Negotiating Text and Movement: Some Challenges in Staging Dance in Shakespeare’s Plays
(Nona Monahin)

William Shakespeare’s plays contain numerous references to dance, some of which are used as the basis for wordplay, others to illuminate a particular character or dramatic situation. Dancing also occurs as part of the action of many plays, in what today might be called “ballroom scenes,” although in such cases Shakespeare rarely indicates which dances he may have had in mind. One challenge to choreographers and directors who wish to include period dancing is to find, or create, appropriate dances, and to integrate them into the dialogue and action. A second challenge, regardless of whether the staging is in period style or is updated, is to make the dance references intelligible to today’s audiences. Using the dance scenes in two of Shakespeare’s plays, Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing, as case studies, I draw on my research in 16th- and early-17th-century dance, as well as my experience as a choreographer, to explore options that integrate historically informed dance practices into contemporary theatrical productions.

Nona Monahin, Amherst MA, USA:

Nona Monahin teaches Renaissance and Baroque dance in the Five College Early Music Program at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA. She studied early dance with Ingrid Brainard, Julia Sutton, and Barbara Sparti, and holds a PhD in Musicology (with a focus on the dance manuals of Caroso and Negri) from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Nona has presented lectures and workshops at conferences in Australia, Europe, and North America, and has published with Medieval Institute Publications, University of Georgia, and Oxford University Press. She has directed dance ensembles and created choreographies for many Shakespeare plays and other theater productions. In addition to historical dance, Nona’s background includes ballet, modern, Duncan, English country, folk, and character dance. Her current research explores relationships between music and dance in 20th and 21st-century choreography, and she also enjoys choreographing dances in a free (non-historical) style. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/node/72594