"Das tanzende Hamburg", der Gesellschaftsabend als Mittel hanseatischer Selbstdarstellung
(Birte Hoffmann-Cabenda)

Das politische und gesellschaftliche Leben in Hamburg in der Zeit der Wende vom 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert wurde von den großen Kaufmannsdynastien der Hansestadt dominiert, die den Takt des Kulturlebens der Stadt angaben. Bei der privaten Freizeitgestaltung blieb dieser familiär eng miteinander verknüpfte städtische Bürgeradel kaufmännischen Geblüts gern unter seinesgleichen. Ähnlich verhielt es sich auch bei den in jener Zeit besonders beliebten großen Gesellschaftsabenden zu wohltätigen Zwecken: Diese Veranstaltungen waren ein Gipfelpunkt der Selbstinszenierung hamburgischer Patrizierfamilien. Hier präsentierten sich in zuvor wochenlang einstudierten Choreographien »historischer« Ballszenen Hunderte von mitwirkenden »Damen und Herren der Gesellschaft« der Öffentlichkeit, bevor der Abend in einem rauschenden, Darsteller und Publikum einenden Ball endete. Rudolph Knoll (1862–1916), ein weit über Hamburgs Grenzen hinaus geschätzter Tanzlehrer und Ballettmeister an Hamburger Theatern, lieferte dafür Ballett-Pantomimen wie Das tanzende Hamburg, 1813–1898 (1898) und Ein Gartenfest bei Baron Voght im Flottbeker Park vor 100 Jahren (1899), untermalt von der Musik des Hamburger »Walzerkönigs« und Strauß-Freunds Oscar Fetrás. Mit diesen tänzerisch ausgedeuteten Rückschauen auf die Geschichte Hamburgs demonstrierte das Großbürgertum seine persönliche, zum Teil schon über Jahrhunderte gewachsenen Verbundenheit mit der Stadt.

Birte Hoffmann-Cabenda, Hamburg, Deutschland:

Birte Hoffmann-Cabenda studierte Mathematik, Betriebswirtschaftslehre und Informatik an der Universität Hamburg. 1975 kam sie erstmalig mit historischem Tanz in Berührung und besuchte seither zahllose Kurse und Konferenzen in dem Bereich. 1980 erhielt sie ein „teaching certificate“ der DHDS und begann 1981, selbst zu unterrichten. Daneben erforscht sie das Leben und Werk verschiedener Tanzlehrer aus Norddeutschland im 19. Jahrhundert. Inzwischen blickt sie auf eine langjährige Rekonstruktions-, Vortrags- und Lehrtätigkeit im Bereich Historischer Tanz zurück.

Harris-Warrick, Rebecca: Ballroom scenes on the French operatic stage

Once the Paris Opera had begun expanding beyond mythological settings to contemporary ones, the staging of masked balls became a trope of the repertoire. Initially set in Venice, starting with “L’Italie” in Campra’s L’Europe galante (1697), masked balls were later depicted as taking place in French spaces—not just ballrooms, but in fairs set on the banks of the Seine. Ball scenes served several dramatic purposes. First, they enriched plotlines with scenes of deception and unmasking, often in the service of testing marital fidelity. Second, they allowed for an extended sequence of dancing that nonetheless conformed to fundamental French principles of dramatic verisimilitude. Third, they held up a mirror to French audiences, one that reflected an image of their own social practices back at them, although the mirror might be idealizing or distorted or both at the same time.
This talk will use ballroom scenes found in three early18th-century opera-ballets — Mouret’s Les Fêtes de Thalie (1714), Montéclair’s Les Fêtes de l’été (1716), and Campra’s Ballet des âges (1718) — as windows not only onto the dramatic purposes served by such scenes, but onto the music that set the dancers in motion and — to the extent that it can be recaptured — the choreography.

Rebecca Harris-Warrick, Ithaca, NY, USA:

Rebecca Harris-Warrick served as professor of music history at Cornell University (USA) until her retirement in 2021. Having been introduced to early dance as a graduate student at Stanford University, she gradually began including dance topics within her musicological research. Her book with Carol Marsh about Le Mariage de la grosse Cathos, the only complete theatrical work from the 17th or 18th century to survive with its music and choreography intact (Musical Theatre at the Court of Louis XIV, CUP, 1994) led her to investigate the way dance functions inside of French operas (Dance and Drama in French Baroque Opera, CUP, 2016). This book includes an online appendix providing contextual information about all 47 of the choreographies by Pécour said in their titles to have been danced at the Paris Opéra. She has also prepared critical editions of ballets by Jean-Baptiste Lully and of an opera by Gaetano Donizetti.

