Mlle Roland Bath Teacher of Dance - the Italian Connection

Nicholas Roland was the leading dancer at the Court of the Duke of Mantua. His eldest daughter, Catherine, seems to have been born in Venice about 1714 or 15. The Duchy of Mantua had been annexed by Austria in 1708.

The Duke of Mantua,
attributed to Jacob Denys (1706)

His next and youngest daughter, Ann (some early sources give he name as Ame), may have been born in 1725. There also seems to have been a brother, Francis, about whom little is known.

Catherine and her father seem to have first danced together in Lyon in 1729 or 1730, and Catherine made her solo debut at the Theatre Italien in Paris in 1732.

She left Paris in 1734 to dance with her father in London. By October of that year, she was dancing with the French dancer and choreographer Michael Poitier, among others. Sometime around this time, Catherine and Poiter seem to have become lovers.

Poitier and Catherine had gained such a loyal following that their failure to appear as advertised caused significant disturbances in theatres.

On the 18th of November, 1735, Catherine was joined on stage at Drury Lane by her sister Ann, who had just arrived from Paris.

In 1736, the Grub Street Journal provided the following description of Mlle Roland's, probably Catherine's, style of dance.

"at the end of each dance, she is lifted by Poitier, that she may cut the higher and represent to the whole house as immodest a sight as the most abandoned women in Drury Lane can shew. Her whole behavior is of a stamp with this; during the whole dance, her only endeavour is to shew above her knees as often as she can."

From 1736 to 1739, Catherine seems to have performed at Drury Lane while Ann was attached to the company at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Both sisters appeared to have joined the company at Covent Garden and partnered with Poitier. Catherine seems to have left the company for the 1740 - 1741 season.

Catherine renewed her Drury Lane performance for the 1741 - 42 season before she and Poitier left England. Ann continued to perform as a singer and dancer in London throughout this time and may have performed in Ireland in 1743.  An advert in the Bath Journal of 1744 announces her arrival in Bath and her intention to offer classes in spoken French and Dancing to young ladies either at their own homes or at her lodgings in Jame's Street.

Sometime around 1746, Ann married the violinist Francis Fleming, who was earning his living playing for the company in the main public rooms. In his semi-autobiographical novel, Francis suggests he married Ann to improve his business under the mistaken impression he was marrying her more famous sister!

Together, the couple initiated annual benefit concerts and balls at the assembly rooms, including display pieces; for instance, in 1747, Mrs Fleming is reported to have performed a French peasant dance. After a dozen or so active years as the principal dancing teacher in the city, Fleming's wife died from a lingering illness at the Hotwells in 1759.

She left three children, two of them 13-year-old Anna Teresa and the 10-year-old Kitty, who would go on to feature prominently in the expanding dance teaching industry in Bath.

Waltzing in 1816

An illustration of the attitudes and movements in German and French waltzing taken from "A Description Of The Correct Method Of Waltzing, The Truly Fashionable Species Of Dancing, That, from the graceful and pleasing Beauty of its Movements, has obtained on ascendancy over every other Department of that Polite Branch of Education." By the dancing master, Thomas Wilson published in 1816.

Notice illustration number 7 with the lady's arms crossed behind her waist and the gentlemen's hands placed on the lady's waist on each side.

The Waltz had been recently introduced to respectable society in England by Dorothea Lieven the wife of the Russian Ambassador a leader of society, invitations to her house were the most sought after in London, and she was the first foreigner to be elected a patroness of Almack's, London's most exclusive social club.

Dorothea Lieven

Wood's Hornpipe

From A Companion to the Ball Room by Wilson, Thomas Published in 1816

From Wilson Companion to Ballroom 1816

Mrs Elliston a Bath Teacher of Dance and much more

On the 20th of February 1807, Jane Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra.

 “Elliston, she [her aunt] tells us has just succeeded to a considerable fortune on the death of an Uncle. I would not have it enough to take him from the Stage; she should quit her business, & live with him in London”

Elliston was Robert William Elliston a leading actor and a great favourite of Austen’s; “she” was Elizabeth Elliston his wife.

The cause of Austen’s censure was the fact that despite Robert’s success on the London stage and their eleven years of marriage Elizabeth continued to work as a dance teacher and dance academy proprietor in Bath.

