ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the first half of the career of the Aberdeen dancing master A. Cosmo Mitchell who started his career as an itinerant dancing master in 1881. This part of Mitchell’s career provides an insight into a Scottish dancing master’s business in the late nineteenth century, before the introduction of the regulatory societies and the standardisation of teaching. Mitchell played a significant part in the development of the Imperial Society of Dance Teachers (later the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dance). This chapter considers some of the key factors that contributed towards the development of the regulatory societies. It examines how Mitchell ran his business in the late nineteenth century, investigates what set him apart from other dancing masters and assesses how he used his business acumen to further his practice. The chapter draws on Mitchell’s scrapbooks which document his entire career and which he bequeathed to Aberdeen City Library. The story of the ‘Highland Fling’ continues with an analysis of a Highland Fling from before 1885 by the Dundee dancing master, David Anderson.
