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5th Historical Dance Symposium
Burg Rothenfels am Main
15 - 19 June 2022

Conference programme 

In what follows, you will initially find an overview of the Symposium programme. Further down, there follow summaries of the various contributions. Information on our speakers is to be found here.

Lectures:

Simultandolmetscherin e dunkelrot

  1. Baert, Lieven: Balls in Ghent between 1760 and 1860. A very lively survey.
  2. Bennett, Giles: Ost-westlicher Kulturtransfer im Ballsaal – das Repertoire eines österreichischen Tanzlehrers in Lemberg in den frühen 1790er Jahren
  3. Eremina-Solenikova, Eugenia (video transmission): Russian ball culture in the first half of 18th century
  4. Ertz, Matilda: Nineteenth-century theatrical ballabile and the Italian ball as social and political discourse of the Risorgimento
  5. Filimonov, Dmitry: Italian improvisational dance from the late 16th to early 17th centuries
  6. Finkel, Carola: Les Plaisirs du Bal du Mannheim – eine Betrachtung zum Tanzrepertoire in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts
  7. de Guardiola, Susan: A repertoire for Mademoiselle: Contredanse step-sequences in pre-Revolutionary France.
  8. Harris-Warrick, Rebecca: Ballroom scenes on the French operatic stage
  9. Hoffmann-Cabenda, Birte: »Das tanzende Hamburg«, der Gesellschaftsabend als Mittel hanseatischer Selbstdarstellung
  10. Alan Jones: Pierre Landrin Duport: Elegant Accomplishments of a French Dancing Master in the United States
  11. Mettel, Michaela: Der Ball als cultural performance - Kriterien einer methodologischen Analyse
  12. Monahin, Nona: Negotiating Text and Movement: Some Challenges in Staging Dance in Shakespeare’s Plays
  13. Nowaczek, Jadwiga: Die Ballszene aus den "Leiden des jungen Werther" von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe aus tanzhistorischer Sicht.
  14. Rannow, Angela: Zwar ist sie hin, die Prinzessin: Tanz bei kur-, fürstlichen und adeligen Hochzeiten am Dresdner Hof im 17. Jahrhundert
  15. Sundukova, Daria (video transmission): Balls in the Russian Noble Assembly

Research Posters:

  1. Derkach, Maria: Using Russian-German relationship for the reconstruction of a Russian ball at the beginning of the 19th century
  2. Derkach, Maria and Filimonov, Dmitry: The Waltz in the late 18th - early 19th century: styles, use and techniques
  3. Jones, Alan: The career of Franco-American dancing master Pierre Landrin Duport
  4. Mettel, Michaela: Dissertationsprojekt: Performing Gender? Geschlechterrollen in den Tanztraktaten der italienischen Renaissance
  5. Nikitin, Dmitry: Balls of the Russian Empire in the 19th century
  6. Shmakova, Alena: Dance Assemblies in Georgian Edinburgh
  7. Tuck, Bill: The Lunatic Asylum Ball: voyeuristic spectacle or dance therapy?

Workshops:

  1. Daye: Anne: Law students’ Ball c.1600
  2. Feste, Irène: Variations of the "trait de la contredanse" in the 19th Century
  3. de Guardiola, Susan: Waltzes, Newports, and Rackets: Common Movement Units in Late 19th Century American Couple Dance.
  4. Hazebroucq, Hubert: Dancing the corantoes (circa 1630) in the light of European sources
  5. Jablonka, Guillaume: Setting up the "Allemande" within the space of a ballroom: Hypothesis based on Brives Nouvelle Méthode from 1779
  6. Filimonov, Dmitry: French branles for opening the ball in the late 16th–17th centuries

Dance Evenings:

  1. Daye, Anne: "New from France": Cotillons in Georgian London
  2. Jones, Alan: American Ball Dances from the turn of the 19th C.
  3. Menard-Pugliese, Barbara and Pugliese, Antonia: European Ballroom Dances of the second quarter of the 19th century

Short Performances:

  1. I. Feste, H. Hazebroucq, G. Jablonka: Les Passe-Temps du bal - Jean-Etienne Despréaux’s Memoirs of the Ball
  2. La Danza München (dir: J. Nowaczek): „Mit ganzem Herzen und mit ganzer Seele“ – Die Ballszene aus den „Leiden des jungen Werther“ von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  3. Tanzkompanie Chorea Basileae (dir: M. Gal): Dance forms in context: ballroom dance on stage?

 

Further Information:

Lectures:

Baert, Lieven: Balls in Ghent between 1760 and 1860. A very lively survey.

