Mozart and Dance - Mozart As Dancer

Mozart As Dancer

Mozart was taught to dance when he was a small child. His first public appearance as a performer was at age five, when he danced in the Latin play "Sigismundus Rex", put on to celebrate the end of the academic year in Salzburg (1 and 3 September 1761). (His public career as an instrumental performer began only a few months later.) In 1770 (age 14), he wrote a letter to his sister Nannerl from Italy, reporting that "my sole amusement at the moment consists of English steps, and Capriol and spaccat."

Concerning the adult Mozart, biographer Nissen reported "he passionately loved dancing, and missed neither the public masked balls in the theatre, nor his friends' domestic balls. And he danced very well indeed, particularly the minuet." Nissen was presumably relying here on the testimony of Mozart's wife Constanze, whom he married some years after Mozart's death. Another report comes from Mozart's friend the tenor Michael Kelly, who in his Reminiscences wrote, "as great as Mozart's genius was, he was an enthusiast in dancing, and often said that his taste lay in that art, rather than in music."

At least as far as one of his letters indicates, Mozart preferred dancing with partners who could match his own ability. On 6 October 1777 he wrote to his father Leopold from Munich (where he was searching for employment), and reported:

"There was dancing, but I only danced four minuets, and by 11 I was back in my room; because with all those girls there, there was only one who could dance in time with the beat, and that was Mademoiselle Käser."

Mozart had many opportunities to go dancing in his place and time, as ballroom dancing was extremely popular. In addition, during his youth his own family hosted dancing in their home in Salzburg. In 1773, Leopold moved the Mozart family from their lodgings in the Getreidegasse, where Wolfgang and Nannerl had been born, to larger new quarters in the Dancing Master's House (German Tanzmeisterhaus). These rooms, formerly occupied by a dancing teacher, included a fairly large hall which the Mozarts used for dances (as well as concerts and other activities).

In 1783, after his move to Vienna, Mozart himself hosted a ball, despite the somewhat cramped quarters he occupied with his wife Constanze (three rooms). The event is recorded in a letter he wrote to Leopold (22 January 1783):

"Last week I gave a ball in my own rooms; – but it goes without saying that the young beaux paid 2 florins each; we began at 6 in the evening and stopped at 7 – what? only an hour? – no, no – at seven in the morning."

The letter goes on to explain that the ball was held in large empty rooms adjacent to the Mozarts' own apartment, and was well attended.