To Watch, or not to Watch: Johann Heinrich Hassel's Tirade against Ballet Dancing (1691)

In 1691 Christian Ernst, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, asked his Pietist court chaplain Johann Heinrich Hassel (1640-1706) to write some guidelines on whether ballet dancing, and watching it, was compatible with good Christian conduct. Hassel's reply was clear-cut: In his Gutachten vom Ballet-Tantzen (Advisory Opinion on Ballet Dancing), he firmly denounces dancing in general and ballet dancing in particular. By drawing on a number of biblical, patristic and theological anti-dance sources to support his statement, he repeats mostly well-known lines of argument against customary dancing ('weltübliches Tanzen’). However, he goes well beyond the habitual anti-dance arguments in his own conclusions and comments on 'world-shaped dancing' ('weltförmiges Tanzen’, i.e. ballet and theatre dance). This paper examines the genesis and Pietist framework of Hassel's Advisory Opinion, sheds light on the double standards that were applied to dance practices of different social strata, and it reveals the margrave's unexpected reaction. 

About the author

Hanna Walsdorf received her M.A. in Musicology from the University of Bonn (Germany) in 2006 and her Ph.D. in Musicology and Dance Studies from the University of Salzburg *Austria) in 2009. From 2009-2013, Hanna was a postdoc research fellow at the Collaborative Research Center 619 "Ritual Dynamics" at Heidelburg University (Germany). In 2011, she was awarded the Tanzwissenschaftspreis NRW. From 2014-2021, she directed the Emmy Noether Research Group Ritual Design for the Ballet Stage: Constructions of Popular Culture in European Theatrical Dance (1650-1760), granted by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Recent publications include the edited volumes 'Ritual Design for the Ballet Stage: Revisiting the Turkish Ceremony in Le Bourgeoius gentilhomme (1670)' (Berling 2018) and 'Tauberts "Rechtschaffener Tantzmeister (Leipzig 1717): Kontexte, Lektüren, Praktiken" (Berlin 2019, with Marie-Thérèse Mourey and Tilden Russell). Hanna currently teaches music and dance history at the University of Music and Theatre 'Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy' Leipzig and at the University of Salzburg.