Ghent is a city with an international history and a crossroad of different cultures. Spaniards, French and Austrians flooded our territory. Mary of Burgundy, Emperor Charles V, Philip II, Charles of Lorraine or Napoleon Bonaparte: all these big names were born, lived or came along as regents, dukes, emperors or occupiers and left their mark on our cultural life.
In the archives of Ghent and the Ghent University Library there is a wealth of information for the period between 1760 and 1860. In addition to the two dance sources of D'Aubat de Saint-Flour and Monsieur van Damme (both second part of the 18th century), I investigated accounts, regulations, ball books, business cards and publicity and requests from dance masters, diaries etc. Based on this unpublished material, I try to paint a vivid picture of how balls and dance lessons were organized and what the preparations and rules were during these evenings. We also know a lot of the dance titles and the steps which were performed by the local nobility or bourgeoisie. A nice detail is that the city of Ghent still has his original ballrooms of the 18th and 19th century. For the 19th century I consulted the private archive of the "Société des redoutes" of Ghent. This organization was responsible for the Redoutes/balls in the Opera of Ghent until 1960. This archive gives an excellent picture of the costs linked to organizing these events. Paying candles and flowers, cleaning up the ballroom or redecorating the room in the Opera and of course the repertoire which changed during this long period of ballroom/redoute management.

 

Bennett, Giles: Ost-westlicher Kulturtransfer im Ballsaal – das Repertoire eines österreichischen Tanzlehrers in Lemberg in den frühen 1790er Jahren

Der Vortrag beschäftigt sich mit einem bisher fast unbekannten 24-seitigen Pamphlet des Joseph Faenza, eines Tanzlehrers für die neue Elite der deutschsprachigen Österreicher in Lemberg, der multiethnischen Hauptstadt des kurz zuvor annektierten, zuvor polnischen Galizien. Faenza bewirbt in der Broschüre seine Dienste als Lehrer für richtige Haltung und korrektes Verhalten (und steht dabei im aktuellen pädagogischen Diskurs seiner Zeit), aber auch für alle Formen des Gesellschaftstanzes. Er beschreibt die Tanzgattungen kurz aber treffend (und macht auch einige technische Bemerkungen) – seine Liste enthält auch einige bemerkenswerte Überraschungen. Kürzlich veröffentlichte Details zu seiner späteren Karriere in Ljubljana erlauben es, das Pamphlet früher zu datieren als bisher angenommen, nämlich in die frühen 1790er Jahre. Die Einbeziehung des Mazur mag den Transfer dieser Tanzart von der polnischen in die deutsche Tanzkultur illustrieren (ähnlich wie bei der – hier auch diskutierten – Polonaise einige Jahrzehnte früher). Bereits in dieser frühen Phase passte Faenza den Tanz dem Geschmack des deutschen Milieus in Lemberg an, ein direktes Beispiel für Akkulturations- und Assimilationsprozesse im Tanz.

 

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

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.

 

Ertz, Matilda: Nineteenth-century theatrical ballabile and the Italian ball as social and political discourse of the Risorgimento

Italian ballets of the nineteenth century began to include more and more group dances as Italians marched toward unification. Large portions of pure dance tended to be avoided in Italian theaters at the outset of the century (such as in Viganò’s coreodramas), where audiences preferred the dramatic action over strings of danced numbers. Nonetheless, the group dances, called “ballabile,” proliferated and began to be presented in a series that encapsulated the sets of then-popular social and character dances. By embodying familiar social and national dance, these portions of the ballet capitalized on the audience’s experiences at balls. This was true especially after 1850 as the sets commonly included waltzes, polkas, mazurkas, and other national dances, and often culminated with the the high-energy galop. The dances were increasingly highlighted and advertised in the libretti for the ballets with greater frequency after the mid-century. Since the theater was one of the few places where Italians gathered in large numbers, it was essential to the spread of ideas, both political and social, as well as social dance trends. This study examines the role of the group dances within the ballets, their musical features, and choreographic features (as much as can be determined). Further, I examine the relationship between the series of the group dances found in ballets and those danced at balls during the nineteenth century. Select ballets, including especially those in which a ball was staged as a part of the dramatic action or in which overt Risorgimento themes are present, serve as case studies. By the century’s end Pallerini’s and Manzotti’s ballets (such as Excelsior) included large numbers of dancers and prolific group dances and can be seen as the culmination of the trend towards a greater number of and complexity within the group dances. This trend can also be read against the backdrop of the Risorgimento as representing staged notions of a collective, unified Italy.

 

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

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.

 

Finkel, Carola: Les Plaisirs du Bal du Mannheim – eine Betrachtung zum Tanzrepertoire in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts

Les Plaisirs du Bal du Mannheim, eine anonyme und undatierte Publikation von Contredanses, ist zwar vom Titel her nicht unbekannt, hat aber bislang in der Tanzforschung keine Beachtung gefunden. Dies allerdings zu Unrecht, denn die enthaltenen Choreographien sind ein bedeutendes Zeugnis für die Entwicklung des Tanzrepertoires in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Sechs der insgesamt zwanzig Contredanses sind sogenannte cotillons en colonne. Diese Tanzform wurde bislang nur flüchtig thematisiert. Der Vortrag befasst sich mit der Entstehung dieser neuen Form des Gesellschaftstanzes und mit seinen verschiedenen Ausprägungen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die Choreographien in Les Plaisirs besondere Merkmale haben, die sich von anderen erhaltenen Quellen dieser Tanzform abheben.

