“The Honour to Teach and Instruct”

Isaac’s transition from performer to dancing-master probably began in the 1680s, as the court dancing-master Jerome Gohory started to retire from court life. A warrant of 1681 promising the reversion of Gohory’s court post to Isaac came to nothing when King Charles II died, but Isaac continued to teach the Queen’s Maids of Honour and the children of aristocrats and courtier families. Under his tuition, his star pupil Katherine Booth danced solos at court balls before King William III and Princess Anne. By the 1690s Isaac was attached to the court of Princess Anne, albeit with no formal status, and after her accession to the throne he would continue as the de facto court dancing-master until her death in 1714. He also ran a dancing school in St Martin’s Lane. His one attempt to organise a series of subscription concerts for his scholar(s) at Drury Lane theatre in 1702/3 was wrecked by court intrigue. In c.1710 he sat for his only known portrait by Louis Goupy, which now survives only as a mezzotint copy by George White.