Margaret McGowan is the Ferdinand Magellan of Renaissance dance scholarship. Her prolific bibliography has uncovered early ballet performances through recreations of libretti, accompanying contemporary criticism, and rare scenographic imagery. Among her best-known contributions are her textual accompaniments to the reprinting of the libretto from le Balet comique (Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1982) and the exhibition catalog for The Court Ballet of Louis XIII (Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986). Her published doctoral thesis from 1964, L'art du Ballet de Cour en France, 1581–1643, is widely regarded as the first important work in sixteenth century dance scholarship.
L'art du Ballet de Cour en France prioritized analysis onto the early dance performances that occurred in the sixteenth century courts of the Valois Dynasty, led by Francois I, Henri II, the Regency of Catherine de Medicis, Charles IX, and Henri III. Through investigation of these early dance pieces, McGowan identified the wealth of European performance practice models, scenographic methods, and the roles of the producing agent, performers, and spectators for this genre. Dance in the Renaissance is a revised, revamped, and reconfigured treatment of this work—an exclamation point at the end of McGowan's name as the expert on this field. Unlike L'art du Ballet de Cour, this text is written in English, making it instantly accessible to a wider audience. The primary topic in Dance in the Renaissance is McGowan's comfort zone—court ballet during the Valois dynasty—but also introduces coexisting popular and low art forms alongside the aristocratic models. McGowan's chapters on non-aristocratic performance are her most thrilling and further liberate scholarship about sixteenth century performance.
Through its clear writing style and imagery, the work is also both an entry-point for scholars unfamiliar with McGowan's formidable impact on dance scholarship and a restructuring of her past published works into a more unified, chronologically relevant format. In several instances, it provides more expansive clarification into her previous writing and allows her the opportunity to represent the century divorced from her past individually specific texts (such as museum exhibition catalogues), so as to fully represent her own context for this vibrant historical period in dance.
McGowan is an archivist's scholar. Her strength is in clearly establishing a context obtained through examinations of visual artifacts, contemporary accounts, journal entries, and court documents. To date, little of her work has been invested in dance theory, though readers will be surprised to see more analysis of sixteenth century dance discourse and practices in this work. Her research acknowledges the social role of dancing, insights into dance training, and a more meta-view of the sixteenth century performer and audience than in previous writings. Through her inclusions of all of the varied dance forms of the century, Dance in the Renaissance is highly successful in defining terminology in the naming and classifications of dance genres in the sixteenth century.
As in McGowan's previous texts, there are extended descriptions of scenographic methods (scenery, costume, and props) that accompany her recounting of the dance performances throughout the period. This writing is supported with a multitude of rare imagery of actual dancing (public and private balls, country fairs) in addition to a myriad of scenic and costume renderings. Chapter 3 of the book presents a comprehensive view into the logistics of staging ballet, including a rare look into the actual expenses, production schedules/rehearsals, and information related to musical accompaniment. At the end of the book, McGowan attaches an invaluable inventory of records of the official balls, mascarades, and ballets that were sponsored by the French court. Dance in the Renaissance also introduces new information on the varied forms of dance performance: balls, mascarades, ballets, and carrousels (horse ballets). Chapter 4 offers a fascinating short lesson on the Pyrrhic, an oft-described dance of the period (122). Unlike most texts dealing with the sixteenth century, McGowan includes a vast amount of information surrounding country dancing/regional styles alongside her descriptions of courtly performance.
McGowan's work has been defined by a strict adherence to primary source material. Commendably—and frustratingly—her work has rarely engaged in discourse with competing dance scholarship on the sixteenth century. Yet despite her own confession in the Introduction that “the picture of Renaissance dancing must remain tantalizingly incomplete” (8), the reader is actually given so much information of the particulars of court dance, and kept unaware of any discrepancies therein, that one wonders what has been left out. In her examinations of Valois court ballet—especially in the vagaries of authorship attribution—McGowan's own theories, largely unmodified since the publication of L'art du Ballet de Cour en France, read as finalized narration on the events. Could her position as the leading scholar in the field have afforded her silence in interacting with the disparate other theories, cementing her own perspectives as rote?
Fifty years have passed since the publication of L'art du Ballet de Cour en France, and generations of scholars have used McGowan's work as a starting point for forging new inroads into this period. The subsequent works of Roy Strong and Robert Knecht—as well as later contributions by many others—have since refocused attention onto the Valois court performances as more blatant vehicles for political metaphor than McGowan envisioned in her 1964 work. Additionally, many scholars now laud the shadowy Catherine de Medici as one of the primary figures of authorship for the entire ballet movement, unlike McGowan's assessment of Catherine as a mere dance enthusiast, a point that she continues in this current work (151). For readers who are aware of the discourse inspired by L'art du Ballet de Cour en France, McGowan's Dance in the Renaissance does at times seem to have been written in a vacuum. Though readers may respect her attempts to keep sixteenth century scholarship limited to sixteenth century artifacts—excusing her detachment from the modern scholarship that she directly inspired—it is impossible to read her descriptions of Valois spectacle in 2011 without hearing opposing scholarship respond to her original accounts. Because the author does not refute or support these post-1964 writings, the book's chapters on le ballet de cour (ironically, her sweet spot) do not age well as an expansive critical record of the genre. Though the work stands alone as an example of best practice historical scholarship, it has none of the critical sparkle and intrigue to which this specific enclave of dance has grown accustomed. As a raving disciple of McGowan's oeuvre, I was thrilled at the possibility of her casting the final words on the ongoing critical debates surrounding the sixteenth century in France. Alas, none are to be found.
However, most readers will not crave this level of discourse, and the highly informative archival information, vast imagery, and concise narration of Dance in the Renaissance undeniably form a highly innovative, important work. It is a necessary acquisition for any reader of performance history.
