Life
William Dance was the grandson of the architect George Dance (c.1694–1768). His father was the actor James Dance (1721–1774) and his mother may have been James' wife Elizabeth or the actress Mrs Love.
Dance studied the piano under Theodore Aylward the elder (1730 - 1801) and the violin under K. F. Baumgarten. He later studied with the renowned Felice Giardini.
Dance played violin in the orchestra at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane from 1771 to 1774 and in the King's Theatre orchestra 1775–1793.
He was lead violinist at the Haymarket Theatre during the summer seasons (1784–90) and at the Handel commemoration in Westminster Abbey in 1790. Dance was not regarded as a soloist on the violin, however William Thomas Parke praised his "great taste and execution" on the piano.
Around 1800 he gave up public performances and became a notable teacher of music in London.
In 1813 Dance proposed a meeting that led to the foundation of the Philharmonic Society. He became a director and the treasurer of the society until his death.
Around 1812 he noticed Michael Faraday, then a bright but unknown young assistant at a Southwark bookshop who was interested in self-improvement and science. Dance mentored him by providing tickets for him to attend lectures at the Royal Institution.
Read more about this topic: William Dance
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Nothing in life possesses value except the degree of power—assuming that life itself is the will to power.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)