John Weaver (dancer)

Weaver translated Feuillet’s Choregraphie (Paris, 1700) into English as Orchesography (London, 1706), to make the treatise more widely accessible.

In An Essay towards an History of Dancing,[2] published in London in 1712, he admiringly recounts the achievements of the dancers – the mimes and pantomimes – of classical antiquity.

It dealt with themes from classical literature and required a significant number of gestures due to the story not being expressed in any spoken form.

Because Weaver attempted to use plot and emotion in replacement of more sophisticated technical and speech methods, he is considered a major influence on subsequent choreographers, including Jean-Georges Noverre and Gasparo Angiolini.

[3] In addition to the other works of notation mentioned above, he published A Small Treatise of Time and Cadence in Dancing' (1706), another translation of Feuillet.

He also made a number of contributions to The Spectator, edited by his friend Richard Steele, who described him as "that more than Peripatetick Philosopher, Mr Weaver".

Back in Shrewsbury he devoted himself to his boarding school, and is thought to have taught dancing to almost the end of his long life.