Orchesography

Some years ago, Thoinot Arbeau, a dancing-master of Paris, gave an orchesography, wherein all the steps and motions of the dance are written or noted down, as the sounds of a song are scored in music.

I do not deem it necessary, while dancing is so universally practiced, and conceded to be an agreeable and innocent diversion from the ordinary duties of life, to quote extracts in its favor from the Bible, ancient Greek authors, historical dictionaries, philosophers, poets, and celebrated men and women, nor even from the numerous works on dancing—consisting of essays, histories, choregraphies and orchesographies—now before me, many of them out of print, dating variously from the year 1700 to the present time.

The wellworn theme of bucolic self-importance is developed into the delightful portrait of Sir Harry Quickset; the self-absorption of the half-educated appears in the comical account of the dancing master who made the house shake while he studied 'orchesography' "; […]