The Calligraphy of Dance 8. Silver Thread c.1630

Evoking court culture, through dance and portraiture, Tessa Traeger’s “Calligraphy of Dance” series responds to the Montagu Music Collection and family portraits at the stately home of Boughton House, the Northamptonshire residence of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry. Traeger focusses on two books of choreography published between 1706 and 1720 which record dance using the calligraphic system known as Beauchamp-Feuillet notation. She combines this arcane calligraphy with expressive details from the 17th and 18th century family portraits at Boughton. Such complex choreographies would have been familiar at Greenwich, where dance was an important part of court culture, Queen’s House architect Inigo Jones notably designing costumes for masked balls in the Great Hall.

Object Details

ID: ZBA7527
Type: Photograph
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Traeger, Tessa
Date made: 2014
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Copyright of Tessa Traeger
Measurements: Display: 594 mm x 420 mm