Hanquin & Columbinichee; Dancing, Punch, and Muffins at Poplar Grove and the Dancers of the Juvenile Drama

The starting point of this paper is a strange set of prints which have recently come to light and which have clear dance connections - their history connects to the ballet in the London Theatres in the period 1810s and 1820s, a period which is often underrated, falling as it does between the neo-classical ballets of earlier years and the undoubted glories of the 'Romantic Ballet'. But do the dances and dancers of this period deserve their relative obscurity?