The Duchess, Cummings and the Butchers’ Daughters
Town and Country are two states or concepts which largely remain clearly distinct but often, indeed, overlap. In the 18th century, although dancing and entertainments were placed firmly within each context they in fact inhabited a spectrum bridging these two worlds. This paper focuses upon the 18th-century Kingdom of Ireland examining the flexible medium in which dances, performers and audiences occupied these two spheres and the way in which the social calendar followed by the Dublin aristocracy permitted genres and styles which were, in many cases, transposable. As the aristocracy moved back and forth between their town houses and country estates we will explore the way in which members of these two realms were affected. Actors and dancers, who were often dependent upon the aristocracy, also found their lives impacted by a relation
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ship which inevitably held benefits for those patrons. Contemporary accounts will be used to demonstrate this phenomenon in the lives of notable theatrical artists working in 18th-century Dublin, contributing to a greater un
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derstanding of the relationship between audiences and performers at this time. Mary Collins is an Early Dance specialist whose research and teaching approach has inspired musicians to look afresh at the dance music that is at the heart of the baroque repertoire bringing, in turn, a fresh perspective on the great composers of the baroque era. A practitioner and researcher, Mary has worked with music, dance, theatre and TV companies as adviser, choreographer, dancer and actress, touring regu
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larly to give master-classes, concerts, lecture-recitals and workshops. Mary teaches at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music in London and receives frequent invitations from conservatoires throughout Europe. Summer Course faculty positions include the Ringve International Summer Course in Norway, Aestas Musica in Croa
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tia, Austria Barokakademie and, in 2022, the Cambridge Early Music Summer Course (Ba
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roque week). Through collaboration with many of the world’s leading exponents of early music, Mary’s radical impact upon historical performance-practice is widely acknowledged. Joanna Jarvis is a senior lecturer in Design for Performance at Birmingham City Uni
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versity, and is a practicing designer and maker of period costume for Renaissance and Baroque dance. She has a long working relationship with the researcher and choreog
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rapher Mary Collins. Joanna’s doctoral thesis examined the relationship between cos
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tume for dance on the stage, the women in the audience, and fashionable dress, in the late 18th century. The 24th Oxford Dance Symposium ‘Dancing in Town and Country’ New College, Oxford, 19 & 20 April 2022