Aber nicht nur für den cotillon en colonne, sondern auch für die Frühgeschichte eines anderen Balltanzes sind die Tänze in diesem Druck ein interessanter „missing link“, wie im Vortrag dargestellt wird. Ergänzend wird der entstehungsgeschichtliche Kontext der Publikation thematisiert. So konnte für den Druck das exakte Publikationsjahr ermittelt werden, für das bislang 1777 angenommen wurde. Damit verbunden wird die Frage nach der Autorschaft von Choreographien und Musik diskutiert.

 

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

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.

 

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.

 

Hoffmann-Cabenda, Birte: »Das tanzende Hamburg«, Der Gesellschaftsabend als Mittel hanseatischer Selbstdarstellung

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.

 

Alan Jones: Pierre Landrin Duport: Elegant Accomplishments of a French Dancing Master in the United States

Born circa 1762, Pierre Landrin Duport studied dance in Paris under Maximilen Gardel, published his first contredanses in Paris (engraved by his father, Pierre-André Landrin), and established himself as a young dancing master in Dublin before emigrating from Revolutionary France to the United States. In Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and finally Washington, DC, he introduced hundreds of young Americans to the refinements of French dance, from the minuet and allemande to such rarities as the monférine and périgourdine. This lecture will focus on his "exhibition balls," featuring demonstrations by children, followed by dancing for their parents and adults.

 

Mettel, Michaela: Der Ball als cultural performance - Kriterien einer methodologischen Analyse

Seit den einigen Jahren wird das Konzept des Performativen, losgelöst vom reinen linguistischen Sprechakt, immer mehr in die geschichts- und kulturwissenschaftliche Methodik aufgenommen. Im Kontext dieser Methode zur Untersuchung menschlichen Verhaltens wird davon ausgegangen, dass jedes menschliche Handeln Perfomanz ist, also eine öffentliche Darstellung seiner selbst. Eng verbunden mit der Performanz ist die anthropologische Kategorie der Inszenierung, das in Erscheinung bringen von gesellschaftlichen oder kulturellen Phänomenen, die auf natürlichem Wege nicht zustande kämen.

Es erscheint im ersten Moment nicht ungewöhnlich, vom Ball als eigenständigen, performativen Akt oder einer Inszenierung zu sprechen. Jedoch geht dieser selbstverständlichen Annahme unweigerlich die Frage voraus: wie wird das Performative im Kontext des Balles konstruiert?

In der Geschichts- wie auch Kulturwissenschaft bietet sich im Phänomen des Balls ein weites Spektrum an Untersuchungsansätzen, die einen festen Kriterienkatalog zum einen aufzeigen und zum anderen die Möglichkeit bieten, aus anderen Bereichen theoretische Akzente in die Analyse einfließen zu lassen: Wie konstituiert sich der Ball selbst als kulturelles Phänomen? Welche politischen, gesellschaftlichen, kulturellen und auch privaten Inszenierungen sind im Vorfeld planbar? Oder definieren sich diese erst durch den performativen Akt des Balles selbst? Welche Rolle können die einzelnen sozialen Akteure im Verlaufe einer Ballnacht spielen?

Diesen und weiteren Fragen nach den kulturwissenschaftlichen, anthropologischen oder auch soziologischen Prämissen soll in dem Vortrag nachgegangen werden. 

 

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

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.

 

Nowaczek, Jadwiga: Die Ballszene aus den "Leiden des jungen Werther" von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe aus tanzhistorischer Sicht.

 

Rannow, Angela: Zwar ist sie hin, die Prinzessin: Tanz bei kur-, fürstlichen und adeligen Hochzeiten am Dresdner Hof im 17. Jahrhundert

Von skizzenhaft bis akribischen Akten des kursächsischen Oberhofmarschallamtes ausgehend geht es in diesem Beitrag um den Tanz am Dresdner Hof bei kur-, fürstlichen und adeligen Beilagern des 17. Jahrhunderts. Hochzeiten bieten sich dafür besonders an: geheiratet wurde immer, auch in Notzeiten. Aber wurde auch immer getanzt? Hinsichtlich konkreter Tänze, des Grades ihrer Beherrschung oder gar tänzerischer faux pas schweigt das Quellenmaterial der sächsischen Bürokratie delikat. Peniblen „Quecklisten“, akkuraten Ordnungen, detaillierten Dienstwartungen und ungefehrlichen Entwürfen lassen sich jedoch etliche Geheimnisse hinsichtlich des Tanzens am Dresdner Hof des 17. Jahrhunderts entlocken. Das betrifft den Ablauf, den Schauplatz der Tanzenden, die zum Tanze aufwartenden Musiker, die Tanzenden und ihre Funktionen beim Tanz. Wie so oft erweist sich als besonders aufschlussreich, was nicht geregelt und der dexterität, dem Belieben und impliziten Wissen der Anwesenden überlassen wurde.

