all Dances. The Valse in all its Variations and Eccentricities Fancy Dances, &c. Method Infallible Failure Impossible Private Lessons, Classes, &c.

Even given the tendency by Victorian dancing teachers to promise quick results in a few easy lessons, the claims in Cromptons advertisements in the Period and Dancing are quite different in size and tone from those published in the Times. His close connection with the Period may account for this. His self-proclaimed abilities aside, it is evident that by the early 1890s Crompton had acquired considerable status as a teacher of dancing, with connections to the upper middle classes of society and to the stage. A number of his former pupils were located in British colonies such as India, Burma and Australia. Others, who were possibly foreign diplomats or businessmen in China and Japan, similarly wrote eyewitness accounts of dancing for their teachers journal.32 Cromptons repertoire of dances and other types of codied movement provides valuable insight into late Victorian dance culture with its trajectories across recreation, theatrical entertainment, physical health and royal ceremony. In addition to tuition at his own academy, Crompton visited schools and families in the traditional manner of the well placed dancing master of the eighteenth century. He took on articled pupils (who were examined and certied presumably according to his own standards) and prepared ladies for their presentation at court, a custom that required specialist knowledge in ceremonial movement and deportment. This latter activity does not seem to have been part of the general teachers portfolio. This suggests that Crompton had acquired such knowledge from one of the high class teachers of deportment who might then have given him access to instructing members of fashionable society. He taught the regular repertoire of ballroom dances such as the waltz and quadrille as well as maintaining a steady invention of social dances. His choreographic ability and specialist knowledge were given particular visibility in his repertoire of fancy dances, historical dances, national dances, step dances and the fashionable skirt dances. Of particular note is Cromptons professed modern system of dancing. Crompton was not the rst or indeed the last to label his method of teaching as modern, nor indeed to claim a systematic method of instruction. He was credited with devising a system for teaching fancy dancing, a genre that became particularly popular on the stage and among middle and upper class women in

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the 1890s and early 1900s. Crompton was able to meet this demand with a mode of tuition that was specically designed for the amateur and for the dancer who intended to join the popular stage.33 Unfortunately, he never published the promised full textbook on his technical method and left instructions in his will for all his papers concerning the invention of dances to be destroyed. It is possible to glean a little about his methods from his Guide to Modern Dancing of 1891.34 Alongside brief descriptions of the usual dances, it contains basic information on preparatory exercises, deportment, and notations for two historical dances. Typically, Cromptons instructions on technique are founded on ballet and hint, together with his stage prole, beyond the rudimentary knowledge shared by Victorian social dance instructors. He may have taken lessons with Lon Espinosa in the early 1870s or else with British dancer and choreographer, John DAuban.35 The latter is comparatively feasible given that Crompton was employed on at least one occasion as DAubans replacement. The early 1890s was a period of intense activity for Crompton. He designed and opened new dancing rooms in South Kensington in addition to maintaining his Berners Street academy; planned a national congress of teachers of dancing to be held in May 1893; organised a popular series of Cinderella dances (dances that were nished by midnight) at the Portman Rooms and ran various annual balls.36 He directed his Renaissance Dance Troupe in exhibitions of historical dances; published his Guide to Modern Dancing in 1891; edited Dancing until its demise in May 1893; and made plans to effect and publish an English translation of Friedrich Albert Zorns 1887 book, Grammatik der Tanzkunst.37 In addition, he composed and published various dances for performance by the general public; took over ballet master John DAubans dance arrangements for The Nautch Girl at the Savoy Theatre when the latter was injured in 1891; and travelled to Glasgow in 1892 to teach one of Doyley Cartes companies.38 Positioning himself as national spokesperson for the profession through the vehicle of Dancing, Crompton regularly invited debate in his campaign to associate. Three principal yet interlinked areas of concern motivated dancing teachers to consider the benets of a national organisation: protection of their employment, elevation of their status within society and the advancement of dance as both art form and social accomplishment. These were by no means new concerns, having been recorded in England since at least the eighteenth century. Nonetheless, there were specic socio-economic and cultural factors of the 1880s and 1890s that gave renewed direction to these aims.

PROBLEMS FOR THE PROFESSION IN THE 1880s and 1890s Pedlars in Physical Culture

For the established dancing instructor, closure of ranks against unqualied teachers was of prime consideration. The anonymous author in The Period (who was more than likely Crompton himself ) complained, for example, of the

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unemployed footman who, without qualication, advertised himself as a teacher of dancing.39 This elicited a response from a new pupil who objected to the so-called professors who might have been excellent waiters or footmen, but certainly had no qualications to teach that which they themselves but imperfectly performed.40 Additional correspondence cited an established Scottish teacher whose chief rival was a stonemason. This new teacher not only operated in the same town but he also charged less for his lessons.41 Undercutting prices obviously devalued the dance teachers specialist knowledge and threatened their sought-after professional status. So too did the absence of lengthy study and the teaching of dance as an occasional activity, or alongside an individuals primary occupation. The Period argued that without a nationally recognised system of authentication, the general public often did not know from whom to take lessons or where to send their children. Recommendation by word of mouth might be reliable, the Period suggested, but often this might necessitate travelling long distances. Such an inconvenience could deter many of the public, leaving adults and children without adequate dance skills to participate in society. Initial communications on the need to associate cited the Royal Academy of Music and the more recently constituted Scottish Association of Teachers of Dancing. These were examples of organisations that had already implemented systems to examine and authenticate pedagogic credentials.42 The question, however, of who might exercise such authority in a British organisation of dance teachers remained vexed. In Cromptons estimation, instructors should train extensively with a respected tutor and then practise the craft for at least ten years before they could be regarded as thoroughly competent in their vocation.43 It was evident though that no one dance academy or individual would be accepted as indisputably superior. The issue of how to examine and certicate individuals demanded resolution by a national society, but in the early 1890s such a cohesive union did not exist. There was a further issue that threatened the dancing teachers livelihood in the 1890s. This was the one term system of dance tuition which was becoming increasingly common in private schools, replacing the former yearlong instruction.44 This cut in employment threatened standards of dancing and hit the teachers secure source of income. Modes of physical culture, such as organised games and gymnastics, continued to oust lessons in dancing. These new movement systems with different socio-cultural values came to dominate physical education, especially in boys public schools. In middle and lower-class schools, the drill sergeant was now more frequently employed. Such changes reect a complex and long developing situation in which changing concepts of the ideal healthy body, shifts in gender expectations, national identity, class, and politico-economic power became more pronounced.45 Dancing had been regarded as a vital social accomplishment for the upper echelons and aspiring middle classes in the eighteenth century. By the late Victorian period, its once largely uncontested centrality in the social life of the rich and powerful was notably in irreversible decline.

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Standards of Social Dancing in Fin de Sicle England

Before accepting complaints as irrefutable evidence of deterioration in dancing standards, it is important to consider the authorship, medium of documentation and socio-cultural context of these sources.46 At rst sight, the judgements of dancing teachers would appear to proffer reliable expert knowledge. In the case of long established members of the profession, these opinions might well reveal signicant historical comparative perspective. They might also conceal vested interests. Literature on social behaviour written by dancing masters often bemoaned contemporary failings in dancing and ballroom etiquette. It was a traditional strategy to draw attention to the authors own remedial services. Victorian dancing manuals frequently included advertisements for the authors lessons, together with assertions of superior knowledge and ability against those of other (typically unnamed) dancing teachers. Articles and letters on the subject in trade journals may be less indicative of the current state of performance than a rallying call to foster professional camaraderie. Letters from teachers in the national press may again have served to promote greater appreciation of the professions skills and knowledge; they do not necessarily offer unmediated eyewitness accounts of the contemporary ballroom. Other cries of concern came from members of the aristocracy and gentry. Such critics tended to be mothers, chaperones or older members of society who expressed alarm at the apparently excessive physical movement witnessed in the dancing. They also complained about a lack of courtesy shown to young women by their poorly schooled or negligent male partners. Complaints against the behaviour of a younger generation are by no means new and some allowance might be made for the effects of nostalgia. Yet perceptions of a decline in standards of dancing among the well to do during this period were not isolated. In 1891, the Daily Graphic published a series of articles and correspondence on the subject.47 In his commentary on some of this material, re-printed in Dancing, Crompton countered that there was abundant evidence of increased interest in dancing in recent years.48 The problem of declining standards appeared to him to be characteristic of fashionable society rather than a feature of dancing by the middling sort. To combat the charge of overcrowding in high society balls, Crompton suggested reforms such as hiring sufciently spacious halls rather than using private ballrooms at home. Lack of space to move was a problem frequently cited as a deterrent to dancing by many young men. Not surprisingly, given their future role as the countrys potential leaders, young upper class men and their declining participation in social dancing featured prominently in the press discussion. Crompton acceded that dancing teachers could have little control or inuence over the preferred habits of young men. The remedy, he suggested, was to raise the standard and as a consequence, the pleasure of dancing in the fashionable ballroom. Rather than bewailing or acquiescing with the idea of inevitable decline, Crompton called for reform and a renaissance within the profession:

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[L]et the interloping host of incapable teachers be drawn from the ranks of an artistic and honourable profession, and then we shall hear no more of the apathy of dancers and of the lachrymose lucubrations of our contemporarys correspondents on the decline of Dancing. the gradual suppression of incapable teachers and their replacement by duly qualied men, who, in uplifting the honour and efciency of the art, will be a power of resistless potency in enhancing the attractions of dancing; and, with this end in view, the best advice we can give to rising professors is to thoroughly qualify themselves under reliable professors.49

