into English at the beginning of the 18th century by Mr Weaver and Mr Essex. A separate sign was used for each position, bend, rising, step, leap, cabriole, falling, slide, turn, and cadence ; and the track of the dance was repre sented by curved lines. These were sometimes printed along with the music. Such diagrams as still exist are interesting -enough as visible history of extinct dances ; but as a practical aid in teaching or composing dances chorography was entirely thrown aside as too cumbrous by Noverre, and by Sir John Gallini, the proprietor of the ancient concert rooms in Hanover Square, who wrote on this subject in 1726. The difficulty of the process may be seen by applying it to so comparatively simple a dance as the Scotch reel, which contains no less than 10 single steps the ceum-siubhaile (forward step), the ceuni-coisiche (footing step), the leum-trasd (cross-spring, French, sissonne), the siabadh-trasd (chasing step), the aiseag-trasd (cross-passes), the fosgladh (open step), the cuartag (turn ing step), and others. As may be seen from the technical language of dancing (assemblee, jetce, chassee, glissada, contre-danse, contre-temps, coupe, entrechat, bourree, gaillarde, fleuret, &c.) it has undoubtedly been brought to greatest perfection in France. But space does not permit us to explain the steps or to describe the picturesque forms
of dance which are still practised in town and country.One sentence in conclusion upon dancing or musical gymnastics as an important branch of physical education. Long ago Locke pointed out {Education, sees. 67, 196) that the effects of dancing are not confined to the body ; it gives to children, he says, not mere outward gracefulness of motion, but manly thoughts and a becoming confidence. Only lately, however, has the advantage been recognized of making gymnastics attractive by connecting it with what Homer calls " the sweetest and most perfect of human en joyments." The practical principle against heavy weights and intense monotonous exertion of particular muscles is thus stated by Mr Smiles (Physical Education, p. 148) : " The greatest benefit is derived from that exercise which calls into action the greatest number of muscles, and in which the action of these is intermitted at the shortest in tervals." It required only one further step to see how, if light and changing movements were desirable, music would prove a powerful stimulus to gymnastics. It touches the play-impulse, and substitutes a spontaneous flow of energy for the mechanical effort of the will. The force of imitation or contagion, one of the most valuable forces in education, is also much increased by the state of exhilaration into which dancing puts the system. This idea was embodied by Froebel in his Kindergarten plan, and has been developed by Jahn and Schreber in Germany, by Dio Lowis in the United States, and by Ling (the author of the Swedish Cure Movement} in Sweden. It is of course not merely on aesthetic grounds (though these are sufficient) that musical gymnastics, as distinguished from the process of manufacturing a shell of muscle, are invaluable, They are, according to the testimony of all competent persons, indispensable to complete development and general health.
For the old division of the Ars Gymnastica iiopalocstrica and sal- tatoria, and of the latter iniocubistica, sphceristica, and orchestica, see the learned work of Hieronymus Mercurialis, De arte Gymnastica, Amsterdam, 1572. Cubistic was the art of throwing somersaults, and is described minutely by Tuccaro in his Trois Dialogues, Paris, 1599. Sphajristic included several complex games at hall and tilting the Greek KwpvKos, and the Roman trigonal/is and paganica. Orchestic, divided by Plutarch into latio, figura, and indicatio, was really imitative dancing, the " silent poetry " of Simonides. The importance of the x fl P ovo ^ a or hand-movement is indicated by Ovid : " Si vox est, canta ; si mollia brachia, salta." For further information as to modern dancing, see Rameau s Le Maitre a Danser, 1726, and Querlon s Le Triomjihe des Graces, 1774. In the earlier part of this article considerable use has been made of the Esthetic Products" of Mr Spencer s Sociological Tables.
DANCE, the name of a family group important in English art, at least in architecture, during the latter half of the last century.
George Dance, senior, the father of the two others, was bora early in the century, at a time when neither Guthic nor classic architecture was properly studied in Eng land, the former being looked upon simply as a barbarism, and the latter known only through the Italian. On hi;* return from the continent, after a short period of study, he obtained the appointment of architect to the city of London, and immediately had a chance of distinction by building the Mansion-house. This was in 1739, and his plans gave great satisfaction. It was followed by the churches of St Botolph, Aldgate, and St Leonard, Shoreditch, and by other city works of some importance. He continued to practise till his death, January 11, 1768, at which time the former excise offices, Broad Street, were approaching completion, and his son George was installed in his place, both his sons being already in considerable repute. Of these the eldest was
Nathaniel Dance, born in 1734, wholef t his father s office and was placed under Hayman, the genre-historical painter. Here he showed great quickness, but principally in portraits, and after a few years he left that painter and went abroad. His residence in Italy, which was prolonged for many years, brought him in contact with Angelica Kauffmann, among whose devoted admirers he long remained, at first following her about in all her changes of abode, travelling as she did under the protection of her loving old father. From Italy he sent home historical pictures occasionally, of the quasi- classic sort, Dido and Jfineas in 17G3, for example. These he- continued to produce all through his career, Paris and Helen (1771), Orpheus lamenting Eurydice (1774), Death of Mark Antony (1776), all of which have long ago utterly disappeared. He was settled in London in 1768, as his name appears among the founders of the Royal Academy, and must have been in the country some time, as he exhibits two full-length portraits of George III. and the queen in the first exhibition of that body. These are now existing at Up Park, Sussex ; and in the Greenwich Hospital picture gallery is a portrait of Captain Cook by him. Many of his pictures are known in family collections throughout the country, and some of his works, now lost sight of, are known by engravings. At the age of fifty-six, when he had himself made a large fortune, he married a widow possessing a jointure of 15,000 a year, entirely dropt his profession, and became a member of Parliament, representing East Griustead. He even changed his name, and when made a baronet in 1800 he appeared as Sir N. D. Holland. He now lived at Carnborough House, near Winchester, his only practice in art being occasional landscapes in the manner of the day ; and at that place he died suddenly on the 15th October 1811, leaving a private fortune of 200,000. His brother,
was bom in 1740, and remained his father s pupil, succeed ing him as city surveyor and architect in 1768. At that time the office, then as now somewhat lucrative, was purchasable, and it was in that way he acquired the appoint ment. He was then only twenty-eight, and had spent several years abroad, most of the time with his brother in Italy, yet he had already distinguished himself by designs for public works, particularly that for Blackfriars Bridge. He was associated with his brother in the foundation of the Royal Academy, and. living till 1825, he was for a number of years the last survivor of the original members. Knowing every one connected with art in London for a long period, he must have outlived a great many changes in taste, and seen many novelties pass away in all the
divisions of art. In his own sphere the revolution from