 

Sundukova, Daria (video transmission): Balls in the Russian Noble Assembly

The Russian Noble Assembly, founded in 1783, was one of the most fashionable establishments in Moscow. Its regular balls and masquerades during the social season (from November till April) gained an excellent reputation for its refined public and gorgeous dance hall – and highly influenced ball culture all over Russia.

The lecture will follow different aspects of the ball organization in the Russian Noble Assembly (late 18th century – 1840s): site, number of attendants, ticket price, formats of dancing events, musicians, servants, dances, dress-code, refreshments, supper, and security. Who organized the balls, what do we know about income and expenses, what problems did the Assembly face and what ways were chosen to overcome them? Beside these questions, such aspects as social and political environment, the problem of communication between imperial power and noble society during the social entertainments will be revealed. The connections between the Assembly and one of the most famous Moscow dancing masters of the time, Pierre Jogel, will be shown as well.

This research is based mostly on papers from the Russian Noble Assembly collection (Moscow Central State Archive), but also on the Assembly rules, letters, memoires, publications in periodicals, satire works and guidebooks.

 

 

Research Posters:

Derkach, Maria: Using Russian-German relationship for the reconstruction of a Russian ball at the beginning of the 19th century

The reconstruction of a ball in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century is quite complicated because of the lack of dance manuals at that time. Indeed, between Kuskov’s (1794) and Petrovsky’s (1825) books no dance manuals and even mentions of the existence of such sources have not been found yet. Nevertheless the balls in Russia were surely an essential part of leasure time of Russian aristocracy, as the memoirs tell us. In search for solutions many links lead us to German sources. First we need to remember that beginning with Catherine II all wifes of Russian monarchs were German. Secondly, very often the tutors of Russian aristocracy were German as well. There are also some clues in books: the style of the language, in which Petrovsky writes his book, makes us think he had German roots in his language. Another valuable German source of 1806 is the book of Ivensen published in Riga, which already had become a part of Russia.

On the other hand Russian dance culture was not identical to the German one and some dances were poplular in one country and almost not danced in another. For example, Monimask and Matredur much more popular in Russia while Anglaises, which were an essential part of a German ball of the 1st decade of XIX century, were rarely danced in Russia. Studying German dance books together with Russian memoirs helps us to understand the true picture of the Russian dance culture.

 

Derkach, Maria and Filimonov, Dmitry: The Waltz in the late 18th - early 19th century: styles, use and techniques

The study of a German turning dance (which appeared as Deutscher, Dreher, Länderer, Waltzer and under many other names) in the first half of the 18th century is not that easy to fulfil because in Germany it was considered not that appropriate for a ballroom in comparison with French dances. Dancing masters became more tolerant towards this dance in the second half of the 18th century and even started to include it into other dance forms. Still there are no clear German descriptions of the techniques of this dance. The situation changes right on the turn of the century. After 1800 lots of German sources appear, which are quite unanimous in describing three types of turning dances: slow turning, quick turning and jumping turning, though their names may differ from source to source. The latter type seems to mix with the second one and evolves in 1820s into a huge variety of "hops" waltzes. As to the first one, the descriptions remain the same.

Knowing the situation in the first third of the 19th century we can try to find descriptions of the 18th century turning techniques. No wonder that German authors didn’t describe their own national dance, as everybody at that time knew how to dance it. Luckily for us there was a French choreographer Brives, who described 4 techniques of «Valx»: one French and three German ones.

The relationship between waltz techniques in 1800s and in 1820s gives food for thought and casts doubts on the modern reconstruction of the French slow waltz based on the description by Thomas Wilson. We can also find the source for Wilson’s arm positions by comparing this English treatise to German dance books of the early 19th century.

 

Jones, Alan: The career of Franco-American dancing master Pierre Landrin Duport

The poster focuses on the career of dancing master Pierre Landrin Duport, from his childhood playing violin at the public balls of the Paris Opéra, to his years as dancing master in Dublin, to his career teaching in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. It sheds light on the respective Dance Evening.

