Philadelphia: An Early American Dance City

Philadelphia was among the first American cities to organize a formal dancing assembly, to present the emerging art of romantic ballet, and to produce home-grown professional dancers, dancing masters, and dance-music composers. Who were these pioneers of Terpsichore and how did they bring dance to the early nineteenth-century Quaker City? Why did dance matter to Philadelphians in this age of political, cultural, and social ferment? This lecture, based on Brooks’s new book, Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia, will touch on these and other key themes in Philadelphia’s early and remarkably rich dance history.

● This event is being offered in a hybrid format. Both onsite and virtual tickets are available. All ticket reservations will include a Zoom link.

● Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia will be available for purchase onsite. Onsite tickets include admission to the talk as well as a document display of some of the original archival sources used in the speaker's research.

● We wish to provide complimentary tickets to current secondary, undergraduate, and graduate students. Please email us at programs@hsp.org and tell us where you are enrolled as a student and in what program.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania Members

Please register here.

About the Speaker:

Dance historian Lynn Matluck Brooks, Emerita Professor of Dance at Franklin & Marshall College, has published numerous books and articles on her research into dancing in Golden-Age Spain, eighteenth-century Netherlands, and the early United States. Formerly editor of Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle, and thinkingdance.net, she has held competitive research grants and presents regularly at international conferences. Brooks most recently edited Dance and Science in the Long Nineteenth Century and is author of Theatres of the Body: Dance and Discourse in Antebellum Philadelphia.

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, founded in 1824, is one of the nation’s largest archives of historical documents. We are proud to serve as Philadelphia’s Library of American History, with over 21 million manuscripts, books, and graphic images encompassing centuries of US history. Through educator workshops, research opportunities, public programs, and lectures throughout the year, we strive to make history relevant and exhilarating to all. For more information, visit hsp.org.