Robert Elliston met Elizabeth Rundall in Bath where he had come to work at the Theatre Royal and she was working as an assistant to the sisters Anne and Kitty the then proprietors of the famous Fleming family dance academy which had been a prominent Bath institution since the 1740s. Anne, despite being middle-aged, had hopes that Elliston would marry her but he only had eyes for her beautiful and talented young assistant.

Robert and Elizabeth married on the 1st June 1796 in the parish of Peter and Paul and Elizabeth set up her own dance academy in Chapel Row in a partnership with Kitty the younger of the Fleming sisters, though there is evidence that this did not create a permanent breach in the friendship between Elizabeth and Anne. This partnership was secured by a £500 bond.

In 1797 Elizabeth and Kitty expanded their business by opening an academy at 5 Great Pulteney Street for private pupils while retaining the public academy at Chapel Row. In addition, to dance training they also offered Robert’s services to teach the “art of reading and speaking with propriety”.

By 1800, Kitty and Elizabeth Elliston had moved their school to 2 Trim Street and in this year Elizabeth gave birth to her second and most famous child Henry Twiselton Elliston who became a composer, inventor and musician often performing with his brother William. Over the course of their 25-year marriage, she and Robert had ten children. At least two of Elizabeth's daughters seem to have earned a living as dance teachers.

By August 1801 Elizabeth had moved her academy to 39 Milsom Street and from this time started to organise balls at the Lower Rooms to display the accomplishments of her pupils and by 1803 she was putting on balls at the Upper Rooms at least one of which attracted no less a person than Her Grace Georgiana the Duchess of Devonshire. Her spring ball in 1804 attracted more than 800 visitors.

Bath Chronicle 1803

In 1802 The Morning Post reported a that the King and Queen and their daughters accompanied by the six year old Princess Charlotte of Wales had attended a performance by Robert at the Theatre in Weymouth at which "his daughter Miss Elliston" who cannot have been older than 5 "whose juvenile efforts were crowned with general approbation on his benefit, appeared in a fancy dance, assisted by the exertions of Mrs Elliston and her sister, Miss Rundall."

In 1803 Elliston gave a benefit performance at Bristol of Much Ado About Nothing at the end of the second act Elizabeth and her daughter appeared with Elizabeth's sister Miss Rundell in the ballet Varietes Amusantes.

In 1804, Richard Sheridan asked Robert to appear at his Drury Lane theatre. Initially, Elliston refused a permanent position in Sheridan’s company but gradually the lure of the London theatre and the riches it could command sucked him in.  On 20 September 1804 Elliston made his first appearance as leading actor at Drury Lane. During this year, Elizabeth’s partnership with Kitty Fleming was dissolved and Elizabeth did not maintain an academy at Bath although she did do some teaching at her sister’s school.

Elizabeth’s sister Mary Ann was at this time the principal of a school for young girls in Bath. She later became obsessed by the ideas of the German scholar Gregor von Feinagle concerning memory. After he visited England in 1811 she published a book entitled "Symbolic Illustrations of the History of England". This book aimed to encapsulate the facts of history into just 39 pages, but the book received a withering review in The Quarterly Review who called it a "most absurd book". They noted that 700 pages of text were required to interpret the 39 pages of symbols!

In 1805, Elizabeth announced that she was giving up all her “country businesses” with the exception of classes at her sister’s school and was relaunching her academy at 39 Milsom Street.

When Drury Lane was destroyed by fire in on the 24th February 1809, Elliston used his fame and his uncle’s money to move into theatre management becoming known as ‘the Great Lessee’ and ‘the Napoleon of the Theatre’ for his energy in acquiring new properties.

By 1809, Elizabeth was living in London at a house in Stratford Place a reasonably high-status address just off Oxford Street. It appears that at least in part Elizabeth was in London to work on choreographing the dances in Elliston’s productions. At this time she was employing at least one assittant a Miss Perry who a year later set up as a dancing teacher in Cheltenham and using her work at Stratford Place as a reference.

In this same year, Elizabeth published “Les Varieties a third set of Dances and Cotillions Reels &c Composed and Arranged for the Piano Forte by Mrs Elliston dedicated to Miss D E Rundall, Milsom Street Bath.”

