Dr. Julia Sutton (July 20, 1928 – July 1, 2012) was a musicologist and historian of early dance. She earned her PhD from Rochester University’s Eastman School of Music, and chaired the Music History and Musicology Department at the New England Conservatory of Music for more than 20 years, where she also directed the Collegium Terpsichore. Sutton was active in the founding of the Society of Dance History Scholars. Among her many articles are encyclopedia entries for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and the International Encyclopedia of Dance. Sutton edited the translation of Thoinot Arbeau’s “Orchesography,” translated and edited “Courtly Dance of the Renaissance: A New Translation and Edition of the Nobilta di Dame,” and co-edited with Rachelle Palnick Tsachor “Dances for the Sun King: Andre Lorin’s Livre de Contredanse.” She directed and reconstructed several dances with New York Pro Musica and Pennsylvania Orchestra Association, including “Renaissance Revisited” with video documentation and Labanotation scores, and a teaching video “Il Ballarino: The Art of Renaissance Dance.” Sutton was also a dancer and teacher of American square and contradances, international folk dance, and English country dance.
From the guide to the The Julia Sutton Collection, 15th-century - 2012, (The Ohio State University. Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee Theatre Research Institute.)