For most of the nineteenth century, the waltz and the quadrille had held sway in the ballroom. This state of affairs led to frequent, often derogatory comparison by the older generation between the dancing of their own youth and that of the present day.50 But the largely unchanging repertoire had resulted in boredom and revolt. Aiming to enliven the unvarying round of dances and balls, young people in high society circles introduced a number of fresh features. Chief among these was the new habit of what critics referred to as romping. This vigorous mode of dancing was believed by some to be an American introduction. Fingers of blame were pointed at the Washington Post, a couple dance performed to rousing music by John Philip Sousa (18541932). Rather than moving quietly and gracefully in the quadrilles, some dancers now stamped their steps in response to the invigorating music. Such lack of restraint in sound and movement was feared to be a style of moving among the lower classes.51 Other perceived excesses were tendencies to waltz rather than walk in the quadrilles and, more dangerously, to lift the women off their feet.52 Scenes in some ballrooms were reputedly chaotic as dancers, unfamiliar with the gures, were either dragged through their paces or caused collisions. The lack of regular classes in boys education compounded the problem as men were expected to lead their partners in these nineteenth century forms.53 If dancing as a fashionable essential was moving slowly towards the margins of aristocratic and political society, it was gaining ground as a leisure pursuit of the middle classes. By the 1890s, there were signs that the middle classes danced better than members of high society.54 But this strata encountered occasional difculties in their social dancing. These came to the fore as a consequence of the combined growth in leisure time and opportunity to travel. Such freedoms of time and movement had once been the sole prerogative of the upper classes. By virtue of their birth and wealth, high Society, comparatively small in numbers, continued to enjoy a measure of cultural homogeneity at the end of the nineteenth century, even if their ranks were being inltrated by the very rich and favoured famous. Frequently referred to as the Upper Ten Thousand or simply as the Upper Ten, members of these mostly aristocratic and landed families followed a highly ritualised and socially restricted seasonal round in which dancing, particularly as a means to secure a suitable marriage partner from within their ranks, was a regular pastime. Tuition in dancing for the London season and preparation for presentation at court was largely controlled by a few instructors in the capital who transmitted a narrow and highly con-

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servative repertoire of movement codes to an exclusive group of people who were in the habit of attending only private or semi-private dances.55 This was not the case for the lower middle classes who were more numerous and socially less cohesive. Dancing encounters for them were more likely to occur in public with relative strangers especially when on vacation. In the large hotel ballrooms of British coastal resorts such as Blackpool and Scarborough, which catered for the middle classes, a problem of compatibility on the dance oor was discernible. Although many of the middle class visitors dutifully attended dancing classes in their home localities, there was no nationally agreed way of performing new dances or gures.56 Consequently, holiday makers could not always dance together, making it difcult for the Master of Ceremonies to conduct a successful event. The need for some national or preferably international agreement on how to dance was becoming more pressing. Furthermore, in the metropolitan areas, particularly London, where there was arguably more agreement on the interpretation of dance gures, another difculty that was rarely experienced by the upper echelons of society, faced the middle classes. Quite simply, where could they afford to go to dance together and yet still be acting within the law?
The Licensing Laws

Since the mid eighteenth century, dancing as public entertainment had been subject to licensing laws, particularly in metropolitan areas where the population was concentrated. Unlicensed spaces for dancing were considered by the authorities to present potential danger to public order. Places where music, dancing and liquor were a principal feature might well attract the criminal and immoral members of society hence the mid-eighteenth century Disorderly Houses Act (Act 25 Geo. II, c. 36) which, as well as its attempt at political control, aimed to curb prostitution, drunkenness, gambling, sex outside marriage, theft, and the like. Its impact was particularly related to the cities of London and Westminster and their twenty mile environ.57 Private dances fell outside the jurisdiction of the Act. The rooms of dancing masters were also exempt from this law, the pupils being judged to constitute a private audience. It had long been customary for dancing teachers to organise balls and exhibitions by their pupils. The costs incurred and desire to attract new clientele sometimes occasioned academies to charge admission. This contravened their private status. Owing to somewhat haphazard prosecution, there grew up a mistaken belief in some quarters that dancing masters were totally exempt from the need to license their premises. Prosecution, however, increased when local authorities rather than the quarter sessions (the periodic courts held four times a year in each county or county borough) took over responsibility for the enforcement of music and dancing licences in 1888. By this time, a further factor had come into play. There had been growing concern over safety in buildings open to the public. A number of res and oor collapses necessitated the tightening of building laws. Ofcials were appointed to inspect all properties used for public gatherings to ensure compliance with re and structural

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regulations. This legislation forced a number of long established dancing masters to carry out costly repairs and changes to their academies before being granted licences to continue. But possession of a safe venue did not always guarantee that a licence would be granted.58 There was considerable confusion over legal interpretation. The custom of employing a Master of Ceremonies, who occasionally called out the gures or advised dancers in the course of an event, was erroneously believed by some dance hall owners to secure exemption.59 But such ad hoc instruction did not meet with the exact letter of the law and did not automatically bequeath private status on the premises. Such instruction was certainly not compatible with the professional dancing masters understanding. Anyone, Crompton complained, regardless of their knowledge or experience of dancing, could open a public dancing hall. An applicant need only satisfy the law with respect to public order and safety. Professional knowledge of how to teach dancing, on the other hand, was of no interest to the authorities. As wages rose and legislation on working hours released more leisure hours, demand for recreational dancing escalated among urban workers.60 In London, shop assistants and clerks keenly pursued dancing on several nights a week.61 Large public halls in which to congregate were for them essential. Unlike upper middle and aristocratic households, their homes did not possess large enough rooms in which to dance. The ruling class, on the other hand, with their private ballrooms, a great number of which were built during the second half of the nineteenth century,62 had no need to apply for permission to dance together. Nor indeed, according to Crompton, was there any prevarication by the authorities in granting licences for the public venues of the well-to-do, such as at St. Jamess Palace or the Hotel Mtropole. Instead, the hopes of those lower down the social scale rested on the fortunes of the entrepreneurial dancing master or dance hall owner. For him or her, the outlay of large sums of money to meet building specications was then followed by public and legal scrutiny on the moral worth of the venues potential clientele. Only when these hurdles were passed and the licence fee paid might an aspiring dance hall owner succeed in opening new premises. Furthermore, licences were annually subject to continuing compliance with the law. Such a speculative nancial and legal venture naturally disadvantaged the dance hall owner and his clientele. Such was the appetite for meeting this demand to dance, however, that the London County Council had to seek permission to process licence applications more frequently.63 Crompton was opposed to this system which privileged the rich to the disadvantage of the competent teacher and ordinary lover of dancing. His hope that a syndicate of capitalists of strength, standing and inuence might be formed to confront the licensing laws went unheeded.64 His call for a large and elegant public dancing establishment in London to be open throughout the dancing season at a popularly priced entrance fee was not to be answered until the opening of the rst palais de danse in England almost thirty years later.65 A number of dancing teachers faced prosecution as a result of the legislation. In tracing the development of the institutionalisation of dance

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pedagogy in England, the most signicant of these is the case against Thomas Alfred Upton and his dancing academy in Kentish Town Road, London. In April 1893, Crompton printed a report of Uptons summons by the London County Council for failure to acquire a licence for music and dancing.66 In the prosecution, it was revealed that the hall, which had a capacity for some three or four hundred people, lacked sufcient re exits. Moreover, access had been given to four people who paid at the door. Unfortunately for Upton, these entrants were inspectors of places of public entertainment. Under cross-examination, the inspectors admitted that correction on how to perform the dances had been given at the Cinderella dance. Their testimony was supported by defending witnesses who believed that the newcomers had joined the dance in good faith to take part in the practice of the advanced class. Further in Uptons defence was the fact that he had maintained the premises as a dancing academy with a sound moral reputation for over twenty-two years. On this occasion, the magistrate found in his favour. On later appeal, however, the London County Council was able to overturn the decision. The problems faced by Upton brought to a head the common need for London based dancing teachers to combine forces. The result the British Association of Teachers of Dancing was the rst long standing association of its kind in England.67 In spite of Cromptons public campaign to launch a professional association, there is no record of his presence at the initial meeting in 1892, or of his attendance at the later fund-raising ball. In Dancing, the ball is merely listed as the Dancing Academy Proprietors Ball under Arrangements for the Month. There is no subsequent report.68 Although Crompton undoubtedly knew many of the societys London based teachers, his name is missing from its early records and reminiscences. His own plans for the profession were, however, far more ambitious than those of this early London union. Crompton aspired to reform social dancing in order to elevate the art and the profession. He believed that a national congress of dancing teachers was needed to develop such a vision. Pre-empting such a gathering, however, was the American proposal to hold an international congress of dance teachers in London. His coverage of this initiative, beginning in the rst issue of June 1891, is fascinating. Not only do the reports provide valuable historical data on the pioneering work of American dance teacher E. Woodworth Masters,69 but also afford insights into Cromptons ambitions and his attitudes towards America.
THE PROPOSED WORLD CONGRESS