We know very little about Elizabeth’s sister Miss D E Rundall except that she may also have trained with the Flemings, and that Elizabeth trusted her to run her dance school in Milsom Street while she was in London.

In her book, Elizabeth’s tells us a little about her approach to composition where her aim was to create “melodies graceful to the ear & to give them that accent which is the soul of dancing”.  We also learn that her previous two books were called “Trafalgar” & “The Graces” and that they were published in London.

The 1809 trade directory list Mrs Elliston as the proprietor of the Dance Academy at 21 Milsom Street.

In 1810 in the first season of Elliston's management of the Surrey one of Elliston's earliest biographers tells us "Some delightful melodies were furnished by Mrs. Elliston" for the theatre's production of the Beau Strategem adapted to be a burletta.

By 1812, Elizabeth had moved her school to 21 Milsom Street. In the same year, the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane re-opened on 10 October with a production of Hamlet featuring Robert Elliston in the title role.

From this time on Elizabeth seems to have remained in London and left her Bath interests entirely in the hands of her sister and latterly her daughters. 

Elizabeth died at the age of 46 in 1821,  five years before Roberts bankruptcy and ten years before his death in both of which his chronic alcoholism undoubtedly played a part. In the year of her death, her husband leased the theatre at Coventry and staged a magnificent coronation spectacle at Drury Lane. Elizabeth's death was reported around the nation in the most affectionate terms. A typical example of which is taken from Bell's Weekly Messenger is as follows:

"Testimony to private worth - The late Mrs Elliston - The Bath Herald, copying from the London Papers the account of the death of this much esteemed Lady, adds the following interesting particulars. The above account was received in this city, by the numerous friends of Mrs Elliston, with the deepest sorrow; for it was in Bath that the then lovely Miss Rundall, under the kind care of Miss Fleming. acquired those accomplishments, which have since adorned the most respectable circles in the metropolis; and most poignantly do we condole with that highly respected character on the sudden and untimely loss of one, whose merits she had the best opportunity of appreciating, as the attentive pupil, the valuable assistant, and sincere friend - characteristics which have since naturally expanded into the endearing domestic virtues of the best of wives and most affectionate of mothers - This day (Friday) [6th April] being appointed for the funeral, and Mrs Elliston's brother and sister being present in Bath, a knell in the memory of the deceased was tolled at the Abbey from twelve to one o'clock."

Far from deserving Austen’s censure, Elizabeth Elliston emerges as a truly remarkable woman.

A mother, composer, teacher, dancer and choreographer who managed to keep a successful business running in Bath to provide a secure income for herself and her family while at the same time supporting her mercurial, risk-taking, unfaithful, gambling-addicted drunk of a husband in his many theatrical enterprises.

After her death the school she had founded was continued by her daughters supported by the retire stage dancer Miss Carr who had been a protege of Mrs Elliston.

Mr Webster Dancing Master

Webster came from Sheffield and was at one time a musical ‘composer’ and a pantomimist; he married Elizabeth Moon of Leeds, joined the army, served in the West Indies, was engaged in Bath in organising volunteer forces, and settled there as a dancing and fencing master. A brother, Frederick (d. 1878), became the stage manager of the Haymarket Theatre.

His son was Benjamin Nottingham Webster (3 September 1797 - 3 July 1882), a famous English actor-manager and dramatist.

Webster was based in Walcot House near St Michael's church from about 1801

His school was still active eight years later but had moved to 1 Orange Grove.

Medical Endorsement for Dancing

In the preface to his book "An Analysis of Country Dancing," published in 1808, the London dancing master Thomas Wilson, in his panegyric on the merits of dancing, says, " We have too in modern times the authority of the great Buchan, who particularly recommends Dancing and Riding as highly conducive to preserve a healthy constitution."

The Buchan Wilson refers to is the Scottish physician William Buchan. Since 1769, he has been publishing regular editions of his book Domestic Medicine, an early example of a medical self-help book. It was a huge bestseller, and a new edition was published two years before, in 1806.

Buchan placed a great emphasis on exercise as a way of preventing disease.

Wilson somewhat exaggerates Buchan's endorsement of dancing to achieve this. Buchan is clear that he favours exercise in the open air, particularly riding, which he suggests should be done for three hours a day or a similar amount of walking. He even gives a plug to golf and cricket.

