All-involving dances of late 16th- and early 17th-century Italy and the persistence of propensities and ideas across lands and centuries
(John Gardiner-Garden)

This poster is intended as a companion to the dance evening by the same name. The poster offers background on the dances and explores their possible connection with the less formal final phase of a ball. It is noted how four of them are the last or second last dance in contemporary dance books, three are said to be dances for which the lady should remove her gloves, two are said to be ones where men tend to rush for partners, and two are said to usefully follow on to one other. It is noted that these dances did not involve hierarchy and etiquette being fully suspended, but that their mechanisms and figures provided for communal playfulness. The poster attempts to identify the main ideas and propensities that ran through these dances' mechanisms and figures, and to show how some of these same ideas and propensities can be found in dances across three centuries and across many lands—where some were again associated with the last phase in a ball and described at the end of dance manuals.

John Gardiner-Garden, Yarralumla, Australien:

Dr John Gardiner-Garden has studied/researched/performed and taught historical dancingof all eras for more than 25 years. He has led and played for dancing at over 1000 events, produced 12 dance books and 8 dance CDs. He is the director of the Earthly Delights Historical Dance Academy that runs regular classes, balls and festivals in Canberra, Australia. He has guest taught around Australia, North America and Europe, and will shortly before this symposium release a new multi-volume study of historical dance from 1400 to 1900. He's accompanied by his wife Aylwen, a respected historical costumer.