That means this October, I'll be heading out to Chicago to deliver my paper, which is the product of years studying the social dance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. My paper explores how upper-class individuals turned social dancing into a performance as a way to elevate their bodies above the ordinary day-to-day movements associated with lower classes. It draws upon the dance manuals of Antonio Cornazano, Guglielmo Ebreo, Thoinot Arbeau, and Fabritio Caroso, as well as evidence from conduct manuals, prints, paintings, and tapestries.
Noted dance historian Susan Manning is going to be there, so I better do a good job!