Cromptons initial critique of the plan to hold a world congress of dancing teachers was to launch an acrimonious debate between himself and its instigator.70 In 1891 Boston-based Woodworth Masters was President of the National Association of Teachers of Dancing of the United States and Canada and editor of their monthly journal, The Galop, founded some eight years previously.71 Not surprisingly he was alarmed that Cromptons opening welcome

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to his pioneering proposal had been quickly followed by sustained criticism. For his part Crompton frequently made it clear that he was not opposed to the principle but rather to the apparent lack of forethought and consultation. Cromptons three main bones of contention concerned rstly, the potential problems of understanding between different language users; secondly, the strong likelihood that delegates would wish to retain national preferences of style and modes of teaching rather than conform to a uniform standard; and thirdly, the problem that expenses were to be met by individual dancing teachers. He believed that the proposal for a world congress was a premature, if praiseworthy, venture. But he was clearly angered by the lack of prior discussion. From Woodworth Masterss perspective, it would have seemed reasonable to select London as a location in which to bring together representatives from the civilised world and where arrangements might be conducted in his native language. Somewhat late in the day, Crompton grudgingly accepted that the world congress would take place in London in July 1892. In autumn 1891, he endeavoured to prompt discussion and support among his English colleagues, even offering to organise a welcome committee and ball. He continued, however, to damn the venture and its initiator with faint praise. Cromptons barbs met with similarly ill-veiled contempt. Each man claimed the support of Friedrich Zorn (1816c.1903) an internationally recognised dancing master, as a highly esteemed senior colleague.72 And each jostled for precedence as the more innovative and experienced. Woodworth Masters declared his superiority to Crompton on the basis that he was the rst to found a dedicated dance journal, a publication to which Crompton dismissively referred as a monthly pamphlet, and our little contemporary. Crompton scored points through assertion of his longer literary and editorial experience, together with the more ambitious scale and international readership of Dancing. Furthermore, Crompton could not resist a derogatory comparison between the nations. Claiming prudence as a national trait that had led to Englands long-term stability, Crompton sneered at what appeared to him to be the over-ambitious haste of the American proposal.
[W]e see so much of our American cousins in London, and of their bombastic boasting, we may be excused for an always latent lack of faith in their pretensions and frequently inchoate schemes, which are never accorded credence here precipitately and without a considerable amount of caution.73

Cromptons commitment to national rather than international professionalisation at this stage was underpinned by a sincere belief in the distinctive styles of dancing and modes of teaching within each nation or ethnic group. In the course of his exchanges with Woodworth Masters, he had proposed a meeting of English, Colonial and American teachers rather than an international gathering on the grounds that this group of teachers might at least share the same national characteristics. This view was reected in Cromptons own repertoire of national dances. He was convinced that each nations dancing was

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shaped by such factors as climate, physique, history, irresistible fashion, and conrmed habits, a belief that led him to doubt the wisdom of seeking to impose international uniformity. In the same editorial headed Thank you for Nothing, Brother Jonathan! he castigates the Americans for their apparent failure to recognise national distinctions. He again chides them for their intended imposition of international uniformity and failure to consult their hosts. His use of Brother Jonathan to identify the Americans is perhaps not without intentional irony.74 The concept of Brother Jonathan predates that of Uncle Sam as the personication of the United States of America. Current during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the gure of Brother Jonathan was especially linked to New England. It denoted the honest common man of America, possessed of a somewhat independent and cantankerous spirit. More than that, Brother Jonathan stood for a different political conceptualisation of the United States than his later replacement. Whereas Uncle Sam came to stand for the one nation of the United States to be referred to in the singular, the concept of Brother Jonathan evoked an earlier political federation of states in the plural. These were yoked happily together, but each professed the potential for different political, legislative, religious, economic and cultural characteristics. The parallel with Cromptons own vision is clear. He preferred a heterogeneous association of national associations of dance teachers operating together for the common good of the profession. In the light of Cromptons continuing animosity towards his transatlantic rival, it remains possible that his choice of gallop below is not entirely random:
Pardon us, Brother Jonathan, we guess that even you must walk before you can gallop, and uniformity in social or any other dancing must become national before it can be universal.75

In an undiluted attack upon American economic policy, Crompton compared the imposition of the proposed World Congress with the unpopular American McKinley Tariff . This 1890 tariff on all foreign imports76 had resulted in large numbers of English workers being thrown out of employment. Crompton pointed the nger of accusation at the United States: poor times had caused falling attendance at dances and classes in Britain with consequential nancial difculties for the dancing teachers. In January 1892 news broke that the World Congress had been cancelled. Crompton was triumphant. He had always been convinced that the congress billed by Woodworth Masters as one of the most sublime achievements of the dancing fraternity that has ever been known in the worlds history 77 was doomed to collapse. He was not slow to reiterate his criticisms. Woodworth Masters retaliated by attributing most blame to the lack of support from a jealous English dancing profession. Twisting the knife in a manner so characteristic of the sniping exchanges between the two editors, he declared that he found at least one comfort in the collapse of his plans the fact that the World Congress proposal had stimulated the establishment of a British national association of dancing

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teachers. Crompton though had clear evidence to contradict this. Nonetheless, it must have seemed to Woodworth Masters and his co-patriots that Cromptons coverage had persistently placed obstacles in their path. Whether Crompton acted prudently or disingenuously, he was now at least free to further his own concerns. He dismissed the idea of taking on the abandoned world congress as one correspondent had suggested (or indeed as Woodworth Masters undoubtedly suspected).78 Instead, he devoted his time and effort towards founding a national association in Britain. He remained condent that professional institutionalisation at a national level was essential to future successful co-operation and that he himself possessed the necessary experience, ability and authority to undertake this task. His strategy was both novel and ambitious. Crompton planned not just a meeting of interested dance teachers, but a national congress to include the participation and exhibition of the cream of amateur dancers drawn from polite society across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland and showcased in the capital.
THE AMATEUR TERPSICHOREAN CONGRESS AND THE PROPOSED NATIONAL ASSOCIATION

In order to effect his vision, Crompton enlisted the support of the Westminster Orchestral Society (WOS), a prestigious organisation with royal and aristocratic patronage.79 In the seven years of its existence, the WOS had gained a strong reputation for the successful promotion of high quality classical music concerts and for the annual ball which was organised by its Soire Committee. In June 1892, Dancing published an initial communication from the Honorary Secretary of the Soire Committee announcing a Grand Fancy Dress Ball to be held the following May. Such early notice of an event signalled an extraordinary occasion on the horizon; most balls were normally advertised only a month or two in advance. Designed to attract attendance on a national scale, the ball promised the attendance of [o]ne of the nest Military Bands and a company of Highland Pipers in full regimentals. The ball was to be opened by a Grand Polonaise arranged by the Marshal-in-chief none other than Crompton himself. A further attraction was the election of a Queen of the Ball who would receive a commemorative scroll at the opening ceremony. The advertisement stated that tickets, priced two guineas for joint admission of a lady and gentleman, were to be strictly limited and would be available from January on receipt of properly-lled vouchers and a cheque. Such stipulation of prices and conditions of entry were typical of the organisation of public balls by a select committee who wished to restrict entry to those of a similar social class or above. Unusually though, the notice was addressed to professors of dancing and their pupils rather than to the general public. In a two-page spread in the subsequent issue of Dancing, Crompton declared that it would be possible to ascertain the true state of dancing in n de sicle Great Britain and to gather together the very best of the teaching profession.80 Considerable attention was paid to discussion on admission procedures

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to ensure that only people of high quality, both with respect to dancing competence and to social status, might participate. Stage dancers and the fast or vulgar sort were to be excluded, with prices similar to a London charity ball in order to deter the latter. Plans for the event aimed to inspire a sense of friendly competition among teachers and their pupils in order to achieve high standards of dancing. But Crompton also aimed to secure the establishment of his national association from such a gathering. Even, he dreamed, the building of a dedicated club or headquarters devoted to dance pedagogy. Sensitive to potential jealousies, on account of his leadership of such a grand event, he impressed upon his readers how fortunate it was that the WOS was the chief organiser. Free of any political, religious, theatrical or any individual afliation, he argued, the WOS had performed a similar task of support for British music and musicians. Fighting on behalf of the status of dance and its teachers, Crompton continuously cajoled and inspired his colleagues to support the initiative, devoting considerable space in his periodical to notication and correspondence on the forthcoming event. The Amateur Terpsichorean Congress was scheduled to take place during the rst week of May 1893 at Westminster Town Hall, the headquarters of the Society. Following reception of the delegates on the Tuesday, the next day was to be devoted to papers and discussion among the teachers with an orchestral concert featuring British music in the evening. The culmination of the three day event was the grand ball. There was considerable interest reported in Dancing in the autumn of 1892 as plans for accommodation and travel were discussed. Crompton had waxed lyrical about the opportunities for sightseeing by the amateur delegates, the potential friendships and indeed love matches to be made among them and above all, the potential for teachers to meet, update their knowledge and advance the cause of the profession. With aristocratic patronage and the promise of an appearance by the local MP at the opening,81 the preparations appeared secure. By April, however, problems of advance booking, exacerbated by unanticipated personal problems within the organising committee had emerged. Crompton again rallied members of the profession to support the venture. He promised that vouchers for tickets and further circulars with details would soon be available and urged teachers to register their interest in being represented on the General Committee. As the dates of the Congress drew nearer, the novelty of the enterprise even drew the notice of the general press. But it was to no avail. The Amateur Congress was postponed. Cromptons leader in May 1893, the very last issue of Dancing, promised a September date for its re-instatement. But the Congress never materialised. Crompton presented his reasons for the failure. The Soire Committee had been struck by four close bereavements (one affecting Crompton himself ) within the two months leading to the Congress. This had resulted in vital delays in communication. More unexpected, however, was the complaint from colleagues that the Congress had been timed to occur too close to the end of the annual dancing season, thus making it difcult for teachers to leave their livelihood to

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travel to London. In what was to be his nal editorial, Crompton complained that he had been at pains to air debate on the proposals for several months in advance. Such a potential clash should have been pointed out well beforehand. Given the subsequent failure by teachers and pupils to conrm earlier promises of attendance, he argued, the Soire Committee had been forced to re-schedule the event. By the end of the year, Cromptons vision of a Congress, of a professional society of dance teachers, and indeed of his journal had collapsed.