 

Mettel, Michaela: Dissertationsprojekt: Performing Gender? Geschlechterrollen in den Tanztraktaten der italienischen Renaissance

Grundlage des Dissertationsprojektes ist die hermeneutische Untersuchung der Rollen von Mann und Frau in den Tanztraktaten des Quattro- und Cinquecento anhand verschiedener geschichts-, sozial- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Theorien und Methoden, die in ihrer Kombination (hier vor allem im Umgang mit dem spezifischen und bisher marginal betrachteten Thema „Tanz“) eine neue Herangehensweise in diesen Disziplinen darstellen.

Der Tanz der italienischen Renaissance dient als Ausgangspunkt, um öffentliche Geschlechterrollen in einem mikrogeschichtlichen, eng definierten Handlungsraum zu analysieren. Die sozialen Rollen, die beide Geschlechter innerhalb ihrer gesellschaftlichen Schicht innehaben, sind klar definiert. Schwerpunkt der Analyse ist die Frage, ob sich diese im eigenständigen sozialen Raum des Tanzes durch Neuinszenierungen und Neudefinierungen von geschlechtlicher Identität vom gesellschaftlichen status quo emanzipieren oder diesen weiterführen.

Fragestellungen u. a. nach Selbstdarstellung, Selbstinszenierung, dem performativen Akt des Tanzens, ebenso wie das „Spiel zwischen den Geschlechtern“, die nonverbale Kommunikation des Körpers und die Ambivalenz von flüchtiger Performanz und einem ritualhaften Charakter der Tänze und deren Aufführungen erweitern die Analysekriterien.

Das Poster wird noch keine Ergebnisse präsentieren können, da es sich um ein laufendes Projekt handelt, sondern wird den Fokus auf die methodische Herangehensweise legen.

 

Nikitin, Dmitry: Balls of the Russian Empire in the 18-19th centuries. How we can look at them in the light of modern ideas about the quality of dance events.

The grandiosity and pomp of court balls in the Russian Empire has been steadily increasing since the time of Peter the Great. In the beginning of the 18th century the Russian emperors were mostly copying the court balls in the German states, and then the balls of London, Versailles, Vienna and other European capitals. But starting with a simple imitation of the West, they not only managed to reach the European level by the end of the 19th century, but also developed their own ballroom tradition. This was facilitated by both - the typical features of the Russian character and the economic opportunities of the powerful state. The report examines the most grandiose court balls in the Russian Empire in the 19th century, describes and evaluates them. The analysis and evaluation is carried out according to criteria, which were developed by the author and set out in the framework of his lecture at the Academy of Russian Ballet Vaganova in 2016.

 

Shmakova, Alena: Dance Assemblies in Georgian Edinburgh

The Dance Assembly in Edinburgh could be traced back to 1710 when the semi-private club was organised in the Old Town. Faced with strong criticism from the church and residents it did not last. However, the second attempt to enliven the social dance scene led by the well-established female society leaders was successful. Edinburgh Assembly was formed in 1723 and created the model by which the Assemblies ran for the next 100 years in Edinburgh and major Scottish towns. Dance Assemblies created a further demand for skilled dancing masters, musicians, and collections of dances, some of which formed the foundation of the repertoire of modern Scottish country dances. They also provided further opportunities to express Scottish identity through dance and music, creating such interesting dance forms as Strathspey Minuet and Scotch Reel and culminating in the Scottish themed Balls during the historical visit of George IV to Edinburgh in 1822.

My poster presentation will focus on analysing the roles of Dance Assemblies in Scottish society during the Enlightenment. In addition, I am interested in exploring how the developing ideas of national identity were reflected in the most fashionable ballrooms in Scotland. As such I would pay special attention to the dance practice of Edinburgh Assemblies at the time of the Royal Visit of George IV in 1822 organised by Sir Walter Scott.

 

Tuck, Bill: The Lunatic Asylum Ball: voyeuristic spectacle or dance therapy?

From the middle of the 19th century and the foundation in England of a great network of public ‘asylums for pauper lunatics’ (following the parliamentary Acts of 1808 and 1845) there evolved the practice of holding ‘balls’ regularly throughout the year. At Colney Hatch, a very large asylum on the outskirts of London, there were no fewer than 15 such balls in the year 1868. Participants at these events might include patients as well as members of the public. Regular dance classes for inmates were also frequently arranged as part of their structured leisure activities – along with musical concerts and other entertainments. Similar practices were later initiated in US and Australian asylums, as well as in those of many other countries.

Attitudes to these ‘balls’ appear, however, to have been somewhat ambiguous. Were they intended as therapy for the patients or did they merely serve as voyeuristic entertainment for a curious public (as they had almost certainly been in an earlier age when a visit to Bedlam was an essential part of any social calendar)? Their role as a sophisticated public relations exercise, serving to convince a sceptical public of the value in contributing public funds to these institutions should also not be underestimated. The poster will illustrate some of these complex attitudes toward the Asylum Ball.

