But singing was not to be thought of under the
circumstances; as Cibber writes: "At the time I am speaking of, our
English music had been so discountenanced since the taste of Italian
operas prevailed, that it was to no purpose to pretend to it. Dancing,
therefore, was now the only weight in the opposite scale, and as the
new theatres sometimes found their account in it, it could not be safe
for us wholly to neglect it. To give even dancing, therefore, some
improvement, and to make it something more than motion without
meaning, the fable of Mars and Venus was formed into a connected
presentation of dances in character, wherein the passions were so
happily expressed, and the whole story so intelligibly told by a mute
narrative of gesture only, that even thinking spectators allowed it
both a pleasing and a rational entertainment." This was certainly a
ballet of action, and it is remarkable that the production involved
but a small outlay; the managers, distrusting its reception, did not
venture "to decorate it with any extraordinary expense of scenes or
habits." Great success, however, attended the performance, and from it
is to be dated the establishment both of ballet and pantomime upon our
stage.
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