LIFE AFTER THE AMATEUR TERPSICHOREAN CONGRESS AND DANCING

In spite of these considerable setbacks to his campaign, Cromptons career as a teacher of social and fancy dancing and choreographer in the popular theatre continued to advance. In 1895 he arranged the dances in the pantomime Cinderella at Brighton and as the twentieth century opened, produced the dances for The Forty Thieves at Terrys Theatre, London and for The Messenger Boy at the Magyar Theatre, Budapest.82 Almost a decade later, he directed The Balkan Princess at the Kiraly Theatre in Budapest.83 But his idea of launching a professional society of dance teachers, dedicated to advancing the cause of his art had not been relinquished. In 1902, he established a committee with himself as chair to realise such a vision.84 Among the small circle were Charles DAlbert, a well-known London teacher and contributor to The Dancing Times and W. Lamb, a South London dancing master and once president of the British Association of Teachers of Dancing. The committee also included an accountant R. E. A. Hildersley as honorary secretary. Their meeting at the Horseshoe Hotel, Tottenham Court Road received a large audience, but it was not until July 1904 in the Medici Rooms of the Hotel Cecil on the Strand that the Imperial Society of Dance Teachers was formally established. Attended by almost two hundred dance teachers, this meeting elected Crompton as president and DAlbert as vice president. To the original committee, which became constituted as the rst Council, was added a more nationally representative membership. Crompton remained as President until 1909 when Cecil Taylor took over the position.85 The ISTD was not the only dance association to emerge in the rst decade of the twentieth century. Slightly earlier in its formation was the Manchester and Salford Association of Teachers of Dancing with James Finnegan of Manchester as president.86 In 1903 came the United Kingdom Alliance of Professional Teachers of Dancing and Kindred Arts (UKA) under the presidency of W. W. Rowe who had previous connections with the BATD.87 A South London union of dance teachers formed in 1907 became the National Association of Teachers of Dancing.88 Although comparable in some of their aims, what distinguished the ISTD was its wide focus on fancy, classical and society dances rather than on the social dancing of the middle and lower classes.89 Philip J. S. Richardson referred to the ISTD as undoubtedly the most

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Fig. 2. The Technical School of the Imperial Society of Dance Teachers, Leeds 1906. Robert Crompton is seated fourth from the left. Photograph by kind permission of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing.

important of the English Associations.90 With its annual technical schools or congresses, regular members journal, its committee structure and procedures, the pre-First World War Imperial Society demonstrated its ambition and inuence in more than just its encompassing title. In its founding aims and objectives, the voice of Crompton might be identied:
the elevation and advancement of the art of dancing, and the preservation of its ancient prestige and dignity.91

During his presidency of the ISTD, Crompton maintained his connections with continental Europe, teaching in Germany in 1907 and attending the First International Congress of Dance Teachers in Berlin in 1908 as the UK representative.92 Here he was elected Vice-President of the newly inaugurated International Union of Dancing Masters Societies to which the ISTD became afliated. In 1911, Crompton was invited by the American National Association of Masters of Dancing to spend a week presenting his methods of instruction at their annual congress and was later elected honorary member of the International Association of Teachers of Dancing of America.93 At home, Crompton maintained his inuential position as chief technical instructor at the ISTD annual congress until 1912 when he was succeeded by Frederick Browning.94 Subsequently, he advertised his own annual technical classes in the Dancing Times.95 There appears little evidence, however, to suggest any animosity in the break. Crompton attended an ISTD meeting of the Council in 1913 and proposed a toast to honorary members and guests at their annual banquet and ball the following year.96 Cromptons expertise and knowledge of the profession continued to be well

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regarded. In 1917, when Richardson promoted the idea of a Ballet Society, he both solicited and published the veteran teachers views. In offering a few caveats and observations, as well as support, Crompton commented that it was an object I have for years endeavoured to achieve.97 Despite the likely difculties in aiming to found such a society in war time, he was not averse to a meeting at which Rachel Verney, the proposer of the Ballet Society, might explain her ideas. Ultimately, though, he was not in favour of a society devoted exclusively to ballet. Current experience taught him that theatre managers preferred to hire dancers who could also perform international, character and eccentric dances. Here, Crompton was in tune with the continuing tradition of dance on the British stage and indeed in most theatres of the period. The First World War brought nancial hardship to Crompton, as it did to many social dance teachers. Many young men of social dancing age had gone to ght in France and there were restrictions on holding dances, particularly in metropolitan areas.98 In 1915, Crompton moved to new premises at 7 Percy Street, off Tottenham Court Road, London.99 In the following year, the occasion of his jubilee as a teacher of dancing saw a call in the Dancing Times to raise money for his assistance.100 Richardson, prompted by a letter from Charles DAlbert, solicited gifts on his behalf. In September 1917, Cromptons jubilee was marked by a dance held at the Carlton Assembly Rooms. Many of Cromptons former pupils and colleagues from the profession attended, and amid the social dancing, exhibitions of social and fancy dances were presented.101 Referring to Cromptons life-long work in the dancing world, Richardson handed him a cheque from the testimonial fund. When the list closed it amounted to over ninety eight pounds with contributions from among others, Philip J. S. Richardson, Cecil Taylor, and Adeline Gene (18781970) former prima ballerina of the Empire Theatre and dancer of international repute, generously donating ten guineas.102 By now Crompton was well in his seventies. In July 1920 he was present at the Inaugural Dinner of the Dancers Circle founded by Philip J. S. Richardson as a series of meetings for all teachers and performers of stage dancing, but in 1923 Crompton retired from teaching on medical recommendation.103 His academy continued to operate as the Crompton Academy, initially under his pupil Florence Chadeld, until at least 1933.104 On 8 December 1926, Robert Morris Crompton died at the age of eighty-one years at the home of his eldest daughter.105
CROMPTONS CAMPAIGN: AN EVALUATION

Despite the disappointing setbacks of the early 1890s, Cromptons record remains impressive. He conceptualised, launched and edited the rst British periodical dedicated entirely to dance; he was the rst to conduct a systematic campaign for the realisation of a British professionalised society of dance teachers; he developed a system of teaching for the amateur dancer, but which also answered the needs of the contemporary popular stage; and he developed institutional links for dance pedagogy on an international scale. His manifesto

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for dance, expressed through his plans for the Amateur Terpsichorean Congress in 1892, was far reaching and no doubt inuential, even if it was not implemented at the time. He promoted the historical study of dance and, following Zorns example, encouraged the development and study of symbolic notation systems.106 To exclude charlatans and thus protect the livelihood and standing of bona de teachers, he advocated a national system of teacher registration through examination. Such a professional society, with a building in London, where teachers might meet to exchange ideas, would also act as a friendly society to attend to the welfare of its members. In addition to his campaign for national association, Crompton also argued to provide for greater participation in dancing of those lower down the social scale. He was outspoken in his criticisms of the fashionable fast set and of the privileged rich. Nonetheless, he needed and believed in the patronage of polite society to advance his campaign to improve amateur dancing and thereby that of the social status of himself and colleagues. He also, in a similar manner to his peers, countered religious opposition to dancing, pockets of which re-appeared in the 1890s.107 Cromptons passionate defence of dancing as an art echoed the voices of other supportive writers on dance of the time and continued a defence of dancing that goes back at least to the early eighteenth century in England.108 A number of questions have arisen, however, from this study of Cromptons mission. Firstly, what experiences and conditions gave rise to Cromptons prominence as an agitator for professional association? Secondly, why over and above those reasons presented by Crompton at the time did his various proposals fail in the early 1890s? Thirdly and nally, why did he succeed in establishing a national association only a decade later? In addressing the rst question, it is impossible, given the lack of contemporary assessments of Crompton, to do anything more than speculate about his personality and potential leadership qualities. In terms of skill and experience, however, he was well positioned to press for the professional association of dance teachers and to edit the rst journal on dance in England. Before the launch of Dancing, he had been a compositor for at least eleven years, possibly more. Seven of these had been in London where he had undoubtedly made good connections in the printing and publishing trades. Interestingly, compositors were the rst in the mechanised labour market to organise trade unions.109 There is no direct evidence to demonstrate that Crompton drew on any unionised experiences as a compositor to advance his own campaign which sought to establish a professional society rather than a trade union. Nonetheless, Crompton was alert to the prevailing climate of trade unionism during the 1890s in his initial call to associate.110 He undoubtedly drew on his previous career for his role of editor, since employment as a compositor in the Victorian period required and nurtured a good standard of literacy. In the more interesting positions, it also presented potential for engaging with ideas and with writers who were often positioned higher in the social scale. Both the occupations of compositor and dancing master were stereotypically ones that promoted a heightened sense of aspirant gentility. The compositor often dressed as a gentleman rather than as an artisan