 

 

Workshops:

Daye, Anne: Law students’ Ball c.1600

The profession of law and legal training in England has been organised since medieval times through the Inns of Court in London. In Elizabethan and Jacobean times (c.1550 - 1650), students from all over England lodged in one of the inns, while studying with senior members of the legal community. Each Inn had a long tradition of communal celebrations, such as the Grand Days for dancing, music and plays held at Hallowmas (November 1st) and Candlemas (February 2nd). A number of manuscripts have survived to give us information on the dances they enjoyed and the organisation of the balls. Judges presided over the Grand Days, and senior lawyers ensured that the dancing was kept up in style. The norm was for the men to dance together, while women were invited in for special occasions.

In this workshop, participants will learn the English form of almains and courantes, called ‘the measures’. Following this warm-up, dancers will explore a proposed English version of the Spanish Pavan developed from Arbeau and Caroso as a basis for improvisation. The homosocial dancing at the Inns also included a dance for the nine muses, for which we can identify the tune to accompany the choreography. I propose that this was danced by nine men, as a symbol of peace.

The eight known manuscripts dated 1568 - 1672 relating to dancing at the Inns of Court are the only sources for social dancing in England (until the publication of country dances by Playford in 1651), and the Nine Muses dance is a unique choreography for an ensemble.

 

Feste, Irène: Variations of the "trait de la contredanse" in the 19th Century

The « trait de la contredanse », the key element of the quadrille de contredanse, in the early nineteenth century, allows dancers to move, even within the formation of a quadrille, according to a specific pattern using an elaborate combination of steps from the vocabulary of the theatrical dance (temps levé, chassé, jeté, assemblé, temps de Zéphir, pirouette, entrechat...). Thus, the « trait de la contredanse » offers multiple opportunities for dancers to show their virtuosity during the ball.

For the workshop, from one or two selected figures of the quadrille de contredanse, we work on the variety of some traits de la contredanse proposed by different dancing masters, as Gourdoux-Daux, Blanchard, Blasis, Claudius, to bring out technical differences and recurring forms. From these « traits de la contredanse », the dancers can also improvise, as did Mr Trénis, « the Vestris of ballroom », and create their own traits to show their brilliant steps.

 

de Guardiola, Susan: Waltzes, Newports, and Rackets: Common Movement Units in Late 19th Century American Couple Dance.

The rapid explosion in published dances, dance sequences, and dance steps for the couple dance repertoire in America during the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the practice of annotating such dances beat-by-beat and movement by movement (slide/glissé, leap/jeté, cut/coupé, etc.) leads to the conceptualization of variations in couple dancing of this era primarily as fixed, often lengthy, sequences of steps with weirdly colorful names: Eclair, Metropole, Antlers, Pasadena, Bronco, Manitou, etc. As a result, dance pedagogy in late nineteenth-century social dance can devolve into teaching historically insignificant sequences - dances, rather than dancing - which masks the substantial similarities among them and inhibits the development of partner connection and improvisational ability. Extracting and analyzing larger movement units employed by dancing masters across different couple dances and musical forms enables the isolation of common elements which, when taught as such, enable more effective development of high-level improvisational skill and the efficient mastery of the elaborately named choreographic sequences of the era. In this workshop, a selection of frequently-employed movement units will be taught and applied across several different dance forms, demonstrating how a relatively small repertoire of movements allows dancers to enjoy couple dancing to a wide range of music and to quickly understand and perform lengthier published dance variations.

 

Hazebroucq, Hubert: Dancing the corantoes (circa 1630) in the light of European sources

The courante has been the most practised ballroom couple dance in France, during the Seventeenth Century, before being supplanted by the minuet. However, very few technical sources document its practice before 1700, and nearly all were written or published out of France. Some descriptions of steps or variations can thus be found in Italy for the first decades of the XVIIth C, notably thanks to Negri (1600) and Santucci (1614) and England provides a second corpus of sources, with the publication in London of Apologie de la Danse, 1623, by F. De Lauze, and moreover with a manuscript describing two corantoes and belonging to the Inns of court context (Ms. Rawlinson D 864, Bodleian Library, Oxford, circa 1630, according to Ian Payne).

The mystery of the sketchy notations for the "Coranto Dance" and "The Firstt Corantt" is deepened by the small and unclear diagrams annotated by some numbers, at the top of the two pages, plausibly drawing the spatial track. While several attempts of reconstruction have been done for the courante réglée by F. de Lauze, there has apparently been no extensive analysis of these corantoes, and no publication proposing a consistent interpretation linking the textual indications and the diagrams. My recent research intends to give some consistent hypotheses for a complete reconstruction.

The workshop will first propose, as a groundwork, to practice the basic steps according to the sources of the first half of the XVIIth century in Italy and England, in order to experiment the analogies and their stylistic variants. We will then focus on the interpretation of the corantoes in Ms. Rawlinson, in order to practice their main sequences and combinations, and to link the steps with the space. We will also experiment some comparisons with the sequences from De Lauze’s courante réglée, showing the structural similarities which open new perspectives and questions on the figured French courantes in England before 1650. We will here explore how much the courantes of that period were a canvas with constants, more than a really improvised dance, or a fixed choreography.

