"The Travels of a Queen" - The Minuet in Paris, London and Leipzig

Of obscure origin from rural France, a kind of country innocent, one day she manages to arrive in  Paris and the Versailles of Louis XIV. Her charms soon enchant the whole court, she succeeds in ousting her rivals and with her noble graces she secures the King's lasting favor.

No wonder that her fame soon spreads through Europe. On her journeys, people in England and Germany hail her no less than people in Italy and Spain, and local beauties fade away beside this queen of the balls...

The Minuet is the main focus of this course. Aside from its basic forms and step variations we will investigate especially  the stylistic differences between the main sources of 18th century dance by P. Rameau, K. Tomlinson and G. Taubert.  Using additional  material of "La Carlstadt" and other choreographies we would like to broaden our studies of  the characteristics of the French, English and German dance style.