“L’Europe Galante” - dances from Campra

"L'Europe Galante" – a course for Campra's 350th anniversary year, taught by Jane Gingell.

In 1697, Campras’s opera-ballet “L’Europe Galante” caused a sensation, with its sumptuous scenes set in a Spanish Garden, a Venetian Carnival and a Turkish Harem.
In this course, we’ll be doing selected pages of dances from this opera choreographed by Pécour, and looking at how the baroque stage in France portrayed the other nations of Europe in the paintings and engravings from this period. The popular melodies from L’Europe Galante soon found their way into the ballroom, so we’ll explore some contredanses as well.

The course is suitable for those with some experience of baroque dance; or other dance types (e.g. ballet, flamenco) where an arm technique is employed.