Dancing Across Seas – French Dance in Australia’s Early Colonies
(Aimee Brown)

In search of refinement, connection and joy, for a colony built on convict labour, it is no surprise that European dance sailed its way to colonial Australia. This paper examines all aspects of French dance in the colonies of Sydney, Tasmania and Melbourne from 1788-1830. How was dance used to connect colonists to home and to each other, and did it play a role in the quest for a refined society? What part did the environment play in shaping the performance, execution, and education of the dances?

This paper draws from a wide array of sources to reconstruct an image of French dance in the early Australian colonies, including home practice books, newspapers, theatre pamphlets and exploration documents. We can look to the teaching methods of two of the early colonies’ French dancing masters, François Girard and Emanuel Charles Greene, and speculate as to how dance may have played a part in interactions between First Nations Australians, the English colonial population, and the French explorers. This paper explores practices on Gadigal, Wangal, Dharug, Palawa, and Naarm country; colonisation had a deep impact on Indigenous Australia and I acknowledge that this land is owned by First Nations Australians and pay my respect to elders past, present, and emerging.

 

 

Aimee Brown, Homebush, Australia

Aimee Brown is a musician, dancer and musicologist from Sydney, Australia. After completing her Honours in Historical Performance at Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Royal College of Music, London, she went on to write her Masters’ thesis on the education of musicians in baroque dance, by developing a simplified notation system. She has been fortunate to present her research on many occasions, including at the International Conference in Historical Performance in Queluz, Portugal and at the Seventh Annual Conference in Historical Performance in Indiana, USA, where she won the prize for student paper.

Aimee works as an historical tour guide, developing and delivering tours about Australia’s Indigenous, convict, and working-class histories. Here, she developed an interest in exploring the significance of dance in Australia’s colonial past.

Aimee runs an historical dance ensemble and studio, Sydney Baroque Ballet. She has taught and performed baroque dance across Australia, including at the National Folk Festival in Canberra and at the Adelaide Baroque Academy. She is thrilled to be attending the Historical Dance Symposium to learn, discuss and collaborate.