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and aimed to engage in gentlemanly pastimes. Few, however, in either occupation in the late Victorian period, genuinely rose to the envied ranks of the gentleman.111 Cromptons efforts must also be viewed in the wider frame of signicant developments in late Victorian society, specically that of the rise of professional society.112 Increasing industrialisation and urbanisation were driving factors in the shift away from the old world order where royalty and aristocracy held political, economic and cultural power. A new state of modernity was emerging in which more labile hierarchies were being created through (among other key developments) the personal and family acquisition of professional status. Characteristically, professional status now relied upon examination by occupational peers. Previously the socially aspirant dancing master and mistress had relied upon aristocratic patronage. This customary source was now tied to declining inuence as the aristocracy lost money and power and dynastic marriages were now rarely contracted in the Victorian ritual of the ballroom. Traditional society characterised by land ownership and patronage continued to be eroded by modern industrial society in which capital and competition were dominant forces.113 The discourse surrounding the occupation of dancing teacher in the 1890s illustrates a point of transition between these two worlds in Britain. In one respect, the move towards professionalisation discussed in Dancing and particularly by Crompton epitomises this new professional society which is based on human capital created by education and enhanced by strategies of closure, that is, the exclusion of the unqualied.114 On the other hand, the appeal to legitimation from polite society harks back to the older world of aristocratic patronage. The process parallels that of musicians in Britain, who similarly from the eighteenth century had sought to achieve a congruence of professional and aristocratic recognition.115 Not every dancing teacher of course enjoyed royal and aristocratic patronage but the point is that the Upper Ten Thousand, as cultural leaders, had sanctioned the practice of social dancing as a necessary accomplishment to enter Society.116 It was one of many attributes such as language, dress, manners and deportment that signied social rank.117 The Victorian preoccupation with etiquette, evident in the volume of publications written on the subject, is symptomatic of the British middle-class cult of gentility that continued well into the twentieth century.118 During the 1890s, to be able to dance well increasingly mattered less to the aristocrat than it did for the middleclass professional. The decade marks a watershed in a phenomenon that had been gathering speed since earlier in the century the decline of dancing as an essential part of aristocratic ritual and its transformation into a public leisure activity for the expanding middle classes. But it was a middle-class that largely continued to ape the earlier cultural capital of the aristocracy. For many teachers, dancing was more than recreation. An essential aspect in forming a national body was to strengthen recognition of dance as an art form. This was to be equal in status to music and the visual arts. A professionalised base with aristocratic patronage was essential to secure for dancing

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the restoration of its ancient prestige, and an acknowledgement of its title to a prominent place in the arts.119 Crompton was fully aware that aristocratic amateur participation in music had bestowed a mantle of gentility. He hoped for a similar social elevation of dance teachers. Of course there remained problems peculiar to dance in late Victorian dancing that hindered a parallel outcome. One was still the opposition in some social and religious quarters to the practice of dancing.120 Another problem was related to the profession of dance teaching itself. Discussion on establishing a national association had continued in the 1890s, though doubts about its feasibility remained, especially on account of likely internal dissension and schisms.121 Not all dance teachers wanted to unite, fearing an imposed uniformity of teaching that might threaten their own distinctive niche in the market. Nor did some wish to associate with teachers whose reputation they considered to be suspect.122 In late Victorian England, dance pedagogy continued to be a service that offered a curious blend of conservatism and fashion that fuelled and echoed the cultural lead of the ruling classes. Indeed, the hierarchical structure of the British class system was replicated within the profession. Teachers such as Louis DEgville (18521927) and Mrs Wordsworth (1843c.1930) for example, had guaranteed positions and reputations in instructing the families of royalty.123 For those with well secured positions already, either in the theatre or in aristocratic circles, there was no immediate threat to their livelihood. There can be little doubt that the absence of such respected teachers weakened the early attempts to organise as a professional body 124 and Crompton publicly worried about their silence. Seemingly uncomfortable about his self-appointed leadership of the venture, he pointed out that no representative body was yet in existence to elect a leader by more democratic means.125 But the absence of public support from high prole teachers was indicative of the notorious difculty involved in bringing together what was traditionally a highly individualised and hierarchical profession. Crompton may have begun his campaign with optimism when he believed that everybody has found out that unity means strength 126 but the traditions and structure of teaching dance during the early 1890s were not yet in sufcient danger to warrant such collegial action. Developments wider aeld though were to bring a change in attitude among many in the profession. In the opening years of the twentieth century, participation in social dancing was further affected by two signicant events: the Anglo-Boer War (18991902 ), which removed numbers of young men from the ballroom, and by the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901, which resulted in the cancellation of numerous balls and dances as society entered several months of mourning.127 Intimations of other changes in the social dance scene had occurred without the control of the dancing profession. The Cake Walk and less obviously the Boston harbingers of the forthcoming revolution in ballroom dancing were already known within some dance circles.128 In future, dance teachers would need to provide instruction in the radically new ways of dancing and to pronounce upon them with one voice. There was a danger that the social

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dancer might bypass the instruction of genuine dancing teachers entirely, preferring to learn purely by imitation or by visiting bogus teachers. Never before had Cromptons earlier observation that by the fees of the amateur is the professor maintained been more apposite.129 Late Victorian London trade directories reveal increased numbers of dance teachers catering for the rising popularity of dancing among the urban middle classes. It was a trend that was set to continue well into the early twentieth century. But there was still no means for the general public to distinguish between the respective merits of established teachers and quack newcomers. Again, Cromptons complaint about charlatan teachers rang true for the bona de teacher: not only are prots unfairly reduced, but pupils are spoiled and Art suffers.130 The problems faced by the dance teachers of the early 1890s had become more acute. Responses to why Cromptons campaign was successful a decade later must of necessity remain speculative, not least because there is no contemporaneous documentation. From what little is known, it would appear that the 1902 preparations were more streamlined and eschewed the earlier launch congress and ball. Nearly two years were to elapse before the inauguration of the new society in 1904 and a further year before the rst technical school was held.131 Such pacing suggests the planning of a committee that possessed in-depth knowledge of the profession, a shared vision, and perhaps nancial and organisational experience from the British Association of Teachers of Dancing. But above all, as evidenced by the founding of other professional organisations in that decade, the time was nally ripe. Patronage was now poised to emerge more systematically from the middle classes and the practitioners of dance pedagogy needed a modern professionalised structure to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. There seems to have been a realisation that most dance teachers could no longer operate without a move towards a more uniform system of teaching and the attainment of professionalised status. An authoritative national society, ideally led by practitioners of international reputation, was required to speak for the whole profession of dance pedagogy in Britain. Although the British Association of Teachers of Dancing and the newly founded United Kingdom Alliance were already in existence, it was to be the ISTD, led by Crompton for its rst ve years that rose to ll that role. The ISTD was distinguished from its contemporaries by its rapid and committed support from well-known teachers drawn from across the country and by its regional representation at national level from the outset. It was more than a disseminator of the latest social dances created by its members and more than a body dispensing legal advice and welfare to the profession. Its goal was to enhance excellence in all forms of dancing taught in the country. This distinctive vision which encompassed social and theatrical forms of dancing, much as Crompton himself did, owed much to the traditional repertoire of skills and knowledge of the dancing master. It also laid a future foundation for the various styles of dance that the ISTD was to continue to encompass through its later structure of branches within the society. For Crompton, good dancing remained essentially an art, regardless of where it was practised. He may have looked back in his

CROMPTONS CAMPAIGN

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rhetoric, as so many of his peers did, to a former golden age of the dancing master. But his actual achievement was to equip the practitioners of dance pedagogy in Britain with the institutional structures and objectives of a modern profession.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research for this article was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I would like to thank Mary Clarke and her staff at the ofces of the Dancing Times for their most generous help and support. I would also like to thank Mollie Webb, librarian of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing, for her great help and interest. My special thanks go to the Dancing Times and the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing for their kind permission to reproduce the photographs which accompany this article.
NOTES
1. Arnold Haskell and P. J. S. Richardson (eds), Whos Who in Dancing 1932, London: The Dancing Times, 1932, pp. 713. 2. See Bryan Isaac, The British Association of Teachers of Dancing. A Brief Review of One Hundred Years, Glasgow: The British Association of Teachers of Dancing, 1892. The RAD was initially known as the Association of Operatic Dancing of Great Britain, see http:/ /www.rad.org/01who/011 history.htm, accessed 7 August 2006. The ISTD was rst constituted as the Imperial Society of Dance Teachers, see 100 Years of Dance, A History of the ISTD Dance Examinations Board, London: ISTD Dance Examinations Board, 2004. 3. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; Beth Genn, P. J. S. Richardson and the Birth of the British Ballet. SDHS Proceedings 5th Annual Conference 1982, pp. 94101; Ofcial Board of Ballroom Dancing (OBBD) formed 1929, British Council of Ballroom Dancing 1985, British Dance Council 1996, www.british-dance-council.org, accessed 7 August 2006. 4. The full story of Williamss recovery and publication of Dancing can be found in his The Rediscovery and Reprinting of Dancing, a Lost Nineteenth-Century Dance Periodical, MFA thesis, Graduate Programme in Dance, York University, North York, Ontario, April 1990. My thanks to Selma Odom for bringing the availability of this thesis to my attention. The facsimile is reprinted as Dancing: A Journal Devoted to the Terpsichorean Art, Physical Culture and Fashionable Entertainments. 18911893, rpt. Toronto: Press of Terpsichore, 1984. Another copy of the original is held by the British Library at Colindale. 5. Sheila Dickie, The Origins of the ISTD, Dance Now, vol. 1, no. 1, Spring 1992, pp. 5861. 6. For more detail on dance teachers in late Victorian England, particularly in London, see chapter 2 of my forthcoming book, Dance and High Society: Fashionable Bodies in England, 18701920 (Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, forthcoming). 7. Laws of the Provident Society of Dancers and Teachers of Dancing of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1844, p. 28. Copy in British Library, London. For the scope and development of friendly societies see P. H. J. H. Gosden, The Friendly Societies in England, 18151875, Manchester: Manchester University Press. It should be noted that state old age pensions were a later innovation. 8. Georges Desrat, Dictionnaire de la Danse. Histoire, Thorique, Practique et Bibliographique Depuis LOrigine de la Danse Jusqu Nos Jours. Paris: Librairies-Imprimeries Runies, 1895. See also Eugene Giraudet, Trait de la Danse. Tome II. Grammaire de la Danse et du Bon Ton travers le Monde et les Sicles depuis le Singe jusqu Nos Jours. Paris: E. Giraudet, 1900, pp. 56970.

