Miss Hobson Conductress of the Quadrilles

Miss Hobson who, according to the Bath Directory of 1819,  lived at 13 River Street was a teacher of dancing and Conductress of the Quadrilles at the Upper Assembly Rooms.

Before the 19th century no other dances required a conductor. So what made the quadrille different? The minuet had emerged as a court dance for the upper eschelons of society people for whom mastering this dance was part of their job as courtiers and this largely explain its demise over the course of the Geogian period. Country dances had an effective system where inactive couples waiting to dance would observe the dance several times before it reached them, so they would know the figure by the time they danced it. The cotillion only had one short figure to memorize. The set of "changes" of the cotillion were always the same changes and thus relatively easily memorised.