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Abstract
In the early eighteenth century the celebration of royal birthdays was the most important and best-attended event in the English court calendar, and this tradition was to continue during the Hanoverian era. A number of ballroom dances still survive which were created by the dancing-master Anthony L’Abbé for the birthdays of members of the Hanoverian royal family between 1715 and 1733, and published for sale to dancing-masters and members of the public wishing to study the latest royal birthday dances. This essay looks firstly at the royal birthday celebrations and the place of dance within them — what was danced, where, and by whom; secondly at Anthony L’Abbé himself—who he was, what his connections with the English court were; and thirdly, sets the extant ballroom dances by L’Abbé against that court context to explore the differences of intent between L’Abbé’s birthday dances and his ‘dances for the year’,