Event Comment: [For
the King (
Cross). With New Music, Scenes, Machines, Habits, and o
ther Decorations. Compos'd by
Mr Noverre. All our Dancers appear. A good deal of
hissing & Clapping & some Cries of No french Dancers; a great clapping too-
the Dance is fine-(
Mr Delaistre is a good Dancer) (
Cross). [See for details of preparation, importation of dancers, especially of M Delaistre,
The Chevalier Noverre,
Father of Modern Ballet,
Deryck Lynham (
London, 1950), pp. 26-40. See also advertisement in
Public Advertiser: 'Mr Noverre, whose entertainments of Dancing have been celebrated in almost all
the courts of
Europe, exhibits t
his evening
his Chinese Festival at
the Theatre
Royal in
Drury Lane, in pursuance of a contract made above a year ago with
the managers of
the said
theatre:
The Insinuation that at t
his time, an extraordinary number of
French dancers are engaged, is groundless,
there being at Drury Lane at present as few of that nation, as any o
ther
theatre now has, or perhaps ever had. Mr Noverre and
his bro
thers are
Swiss, of a protestant family in
the Canton of Berne,
his wife and her sisters
Germans;
there are above sixty performers concerned in
the entertainment; more than forty of which are
English, assisted only be a few French (five men and four women) to complete
the Ballet as usual. As
the intention of
the Managers on t
his occasion is to give Variety to Entertainments of
the town, it is not doubted it will meet with public approbation.'] Receipts: #210 (
Cross)