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Physical Harm

Antidance treatises contain numerous tales of the physical harm brought on by dancing, including broken limbs or strains from falling, exhaustion from overexertion, and acts of God such as lightning striking dancers or floors collapsing from beneath them. Phillip Stubbes reports that, “Some haue broke their legs with skipping, leaping, turning and vawting, and some haue come by one hurt, some by another but neuer any came from thence without some parte of his minde broken and lame,” [23] while Christopher Fetherstone’s Minister asks, “Is it recreation... to spend two whole days in bed in pain after one-half day’s dancing for pleasure?” concluding that dancing is wearying not rejuvenating. [24]

On the one hand, there is almost no mention of such events in the REED collections. In part this is because minor or even major injuries due to dancing would rarely be recorded, except, perhaps, in a journal or autobiography. Still collapsing buildings, especially if injuries or deaths result, rarely escape mention. However, the only reference to building collapse is a 1571-2 entry in the Liverpool Town Book 2 that bans 'pleyes of dawnsyng' at the town common hall to prevent the collapsing of the floor. [25] Not only did this floor not actually collapse, but the existence of preventative legislation to address the possibility demonstrates that a floor collapsing beneath dancers was considered a logistical, structural problem, not a divine judgement. On the other hand, the records do associate dancing with physical harm -- just in a manner not addressed by antidance treatises.

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