“The Hornpipe laboratory”
(Barbara Segal, Markus Lehner)

In English country dance sources of the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries there are a number of dances in the hornpipe rhythm typical of the period, a somewhat slow, usually syncopated triple time rhythm. Unfortunately, the English sources give us few hints about the steps used for these dances. French contredanse sources, like Lorin and Feuillet, do not provide us with further information, since the hornpipe rhythm was not used in France. Fortunately a number of dances composed to this same hornpipe rhythm by Mr. Isaac and Anthony L’Abbé have survived in Feuillet notation. A characteristic of these hornpipe dances is the frequent hemiolic construction of their step sequences, with 3 dance steps being used for each 2 bars of music.

In the proposed workshop we would like to make use of various step sequences from these choreographies. Applying them to hornpipe country dances we can show that the hemiolic principle works well and allows us to preserve at least some characteristics of this special dance type. Furthermore it enables one to cover more ground, thereby solving the puzzle in many of these dances where the number of steps indicated seem inadequate for the figure. Several step sequences will be shown and taught and the participants will be encouraged to use them freely in a few hornpipe country dances, in typical English fashion of the period.

Barbara Segal, London, Great Britain

Barbara is based in London where she works in the field of Early Dance as performer, teacher and choreographer. She is director of both Chalemie and Contretemps, groups dedicated to the reconstruction of 18^th century dance and music theatre. She has performed and taught throughout Europe, the Baltic States and Australia, as well as at many festivals, theatres and stately homes in the UK. She has collaborated with and toured for the Early Music Network and the British Council. She organizes and teaches at the Chalemie Summer School (specialising in early dance, commedia, period costume-making, music and singing) held annually in Oxford; she also teaches early dance at The  Royal Academy of Dance in London. She holds a Doctorate in Psychology from London University (LSE).

Markus Lehner, Herrsching:

Markus Lehner studierte Medizin in München und ist derzeit als niedergelassener Internist tätig. Seine Ausbildung in histori­schem Tanz erhielt er bei Lenchen Busch, Barbara Sparti, Julia Sutton, Deda Cristina Colonna, Lieven Baert u.a.. Seit 1980 wirkte er bei zahlreichen Auftritten verschiedener Renaissance­tanzensembles mit. Seit 1984 ist er als Tanzreferent mit dem Schwerpunkt italienische Tänze des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts tätig. Seine Aktivitäten im Bereich der Tanzfor­schung führten 1997 zur Veröffentlichung des Buchs "A manual of sixteenth-century Italian dance steps". 2004 organisierte er mit großem Erfolg das „1. Rothenfelser Tanzsymposion“, das sich mit der Tanzkultur im 17. Jhdt. befaßte.