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THERESA JILL BUCKLAND

9. American Society of Teachers of Dancing, Arnold Haskell and P. J. S. Richardson, Whos Who in Dancing 1932, p. 15; Scottish Association of Dancing, John Service, letter to The Period, 16 May 1891, p. 108, reprinted in Dancing, 8 June 1891, p. 6. 10. On this American initiative, see below. For German associations, see Dancing, 8 June, 1891, p. 8; Congress of Dancing Masters at Berlin, Dancing, July 1892, pp. 1601; Belle Harding, A Worlds Congress of Dancing Masters, letter to the editor, Dancing, September 1892, pp. 1901. Note that Desrat adds Membre de lAcadmie Internationale des Professeurs Etrangers on the title page of his Dictionnaire de la Danse. Further work needs to be undertaken on professional associations and international liaison of dance teachers during the late nineteenth century. 11. Edward Scott, Hon. Member of National Association of Teachers of Dancing in America in Grace and Folly or Dancing and Dancers, London: Ward and Downey, 1887, p. 93; Hon. Vice-Pres. Scottish Association Teachers Dancing; Hon. Mem. National Association Dancing Masters, U.S.A., Times, 10 October 1889, p. 2. 12. On the growth in periodical literature see Don Vann, J. and VanArsdel, Rosemary T. (eds), Victorian Periodicals and Victorian Society, Toronto: University of Toronto Press and Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1994. On opportunities for middle class leisure see John Lowerson, Sport and The English Middle Classes, 18701914, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993. 13. The Galop: Devoted to Dancing, Music, Etiquette and Dress. This monthly professional journal was published in Boston, beginning in 1884 and ceasing publication with volume 17 in 1900 (World Catalogue, available online from the Newspaper Library of the British Library, Colindale, London). I have not been able to trace any surviving copies of The Galop of the 1880s. The American National Association of Teachers of Dancing was succeeded by the American National Association of Masters of Dancing of the United States and Canada as its publisher. 14. The Two Step began publication as a monthly (typically with the summer months of July August excepted) in New York in 1894. The Director was published for one year, 1897 1898, by dancing master Melvin Ballou Gilbert in Portland, Maine (facsimile, New York: Dance Horizons [1975]). 15. The dates of the rst series of the Dancing Times are listed in the British Union Catalogue of Periodicals as 18941909 but I have only been able to consult extant copies from 1894 1902. The more familiar second series, under Philip J. S. Richardsons editorship, dates from 1910 when Richardson, together with publisher T. M. Middleton, purchased the title from the Humphreys. The distribution of The Ball Room by the Johnsons is advertised in the Dancing Times, September 1901. Copies of the rst series of the Dancing Times and The Ball Room, held by the British Library, appear to have been lost during twentieth-century wartime bombing. 16. The circular is reproduced as Appendix 1 of the facsimile of Dancing. The new series of The Period and Kensington Circular: A Newspaper for Society, Finance and Literature ran from November 1890 to April 1893 and was owned by a Printing and Publishing Syndicate. The only surviving run is held in the British Library but its initial issues of 1890 are in too poor a condition to be consulted at present. 17. Note that the journal ceased publication around the same time as Dancing. For further discussion on the possible identities of the syndicate see Williams, The Re-discovery and Re-printing, pp. 335. 18. Intended British Association of Dancing Preceptors, p. 61. 19. This is roughly equivalent in todays prices to 61p (0.9 Euros/0.77 US$). 20. Appendix 1, facsimile of Dancing. 21. Reproduced in Dancing, June 1891, p. 4. The reprinting of articles published elsewhere was quite typical of the Victorian press. For reference to letters of appreciation see Dancing, June 1891, p. 1 and August 1891, p. 27. In view of the lack of clarity of page numbering in the originals, noted by Williams in his preface (p. ix) to Dancing, all page references in this article relate to the facsimile. 22. Williams reaches a similar conclusion to my own independently made assessment of Cromptons reputation, see Williams, The Rediscovery and Reprinting, p. 42.

CROMPTONS CAMPAIGN

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23. Different estimates of Cromptons age at death, coupled with the popularity of Robert Crompton as a name in Bolton during the 1840s, has made it difcult to trace his birth certicate with any surety. 24. Marriage certicate 22 February 1869: Robert Morris Crompton of Crown St. Boltonle-Moors to Ann Winward of Church Wharf, Bolton-le-Moors. Cromptons father, Edward, is recorded here as a confectioner, his father-in-law a painter. The exact identity of his mother has been difcult to trace since her surname recorded in the 1891 census differs from his. Crompton consistently gives his occupation as compositor on the birth certicates of his four children born between 1873 and 1878. The birth certicates of his twins, born in 1880, record his occupation as Teacher of Dancing. 25. Dancing Times, second series, September 1917, p. 377. 26. Birth certicate of rst child, Amy Crompton. Crompton and his familys rst London home was 44 Crozier Street, Lambeth. From 1877 until at least 1881 (birth certicates and 1881 Census) they were living at 15 Claylands Road, Kennington and were possibly here throughout 1880. During this critical time of his career shift, Cromptons movements have proved elusive. None of the family appears listed in the London area in the 1891 census, but were living in more well-to-do semi-detached property at 30 Henning Street, Battersea from at least 1895. It is unclear if Crompton was also resident there. He may have been living at his London Studio; the 1901 Census records his wife and surviving/unmarried children at 30 Henning Street and Crompton living alone with Mary Hardman, his 79-year-old mother, at 9 Silwood Terrace, Kensington. 27. Warwick Williams, The New Lancers. Invented by R. M. Crompton and specially adapted to the Music of My Sweetheart as Arranged by Warwick Williams [1887], copy in British Library. 28. London trades directories and phone books for the period, London Metropolitan Archives and BT Phone Books Archive 18801924, available on line from http:/ /www. ancestry.co.uk. There are occasional changes of number of the property in the various records. Notwithstanding possible typographical errors, it should be remembered that the numbering of properties in London went through various revisions in the nineteenth century 29. Philip J. S. Richardson saw a programme for this event when he visited Cromptons academy in 1911, Dancing Times, second series, November 1911, p. 36. 30. Williams, The Rediscovery and Reprinting, pp. 412. 31. The Period, 16 May 1891, p. iii. This advertisement was repeated in the same journal and in Dancing. 32. Dancing, November 1891, pp. 678; March 1892, p. 113; April 1892, p. 125; May 1892, p. 137; June 1892, p. 153. 33. See his obituary notice, Dancing Times, second series, January 1927, p. 567. 34. R. M. Crompton, Theory and Practice of Modern Dancing, London: Willcocks and Co. [1891]. The cover is entitled Cromptons Guide to Modern Dancing (copy in personal possession). The edition in the British Library notes that it is the fourth thousand. Both are small pocket books, priced at one shilling. Theory and Practice was likely to have been published early in 1891 as Crompton claims only to have instructed 120 teachers of dancing and his academys address is given as 27 Mortimer Street. The number of technically instructed professors had risen to 250 by October that same year (Dancing, October 1891, p. 50) 35. Lon Espinosa was teaching in London in the early 1870s and accepted adults for tuition as the experience of Edward Scott testies. See my article, Edward Scott: The Last of the English Dancing Masters, Dance Research, 21, no. 2, 2003, pp. 335 (pp. 78). For information on John DAubans career see Kelley Pierce Byrd, John DAuban: Phantom of the Light Opera, doctoral thesis, Texas Womans University, Denton, Texas, USA, 1999. I am grateful to Jane Pritchard for pointing out this reference. 36. A Model Dancing Academy, reprinted from The Period in Dancing, December 1892, p. 225; see discussion below on the Amateur Congress; for notices of Cinderella dances and balls see, for example, Dancing, September 1891, p. 48, March 1892, p. 118, March 1893, p. 259, the Penny Illustrated Paper, 4 October 1893, p. 10. 37. For advertisements for the Renaissance Dance Troupe see, for example, Times 4 October

30

THERESA JILL BUCKLAND

38.

