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.