author

active 17th century Juan de Esquivel Navarro

Best known for a 1642 treatise on dance published in Seville, this little-known Spanish writer offers a rare window into how dance was taught, valued, and morally framed in the 17th century. His work survives as one of the few detailed sources on Spanish courtly dance from the period.

1 Audiobook

Discursos sobre el arte del dançado

Discursos sobre el arte del dançado

by active 17th century Juan de Esquivel Navarro

About the author

Juan de Esquivel Navarro was an active 17th-century Spanish author associated with Seville. He is known for Discursos sobre el arte del dançado y sus excelencias y primer origen, reprobando las acciones deshonestas, a dance treatise published there in 1642.

That book is especially notable because scholars describe it as the only known published Spanish book on dancing from the 17th century. Beyond steps and technique, it also reflects the manners, social values, and moral concerns surrounding dance in early modern Spain.

Very little biographical information about him appears to survive, so most of what is known today comes through this single work and later scholarship built around it. For readers interested in dance history, his writing remains an unusually valuable firsthand source.