39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51.

52.

53.

1890, p. 8 and Dancing 8 June 1891, p. 1. On the proposed translation of Zorns book, see Dancing August 1892, p. 178 (E. Woodworth Masters had already begun to serialise an English translation in The Galop, noted by Zorn in letter to Dancing September 1891, p. 46). During this period, Crompton composed Iolanthe (see Dancing, June 1891, p. 4) and the Menuet Valse (given as 1892 by Charles DAlbert who also lists but does not date Cromptons Menuet Imperial in his Technical Encyclopaedia of the Theory and Practice of The Art of Dancing, London, 1913). Crompton also published directions on dancing the Waltz Cotillon (Dancing, June 1891, p. 1). Cromptons lists of various exhibition dances can be seen in advertisements in Dancing, as for example June 1891, p. 1 and May 1893, p. 277. Choreographic work for amateur theatricals and the like is noted in the same journal, March 1892, p. 116 and May 1892, p. 143. In his advert for May 1893 (p. 277) he claimed to have instructed 300 professors of dancing. For Cromptons substitution for DAuban see the notice from the Era reprinted in Dancing, August 1891, p. 28. The notice of Cromptons work in Glasgow is in Dancing February 1892, p. 100. Intended British Association of Dancing Preceptors, The Period, 15 February 1891, p. 61. Novice, The Period, 16 March 1891, p. 81. Leading Scottish teacher quoted in correspondence from John Service, solicitor, Glasgow and secretary of the SATD, 16 May 1891, p. 108, reprinted in Dancing, June 1891, p. 6. Ibid.; Giovanni Vinio, Exeter Academy of Dancing, The Period, 16 May 1891, p. 108, also reprinted in Dancing, June 1891, pp. 67. Dancing, November 1891, p. 71. See Cromptons editorial in Dancing, July 1891, pp. 1516. These themes are treated more extensively in my forthcoming monograph, Dance and High Society. Gretchen Schneider has made similar warnings in Using Nineteenth-Century American Social Dance Manuals, Dance Research Journal, 14, nos 1 and 2, 198182, pp. 3942. Daily Graphic, 15 August 1891, p. 4; 18 August 1891, p. 4; 21 August 1891, p. 13 ; 22 August 1891, p. 4; 26 August 1891, p. 4 ; 28 August 1891, p. 11; 25 September 1891, p. 1, p. 5; 28 September 1891, p. 12. The reprints are in Dancing, October 1891, pp. 567; Cromptons comments are in the leader of the same issue, pp. 512. Dancing, October 1891, p. 52. A typical example is the chapter on Balls: Hostesses and Guests by the Countess of Ancaster in Lilly Grove, Dancing, London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1895, pp. 41119. The literature of the day abounds with references to this romping, rollicking, or degenerate new style but Edward Scott was a particularly outspoken critic against the behaviour he perceived as vulgar; see his letters to the Dancing Times, rst series, December 1894, pp. 67 and The Morning Post, 17 January 1899 as well as his chapter on Style in Dancing. Renement and Vulgarity in his Dancing as an Art and Pastime, London: George Bell and Sons, 1892, pp. 12935. The fashion for twisting at corners and romping was already in evidence by the late 1880s, see Alice Marriott, Dancing as An Art: With Remarks on Physical Education and Hygienic Exercises (Nottingham: H. Gibson and Co. [1888], copy in Bodleian Library), p. 6. The fashion for waltzing at the corners in the quadrilles was a regular topic for discussion. See Dancing Times, rst series, December 1894, p. 7, February 1895, p. 8, March 1895, p. 8. South London dancing master William Lamb deplored the habit, see his Everybodys Ball-Room Guide, London: W. R. Russell and Co. [1896], p. 23 (copy in personal possession]. North London dancing master W. W. Rowe was more pragmatic about the fashion see his Dancing As It Is, London: The Author [1890] (copy in Bodleian Library), pp. 45. The reasons for these changes in performance as well as the hugely important issue of dance and gender during this period will be discussed more fully in Dance and High Society.

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54. This observation is made by Philip J. S. Richardson in his The Social Dances of the Nineteenth Century, London: Herbert Jenkins, 1963, p. 117. An entertaining eyewitness contrast is made between the dances of the upper classes in their private ballrooms and those of the lower middle/upper working classes at their public dances by Robert Machray, The Night Side of London rst published London: John Macqueen, 1902, reprinted London: Bibliophile Books, 1984, pp. 728 and pp. 1529. This development is considered in greater detail in my Dance and High Society. 55. For the socio-cultural make-up and rituals of the social strata known as Society or the Upper Ten, see Leonore Davidoff, The Best Circles. Society, Etiquette and The Season, London: Croom Helm, 1973 and Pamela Horn, High Society. The English Social Elite 18801914, Stroud, Gloucestershire: London, 1992. 56. See the letter by James Follitt in Dancing, June 1892, p. 155. 57. For a thorough account of the laws to which dancing masters were subject and on which the following account is based see Clarence Hamlyn, A Manual of Theatrical Law Containing Chapters on Theatrical Licensing, Music and Dancing Generally, and Dramatic Copyright with an Appendix of all the Lord Chamberlains forms and those of the County Council for Licensing, London: Waterlow and Sons, 1891 (copy in British Library). My discussion focuses on the cities of London and Westminster. 58. From its inception, the Dancing Times also carried regular reports and advice on the state of licensing. Some long-standing respected dancing masters seemed to believe that they were exempt yet were successfully prosecuted by the London County Council, as in the case of Francis Piaggio, Times 1 January 1894, p. 3 and February 1895, p. 14. The Humphreys were re-licensed to continue at their Cavendish Rooms, Dancing Times, rst series, May 1895, p .4. Earlier, a dancing master lower down the social scale in northern England was not so lucky and lost his livelihood; see Dancing, May 1892, p. 143. 59. See Dancing, March 1892, p. 119. 60. See Hugh Cunningham, Leisure and Culture, in F. M. L. Thompson (ed.), The Cambridge Social History of Britain 17501950, vol. 2: People and their Environment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. 61. See Machray, Night Side of London, p. 155. 62. For illustrations and architectural detail of the ballrooms of the London rich, see E. Beresford Chancellor, The Private Palaces of London Past and Present, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trbner & Co., 1908, pp. 260 (Grosvenor House), pp. 313, 323 (Norfolk House), pp. 365, 3678 (Wimbourne House) and David Pearce, Londons Mansions. The Palatial Houses of the Nobility, London: B. T. Batsford, 1986, p. 154 (Devonshire House), p. 167, p. 185, p. 199 (Stafford House), p. 209 (Wimbourne House), p. 213. On the houses of the newly moneyed see J. Mordaunt Crook, The Rise of the Nouveaux Riches. Style and Status in Victorian and Edwardian Architecture. London: John Murray, 1999. 63. Dancing, December 1891, p. 76. 64. Ibid., June 1892, p. 148. 65. On the palais de danse see Philip J. S. Richardson, A History of English Ballroom Dancing (191045), London: Herbert Jenkins, 1946, pp. 1434. 66. Dancing, April 1893, p. 269. 67. On the early years of the BATD see Bryan Isaacs, A Brief Review, pp. 3, 78, 3551. See also Dancing Times, second series, January 1914, p. 273, December 1915, p. 116. The BATDs rst convention was held in 1896, see Dancing Times, rst series, September 1896, p. 5. 68. Dancing, November 1892, p. 210. 69. Also erroneously referred to in Dancing as E. Woodward Masters. As Williams notes in his preface to Dancing (p. ix), the proof reading is of poor quality in the original. 70. Dancing, June 1891, p. 8. The ensuing reportage, exchanges between the two men and related correspondence can be followed in the same journal, August 1891, p. 29; September 1891, pp. 3940; October 1891, pp. 53, 58; December 1891, pp. 756, 7980; January 1892, p. 95: February 1892, pp. 99, 1056; March 1892, pp. 11112, 11819; June 1892, p. 149 and November 1892, p. 213. 71. E. Woodworth Masters is deserving of further investigation. He remained as secretary

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THERESA JILL BUCKLAND

72.

73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78.

79. 80.

81. 82.