 

Jablonka, Guillaume: Setting up the "Allemande" within the space of a ballroom: Hypothesis based on Brives Nouvelle Méthode from 1779

This workshop aims at experimenting the alternation of "passes d'allemande" on the center spot and promenades in an "attitude" around a cotillon square set. The three following sequences will constitute the core of the workshop: learning a few figures of "allemande à deux" by Brives, then training a few figures taken from 1770 Jean Robert's Allemande Orleanoise on a cotillon square set or from French country dances where "passes d’allemande" happen and finally having several square sets of couples improvising "passes d'allemandes" and promenades in the same room.

Reconstructing the "Allemande" of the late 18th century is nowadays mainly based on the positions detailed by Mr. Guillaume in 1769 and the principles taught by Mr Dubois around the same period. Both treatises show engravings of the attitudes typical of this dance and explain how to manage the changes of handholds between these attitudes. But neither explains clearly how this happens in the ballroom or how the different figures are organized in the general flow of the dance. Thanks to Brives and Jean Robert it is now possible to know how to dance the allemande as a whole : the different "passes" or figures are danced in the center of the dancing space and each of them is followed by a certain portion of promenade or "course" around this space.

The explanations given by Brives and Jean Robert relate with coherence to French country dancing of the late 18th century including some "passes d’Allemande". Called German or not, country dances may contain Allemande handholds that are performed on spot and then a "tour de course" follows in the attitude in which the dancers finished. This has nothing to do with the "tour d'allemande" that is one of the different couplets of French country dancing.

While dancing the "Allemande", a common rule is needed so that all the couples can dance together in the same room: this is what this workshop is about. Brives makes a difference between the "Valx" and the "Allemande", the occupation of space is one of its aspects.

 

Filimonov, Dmitry: French branles for opening the ball in the late 16th–17th centuries

This workshop is dedicated to three branles: Simple, Gay and Poitou. These dances in different combinations were a part of an opening suite for French balls in the late 16th–17th centuries. Three most complete descriptions of these branles survived in Arbeau’s “Orchesographie” (1589), “Instruction pour dancer” (c. 1602), and de Lauze’s “Apologie de la Danse” (1623). While Arbeau’s branle descriptions are relatively straightforward, two other sources lack music and present more challenges for dance historians. Taking into account all currently known sources for these dances, as well as work on a textual and contextual analysis of “Instruction...”, we arrived at reconstructions that are compatible with each other, fit the descriptions quite well and help to explain some peculiarities of these descriptions. It allowed us to uncover underlying choreographic principles for these three branles that are the same in each of three descriptions as well as highlight differences between them. In the workshop, we’ll present our reconstructions of these dances for each of the three main descriptions. For each of the dances, we’ll discuss how these three variants relate to each other, what common features seem to persist and what differences in style can be seen there.

 

 

Dance Evenings:

Daye, Anne: "New from France": Cotillons in Georgian London

In contrast to the English country dance, the contredanse française or cotillon always had a strong French character even when composed by English masters. The numerous publications from c.1770 to c.1815 in London, Bath, Cambridge and Norwich are testimony to the popularity of this creative and sociable form throughout the Napoleonic Wars. Superseded by the quadrille, the cotillon had established many of the figures of the square set. It was danced by Jane Austen who noted in one of her last letters thanking her niece Fanny for the gift of a music book: ‘Much obliged for the Quadrilles which I am grown to think pretty enough, though they are very inferior to the Cotillions of mine own day’. Cotillon balls were a feature of the assembly room programmes, with inventive figures, delightful steps and charming music.

The cotillons will include: L’Entrée du Bal by Nicholas Lemaire 1773, Les Ombre Chinois by Thomas Budd c. 1780, Lison Dormoit by Francis Werner 1780

 

Jones, Alan: American Ball Dances from the turn of the 19th C.

The evening will begin with longways dances featuring music and figures by Pierre Landrin Duport, from his United States Country Dances ("The New Hampshire Allemande," "The Massachusetts Hop"), continuing with one or two of his cotillions.

 

Menard-Pugliese, Barbara and Pugliese, Antonia: European Ballroom Dances of the second quarter of the 19th century

Between the 1810s and the 1860s ballroom dance changed dramatically. At the beginning of the century triple minor country dances and quadrilles in two-couple sets were very common. After the introduction of the polka and the flat-footed German waltz, ballroom preferences began to favor turning couples dances and four-couple quadrilles. There was still a need for dances that "may be joined in by all the company present," so contra dances developed to meet the need.

