In November 1792, Beethoven arrived in Vienna to study with Haydn and ultimately to make his career. Such was the importance of dancing as a social skill that Beethoven included finding a dancing teacher on his ‘to-do’ list and upon arrival in Vienna copied out the details of a dancing teacher from the Wiener Zeitung. In the same month, Haydn returned to Vienna from his first trip to England, and his first task was to compose minuets and German dances for a ball in the city’s Redoutensaal at the end of the month. November 1792 thus sets the scene for an investigation into the dance culture of Vienna at the end of the eighteenth century, and its implications for minuet composition, with a focus on minuets by Haydn. Following a description of Beethoven’s arrival and Haydn’s return, the Introduction considers existing musicological attempts to consider the minuet, and provides a summary outline of the book that follows.