83. 84. 85. 86. 87.

of this organisation until his retirement from the role in 1896 after 15 years. At the same time, The Galop was rejected as the ofcial organ (referred to as the American National Association of Masters of Dancing). There is a hint of acrimony in these developments. See Dancing Times, rst series, October 1892, p. 2 and December 1896, p. 1. See the entry on Zorn in the International Encyclopedia of Dancing edited by Selma Jeanne Cohen, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. His theoretical treatise appeared in German, Russian and English. Further details on his life appear in Dancing, August 1892, p. 175. Dancing, December 1891, pp. 756. On this earlier mainly literary gure, see Winifred Morgan, An American Icon: Brother Jonathan and American Identity, Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1988. Dancing, July 1892, p. 160. This tariff was passed in 1890 and supported by future president William McKinley. Britain took a leading role in advocating free trade in the second half of the nineteenth century. Quoted in Dancing, October 1891, p. 58. Dancing, March 1892, pp. 112, 118. Interestingly Crompton barred Americans from attending his own national Amateur Terpsichorean Congress. Masters in an article reprinted in Dancing November 1892, p. 213 suggested that the exclusion stemmed from fear that Americans might take all the prizes in the proposed dance competitions. Dancing, June 1892, p. 155. Dancing, July 1892, pp. 1645. Subsequent coverage can be found in the same journal, August 1892, pp. 1712, 1767; September 1892, pp. 1889; October 1892, pp. 195, 2001; January 1893, p. 236; March 1893, p. 255; April 1893, p. 267; and May 1893, pp. 27980, 286. This was William Burdett-Coutts, Unionist MP for Westminster and noted philanthropist (Oxford Dictionary of Biography). Dancing Times, rst series January 1895, p. 4; ibid., January 1901, pp. 56; programme for The Thirty Thieves, Terrys Theatre, 1 January and 9 February 1901, Theatre Museum, London. Crompton also continued to arrange and publish social dances: Mignon 1895 (Dancing Times, rst series, December 1895, p. 5; Tintivy 1896 (Dancing Times, rst series, October 1896, p. 10); Arcadian (1897, copy in British Library); Tom-Tit 1898 (DAlbert, Technical Encyclopaedia); The New Hunt Dance 1899 (copy in British Library); Bal-Bouree, 1900, Dancing Times, rst series, February 1900, p. 1; The Kaiser Pas de Quatre 1901 (copy in British Library); The Regal 1901 ( Jacs. Koopman, Dans-Academie van Jacs. Koopman, Rotterdam: Jacs. Koopman [1901], addendum, copy in New York Public Library); Empire Waltz 1906 (copy in British Library); The Adeline [1909] (copy in British Library); La Forlana 1914 (copy in British Library); The Rondine 1916 (Dancing Times, second series, September 1916, pp. 337, 339); Giraudet, Trait de la Danse also includes a number of Cromptons dances. The Dance Journal (published for members of the ISTD from 1907) September 1910, p. 6. See 100 Years of Dance, p. 8. Unfortunately, on account of the Societys frequent relocation of its ofces during the early years, few documents from this initial period have survived. See also Dancing Times, second series, May 1918, pp. 245, 247. 100 Years of Dance, p. 27. Haskell and Richardson, Whos Who in Dancing 1932, p. 11. James Finnigan, a Manchester-based teacher, was the inventor of The Military Two-Step and was MC at Blackpools Empress Rooms for many years (Richardson, A History, p. 28). See Dancing Times, second series, November 1914, p. 54. W. W. Rowe and his wife established the North London Private Academy of Dancing, Holloway, North London in 1878 (Dancing, August 1891, p. 25). He wrote Dancing As It Is, was auditor of the BATD in 1892 and president of the BATD in 1893 (A Brief Review, p. 7.). The societys own website gives the founding date as 1902 when twenty-one teachers met at Finnigans studio in Manchester. They elected Rowe the following year as their president at their rst annual convention. See http:/ /www.ukadance.co.uk (accessed 7 October 2006).

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88.

89.

90. 91. 92. 93.

94. 95. 96. 97. 98. 99. 100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109. 110. 111.

Interestingly, this society of teachers covered dance, opera and sword dancing. The UKA has no archive for public access. Dancing Times, second series, March 1914, p. 525. It was rst established as the South London Southern Association of Teachers of Dancing but changed its title to National in 1909 better to reect its membership. The societys own published record of its history puts its inauguration date as 1906, see http:/ /www.natd.org.uk (accessed 7 October 2006). The NATD has no public archive for access. This characterisation was made by the general secretary of the NATD in a letter sent to Philip J.S. Richardson and published in the Dancing Times, second series, March 1914, p. 379. Certainly the details listed about the annual technical schools in the ISTDs own journal would support such an assessment. Dancing Times, second series, April 1914, p. 482. 100 Years of Dance, p. 8. The Dance Journal, September 1907, pp. 78; Dancing Times, second series, July 1911, p. 242. The Dance Journal, May 1911, p. 2. According to his obituary notice, Crompton was reputedly offered 100 per week to teach in America for a month in 1915. Dancing Times, second series, January 1927, p. 567. There is no record of him teaching in America, although he was elected an honorary member of the International Association of Teachers of Dancing in America, Dance Journal, September 1911, p. 2. The Dance Journal, May, 1912, p. 1. Dancing Times, second series, September 1913, p. 737; June 1916, p. 265; June 1917, pp. 3389. The Dance Journal, July 1913, p. 1 and the Dancing Times, second series, August 1914, p. 667. Dancing Times, second series, May 1917, pp. 2434. Crompton also contributed an article to the Dancing Times in which he voiced his antagonism to the so-called natural dancing, see July 1917, pp. 3389. See Richardson, History of Ballroom Dancing, pp. 312. BT Phone Books Archive 18801924. Cromptons removal is also noted in the Dancing Times, second series, June 1915, p. 320. Dancing Times, second series, September 1917, p. 377. Ibid., October 1917, p. 27. Dancing Times, second series, November 1917, p. 56, December 1917, p. 120. Ibid, August 1920, p. 85; ibid., October 1923, p. 39. BT Phone Books Archive 18801924, The Crompton Academy is listed as 34 Percy Street from 192933. Death certicate. There seems to have been some estrangement from his other surviving children who are not mentioned in his will. This document was written from his residence at 56 Finsbury Park Road, London in March 1921. Dancing, November 1891, pp. 634; July 1892, pp. 1645. Ibid., April 1892, pp. 1234. Notably the Reverend Stewart Headlam and Edward Scott. Many apologists for dance look back to the work of John Weaver, see Richard Ralph, The Life and Works of John Weaver (London: Dance Books, 1985), pp. 13943. See Patrick Duffy, The Skilled Compositor, 18501914: An Aristocrat Among Working Men (Aldershot, Hampshire and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2000). The Period, February 1891, p. 61. See Duffy, The Skilled Compositor. Dancing masters who did achieve or at least claimed the status of gentleman in the eighteenth century include John Weaver (see Ralph, Life and Works of John Weaver, p. 116) and Stephen Philpot (see John Caffyn, Sussex Schools in the 18th Century. Schooling Provision, Schoolteachers and Scholars, Lewes, Sussex: Sussex Record Society, 1998, p. 327). In the nineteenth century this status was claimed by Charles Wright, the father of Mrs. Wordsworth but I have discovered few contenders for the title among the census records for London and the south-east of England. The fact that the death rate was higher among compositors than that of coal miners puts Cromptons

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112.

113. 114. 115. 116. 117. 118.

119. 120. 121. 122. 123.

124. 125. 126. 127. 128.

129. 130. 131.

transition into his full-time career as a dancing master into perspective. Compare the career move of Edward Scott from lithographer to dancing master in my Edward Scott, p. 8. The following discussion owes much to Harold Perkin, The Rise of Professional Society. England Since 1880 (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), chapters 14 and F. M. L. Thompson, The Rise of Respectable Society. A Social History of Britain, 18301900, London: Fontana, 1988. See David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (Basingstoke and Oxford: Papermac, 1996) and G. R. Searle, A New England? Peace and War 18861918 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004), chapters 3 and 6. Perkin, The Rise of Professional Society, p. 2. On the comparable journey towards professionalisation and respectability in the music profession, see Cyril Ehrlich, The Music Profession in Britain since the Eighteenth Century. A Social History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), chapter vi. As an example of dancing teacher dissatisfaction with the lack of appropriate leadership in such matters in the 1890s, see Dancing, June 1891, p. 3. This consideration owes much to Norbert Elias, The Civilising Process, rst published 1939 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000) and Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of Taste, rst published 1979 (London: Routledge, 1984). On the Victorian cult of gentility see Andrew St. George, The Descent of Manners. Etiquette, Rules and the Victorians (London: Chatto and Windus, 1993) and Linda Young, MiddleClass Culture in the Nineteenth Century. America, Australia and Britain (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003). Dancing, June 1891, p. 3. Opposition to dancing on moral and religious grounds has a long history in British society. For an overview prior to the nineteenth century, see Richard Ralph, The Life and Works of John Weaver, pp. 11721. Dancing Times, rst series, September 1896, p. 5. Debate in America was used in an attempt to stimulate further discussion among readers of the journal, see October 1896, p. 1 and December 1896, p. 1. Dancing, September 1891, p. 46; Dancing Times rst series September 1896, p. 5. For Louis DEgville see Alan DEgville, Adventures in Safety, London: Sampson Low [1937] and entries on the renowned DEgville family of dancers and teachers in the International Encyclopedia of Dancing; for Mrs. Wordsworth, see Olive Ripman, Wordy Dancing Times, second series July 1974, p. 581 and Steps in Time, ibid., August 1974, p. 639. I am grateful to Mollie Webb for drawing these articles on Mrs. Wordsworth to my attention. Dancing Times, rst series, February 1900, pp. 89. Dancing, August 1892, p. 176 The Period, 15 February 1891, p. 61. The impact is noted in Dancing Times, rst series, January 1900, p. 1. The Cake Walk is the rst social dance drawn directly from African American culture and performed to ragtime music to become popular in England, although its fashion was brief. See Richardson, Social Dances, p. 120. The Boston enjoyed a longer life among upper middle class society and was distinguished from the Victorian fast rotary style of waltzing, in particular, through its use of parallel feet, a slower turn, hip to hip hold of the dancing couple, and linear progression across the space. See Richardson, History of English Ballroom Dancing, pp. 1921. Dancing July 1892, p. 165. Ibid., August 1892, p. 176. 100 Years of Dance, p. 22.