Book excerpt: "Margaret McGowan examines the diverse forms of dance in the Renaissance, contemporary attitudes towards dance, and the light this throws on moral, political and aesthetic concerns of the time. Among the subjects she covers are: expectations of dance; style, costume, music and social coding; court dance versus social dancing; dance and the Valois dynasty; professional dancers, virtuosos and choreographers; burlesque; opposition to dance; and dance and the people. McGowan's sophisticated analysis of formal dance treatises allows her to recreate a sense of the actual practice of Renaissance dance and the mechanics of making a ballet. Nearly one hundred illustrations, many of them rare, accompany the text."--BOOK JACKET.