This may be a "stupid question" but I'm wondering ...

Back in the day when young gentlemen and ladies were supposed
to learn how to dance quadrilles, cotillions, etc. under the
tutelage of a dancing master, perhaps in gender-segregated
classes, before essaying to dance them at a ball, what went
on--or what do dance historians who have attempted to study
the matter imagine went on--during those classes in the
dancing masters' salons?

While students were practicing to music (whether played by
the dancing master or by someone else), did a dancing master
ever call out reminders about what figure or what bit of
footwork the dancers were supposed to execute next? Or do
scholars believe that such real-time prompting was never,
ever done--not because it would have been considered coarse,
as it would have been at an actual ball, but for some other
reason? Perhaps the idea of shouting out what to do next
simply never crossed any dancing master's mind. Or perhaps
if such an idea began to intrude on a dancing master's mind,
it would have been instantly rejected in favor of letting
the students rely on their own memories. (I have read
somewhere of cultures where children are expected to learn
various crafts simply by spending much time sitting at the
side of adult practitioners and watching--without asking
questions or receiving direct verbal instruction--until
they have absorbed enough to take up the tasks themselves.
In this way, it is apparently held, children are trained
to be good observers.)

The same question applies equally to dancing masters in the
time of Playford (17th century) or in the time of "Arbeau"
(16th century): In the privacy of the classroom, did they
ever prompt their students through the figures or steps of
dances while music was playing? Ditto for the leaders of
classical ballet troupes or other performing dance groups.
Did they ever give verbal prompts during early rehearsals,
even if they expected the dancers to have the routines
fully memorized before performing for an audience?

In short, when people here ask about the "origins" of
calling, is anyone actually asking about the very *first*
uses of real-time verbal prompting of dance figures? Or is
the real topic when and how it became socially acceptable
to have someone perform such prompting at a social event,
after it had already been common in the classroom/rehearsal
setting from time immemorial?

--Jim