Local Traditions, National Controversies: Dance on Trial in a Time of Transition
(Emily Winerock)

Changes in religious doctrine and observance in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England led to an abrupt and contested reconsideration of the acceptability of dancing in various contexts, from church sponsorship of morris dancers to dancing on Sunday to any form of ‘mixt dancing’ of men and women together. The lack of consensus about what constituted a ‘use’ versus an ‘abuse’ led to widespread disagreement over whether long-established dance traditions needed to be altered or eliminated. This presentation examines conflicting views of dance in two court cases: a 1599 fornication case from Great Coxwell, Berkshire and a 1613 Star Chamber case against participants in the annual Whitsun Revel in Rangeworthy, Gloucestershire. In Great Coxwell, a defendant causes an uproar in the court by arguing that skipping church services to go dancing was more reprehensible than having a child out of wedlock. In Rangeworthy, disagreement about the acceptability of the parish’s dance-filled Whitsuntide traditions led to verbal and physical confrontations between the constable and parishioners. These cases illuminate the tensions between those who saw dancing as both a symbol of, and the means for committing, sin and sacrilege, and those who understood dancing as a performance of, and contributor to, neighbourliness and community cohesion.

 

Emily Winerock, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Emily Winerock teaches dance history at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. Her research focuses on the practices and politics of dance in 16th- and 17th-century England. She received her B.A. from Princeton University, M.A. from the University of Sussex, and Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. Her publications include essays in Journal of the Northern Renaissance (2025), Shakespeare Jahrbuch (2021), Borrowers and Lenders (2017), and Dance Chronicle (2016), as well as chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Dance (2019), The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition (2018), Playthings in Early Modernity (2017), The Sacralization of Space and Behavior in the Early Modern World (2015), and Worth and Repute: Valuing Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (2011). She also serves as co-chair of the Early Dance Working Group of the Dance Studies Association, co-director of the Shakespeare and Dance Project, and copy editor for the journal Dance Chronicle.