Matt's Baroque Dance Links
Annual Oxford Dance Symposium
Organised by Michael Burden and Jennifer Thorp, and looking principally at 17th and 18th century dance. Usually held around the beginning of May at New College, Oxford.
F. Le Roussau, A Collection of New Ball- and Stage Dances, 1720
A facsimile of Roussau's manuscript collection of dances (LMC Ms-90, FL/Ms13.1) as well as the printed version of his Chacoon for Arlequin (LMC [c1728]-Cha, FL/1728.3s) with an introduction and background information by Jennifer Thorp.
Matt says: For a facsimile edition this is surprisingly cheap, unfortunately it shows – both the paper and the cover are thin and flimsy. However the quality of the facsimile is good – I have had a digital copy of Ms-90 for a while now, and it was hard to work out exactly what was going on where the notation had been ammended, but in this edition it's much clearer. But, why the inappropriate use of Comic Sans on the cover?
Oxford Historical Dance Society
Group that organises one-day workshops in different historical dance styles.
The Early Dance Consort
Directed by Fiona Garlick and John Barnard, based in Sydney. Renaissance and baroque dance.
Baroque Dance
25 minute DVD (PAL format only?) showing four extant and six newly choreographed dances performed by Nicola Gaines and Christopher Tudor, with commentary by Michael Holmes and Dr. Susan Danby.
Matt says: The dancing here seems representative of the Belinda Quirey school with its characteristic floaty arms. Unfortunately, being based on such old scholarship means that the choreographed gavotte does not demonstrate the correct gavotte rhythm. In fact, the level of scholarship is rather low in general: in addition to using so few original choreographies (why?), I'm very dubious about their story of the Académie Royale de Danse which seems speculative and to disagree with what I've read elsewhere – some citation of sources would be appreciated.