However, Buchan does say that if outdoor exercise is not available, then "various methods may be contrived for exercising the body within doors, as the dumbbell, dancing, fencing, &c."

The popularity of Buchan's books and his regime may have had another impact on the crowded assembly rooms of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Buchan saw cleanliness and frequent change of clothing as necessary for good health. As he says, "The want of cleanliness is a fault which admits of no excuse."

William Buchan (1729 - 1805)

People watching in the rooms in the 1770's

Philip Thickness the writer, traveller and fortune hunter in his book "The New Prose Bath Guide: for the year 1778" gives a characteristically sharp account of dancing in the rooms.

Philip Thickness in 1757

Speaking of the then relatively new Upper Rooms he says:

"on a Ball-Night, in a full Season, when all the Benches are filled with Ladies in full Dress, the Rooms magnificently lighted by wax, the Splendour of the Lustres, Girondoles,"

The lighting of the rooms was one of the things which contributed to their reputation for magnificence because of the wonderful cut glass chandeliers (lustres) and many branched candle sticks (girondoles) all of which contained very expensive wax candles rather than the much more common cheaper alternatives such as tallow.

"and the superlative Charms of so many lovely Women, whose natural Beauties being awakened by the Variety of Amusements which, on all Sides, surround them—renders it one of the most pleasing Sights that the Imagination of Man can conceive ; and what, we are convinced, no other Part of Europe can boast of; yet, in spite of all these Advantages, we much doubt, whether it be true that the Upper Rooms shew Female Beauty so advantageously as the Lower. There is a certain Degree of Light to fee Nature, as well as Art, to Advantage; and we know that the Painters give us only a small Proportion, not all the Light they could throw upon their Works. We have examined too, with a Degree of particular Attention, some of the most admired Beauties of the last and present Season, at both the Rooms, and, as far as we could determine, they were either best pleased, or most beautiful, under the lower than the higher Lights."

Robe a l'Anglaise - 1770-75

The Lower Rooms being some 18 feet lower than the Upper Rooms must, on this theory, have shown ladies off to considerable advantage.

"It is always remarked by Foreigners, that the English Nation, of both Sexes, look as grave when they are dancing, as if they were attending the Solemnity of a Funeral. This Charge is in general true ; and as a Minuet, danced gracefully, is the Light, of all others, in which a fine Woman can shew herself to most Advantage, we strongly recommend it to the Ladies to remove this national Charge, and to consider, that the Features and Countenance ought to be in Unison, and as perfectly in Tune with the Body, as the Instruments are which direct its Motions. And that that Sort of bewitching Look, bordering on the Smile, which always accompanies cheerful Conversation, should never be omitted in the Dance. As to the Gentleman, we agree with Mr. Hogarth, that it is more his Business to attend to a proper Manner of conducting the Lady in the Dance, than of shewing himself; but neither one, or the other, should dance in so public an Assembly as Bath, unless they are quite sure they dance with some Degree of Grace and Ease ; and as few People can be Judges of their own Excellence in any Respect, and particularly in Dancing, every Body should consult some faithful, not flattering Friend, on this Business, before they let themselves off in a Minuet. Beside which, we are confident, that there are many Ladies and Gentlemen who can dance very well in private, but who often fail in public. The Truth is, there is a certain Degree of necessary and confidential Boldness, without which, no Person can dance perfectly well. How many fine Women do we see totter with Fear, when they are taken out to dance? And is it possible, that such who cannot walk firmly should be able to dance gracefully?

We are aware that the Ladies think Gravity of Countenance a necessary Attendant on Modesty and Sentiment; but, till they can prove that a cheerful pleasing Smile is incompatible with Virtue, Prudence, or Discretion, we must beg Leave (while we allow them all imaginable Praise, for such ill-placed Precaution) to assure them, that they cannot bestow, on mortal Man, a more pleasing nor a more innocent Mark of their Public Favour, than by shewing their Features, under the Advantage of a Smile. Even Venus herself, were we to paint her surprised going into her Bath, it should be, withdrawing herself from the Eyes of the Beholders with a bashful Smile. Let it be remembered, though, that the loud Laugh, and the giggling Titter, should be always avoided, being neither consistent with good Breeding, nor good Policy."