A new form of contra dance appeared that involved couple facing couple in a large circle, often described as a circassian circle. Another contra dance style arranged the dancers in lines of side-by-side couples as in La Tempete.

We will teach dances that became popular in English and European ballrooms during the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s. There will be marches, country dances, and contra dances and these will show a change from the triple minor set, where one out of three couples is more active than the others, to circassian circles and other formats, where all dancers are active all of the the time.

 

 

Short Performances:

Irène Feste, e.a.: Les Passe-Temps du bal - Jean-Etienne Despréaux’s Memoirs of the Ball

Based on Jean-Etienne Despréaux’s writings, notably his Passe-Temps, his Terpsichorographie, and his Souvenirs..., we will evoke the emblematic balls he took part in, their repertoire and their preparation periods, showing the span of styles and contexts he experienced.

You will see Despréaux, himself, at a ball given by Marie-Antoinette, performing a dance next to his wife the Guimard, or giving a deportment lesson to the Emperor...

This show is the result of various research works on dances of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in connection with the workshops proposed during the Symposium.

Dancers: Irène Feste – Danses au (Pas)sé, Hubert Hazebroucq – Les Corps Eloquents, Guillaume Jablonka – Divertimenty

 

LA DANZA München (dir. Jadwiga Nowazek): „Mit ganzem Herzen und mit ganzer Seele“ – Die Ballszene aus den „Leiden des jungen Werther“ von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

„Tanzen muß man sie sehen! ... sie ist so mit ganzem Herzen und mit ganzer Seele dabei, ihr ganzer Körper eine Harmonie, so sorglos, so unbefangen, ... als wenn sie sonst nichts dächte, nichts empfände; und in dem Augenblicke gewiß schwindet alles andere vor ihr.“ So charakterisiert Johann Wolfgang von Goethe die auf einem Ball tanzende Lotte in einem seiner berühmtesten Werke, den „Leiden des jungen Werther“ (Erstausgabe 1774). Seine treffsicheren Formulierungen verraten den überaus empfindsamen, mitfühlenden Zuschauer, der diese innere Hingabe im Tanzen wahrscheinlich auch bei sich selbst erfahren hat.

Die im Werther enthaltene Ballszene ist aus tanzhistorischer Sicht höchst interessant, u. a. auch, weil sie autobiographische Züge trägt und dadurch einen starken Realitätsbezug hat. Zwei Jahre vor dem Erscheinen des Werther, am 9.6.1772, hatte sich Goethe auf einem Ball unglücklich in Charlotte Buff verliebt, nicht wissend, dass diese schon verlobt war, und seine Erfahrungen im fiktiven Briefwechsel des Werther verarbeitet. Goethe beschreibt dort das Ballgeschehen derart anschaulich und konkret bis in einzelne Tanzfiguren hinein, dass man davon ausgehen kann, dass der reale Ball von 1772 in ähnlicher Weise verlaufen sein könnte. Es werden die gängigen Gesellschaftstänze getanzt: Menuett, Kontratanz, Deutscher Tanz – genau die Tänze, die der geniale Mozart in seiner Oper Don Giovanni (Finale 1. Akt) gleichzeitig erklingen lässt. Die Ballszene des Werther enthält mancherlei aufschlussreiche Formulierungen und Bemerkungen Goethes zur realen Tanzpraxis seiner Zeit, die Thema eines kurzen einleitenden Vortrags sind. Das Ensemble La Danza München präsentiert diese packende, mit Emotionen aufgeladene Ballszene mit Tänzen des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts (Rekonstruktion: Jadwiga Nowaczek) im Wechsel mit den entsprechenden Textstellen von Goethe und erweckt sie so zu neuem Leben. 

 

Tanzkompanie Chorea Basileae (Ltg. Mojca Gal): Dance forms in context: ballroom dance on stage?

By figured menuets, however, are meant those which are made up mainly of the ordinary composite minuet steps /.../ unless one wishes to dance it on stage instead of an entrée, where it of course takes on quite different characteristics and is danced mostly with high steps. (G. Taubert 1717, 616-17)

Dance company Chorea Basileae would like to present contrasting performances of same dance forms. Although they might have the same name and are often categorised under ballroom dance (a gavotte for example), their reconstruction will significantly change depending on the performance context and style. The reconstruction of a gavotte, marked as ‚grave‘ as theatrical ballet entrée in serious style, thus greatly differs from a ballroom gavotte. For example in the height of the steps, character and tempo, or from a lively gavotte in a half-serious style. The same can be observed for a Loure in a theatrical execution as ,entrée grave’, or as a low ballroom dance. The programme is a result of a long-distance collaboration with the Canadian dance historian and choreographer Edmund Fairfax.

Dancers: Mojca Gal - Chorea Basileae, Antonin Pinget - Chorea Basileae, Nicolle Klinkeberg