A repertoire for Mademoiselle: Contredanse step-sequences in pre-Revolutionary France
(Susan de Guardiola)

In La Contredanse: Un tournant dans l’histoire française de la danse (2003; originally published in 1969 as La Contredanse et les renouvellements de la danse française) the late Jean-Michel Guilcher suggested that in the years immediately preceding the French Revolution, there was a trend toward “exigence accrue en matière de technique” (increasing technical demands) in the performance of the French contredanse, the beginning of an evolutionary process he described as a shift from the repertoire of simple steps and creative figures that characterized the mid-18th century contredanse to the simple figures and elaborate steps of the early nineteenth century quadrille. Evidence of the development of a more elaborate step-repertoire for the social dancer performing contredanses may be found in the enchaînements of steps for specific figures described in a late-18th century instructional manuscript written by a dance master for use in independent practice by his female student. Close examination of this manuscript offers an unusually specific view of the step-combinations available to the social dancer and, additionally, illuminates the use of technical terms to refer to both steps and figures. This paper will briefly examine the basic structural elements given for the contredanse in order to situate this manuscript within the French tradition of the 1760s-1780s and then review in detail some representative enchaînements.

Susan de Guardiola, New Haven, CT, USA:

Susan de Guardiola (BA, Yale; MSEd, University of New Haven) is an independent scholar in social dance history, an American resident in Russia. She has presented her work at conferences including the Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society Conference, the International Congress for Medieval Studies, and Stanford University Historical Dance Week. In 2013-2014 she conducted research at Harvard University as a New England Regional Fellow. Research interests include improvisation in social dance, the evolution of the ballroom repertoire over the course of the nineteenth century, and the development of American social dance from its European origins. Her teaching focuses on exploring and recreating both the skill sets and mindsets of the social dancers of the past. She publishes brief dance reconstructions and research excerpts online at Capering & Kickery (http:// www.kickery.com).

The Tordiglione: Italian improvisational dance from the late 16th to early 17th centuries
(Dmitry Filimonov)

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries there were dances in Italy with wide opportunities for improvisation, and one of them, Tordiglione, has not yet been practically explored. In most musical dictionaries, Tordiglione is associated with the French dance Tourdion. The names of these dances are most likely related, however, both choreographically and musically Tordiglione and Tourdion are very different.

For this lecture I have compared all currently known versions of Tordiglione: in the books “Il Ballarino” and “Nobiltà di Dame” by Fabritio Caroso, “Gratia d'Amore” by Cesare Negri, “Libro di gagliarda, tordiglione, passo è mezzo canari è passegi” by Livio Lupi and in the Chigi manuscript. The analysis of these sources allows not only to find the main structure of the dance and to reconstruct each of the versions described, but also to trace possible changes in the style of the performance of the Tordiglione. Furthermore, on the basis of all available descriptions,it is possible to make suggestions for the way of improvisation in this dance.

Dmitry Filimonov, Moskau, Russland:

Dmitry Filimonov started his dancing career in 1993 as a competitive dancer and came to early dances in 2002. He teaches historical dance in the “Golden Forests” dance studio (a co-leader of the studio). He is head of the historical dance research seminar in Moscow. Dmitry gave lectures at many international conferences and has published several articles on early dance topics from 16th to 19th century.

Russian ball culture in the first half of 18th century
(Eugenia Eremina-Solenikova)

By the end of the 17th century, the Russian kingdom was a country that followed its own traditions. It kept apart from Western Europe. We know for sure that there were no balls in Russia at that time. After Peter the Great became the full-fledged ruler of Russia, he founded St. Petersburg and began to introduce dance culture everywhere. And after 50 years, during the reign of Peter’s daughter Elizabeth, they said about Russian balls that in St. Petersburg within a month all the Parisian novelties were danced. Undoubtedly, this was an incredible progress: within half a century a culture of balls was created, new traditions were instilled, a steady interest of Russian society in dancing was created.

Russian culture has always been heavily dependent on the will and interests of emperors. The study of the reign of Peter shows that during the assemblies of that period, numerous new dances were introduced into Russian culture. Under the regency of Anna Ioannovna, balls were held regularly in St. Petersburg. A tradition was formed of regular imperial balls associated with important dates. It was Anna Ioannovna who authorized dance education in Russia, and teachers arrived who also gave private lessons. At her command a dance school was created, now known around the world as the Vaganova Ballet Academy.

Under Elizabeth there was a surge in ballroom culture, in particular, masquerades came into fashion. The dancing skills of the courtiers (who were observed by all of Russia) were developing. Also under Elizabeth, the first dance teachers of Russian origin appeared.

Eugenia Eremina-Solenikova, St. Petersburg, Russland:

PhD student in the Vaganova Ballet Academy, member of the scientific committee of the annual dance reconstruction conference at the Vaganova Ballet Academy, scientific editor of the proceedings of the conference.