Four Daily Online 2-hour Baroque Dance Steps in Context workshops during the Easter period.

Steps in Context workshops are a mix of Technique, Notation Reconstruction and Presentation Skills, but you don't need to be able to read notation to attend these sessions but those interested will have the opportunity to reconstruct some dance extracts.

All times stated are UK time zone

Session 1: 11am to 1pm: All Levels, Beginners & Improvers welcome:

A daily workshop covering the four dance rhythms of La Bourgogne.

Session 2: 2pm to 4pm: Intermediate/Advanced:

Sarabande à deux (from Tancrède) I & II; Friday & Saturday.

Entrée pour une femme (forlane) I & II, Sunday & Monday.

Session 3: 4.30pm to 6.30pm: All Levels, Beginners & Improvers welcome:

Minuet from The Address I & II, Friday & Saturday.

Chacoon for a Harlequin I & II, Sunday & Monday.

Session 4: 7.15pm to 9.15pm: Intermediate/Advanced:

Entrée de matelot I & II, Friday & Saturday.

Hornpipe from The Pastorall I & II, Sunday & Monday.

Different sections, of the dances marked I & II, will be chosen so participants may attend session II if unable to attend session I.

Minimum numbers are requied for all workshops, so please book sessions asap to ensure they all run.

Fee reductions for those attending multiple workshops, low income and full-time students.

For further information and book session, please contact Philippa: philippa@ukbaroquedance.com

https://forms.gle/rgjHXWkwEtdPkSUa6

The order of dance shall be as follows:   Opening dance: Cupido & Saltarello Petite Rose Pregionera* Filles a Marier# Leoncello* Lybens Distonys Danse de Cleves* Amoroso# Orynge* Gioliva & Saltarello# Marchesana* Vito di Cholino* Fia Guilemina* Gioioso* Grene Gynger#   # = quick walk-through review * = those who know it no mark = speed-taught  

Registration: https://forms.gle/U4oLmvdFzFuPgS8f9

Playford 1651 ... et plus ! est une conférence en trois parties ayant pour objectif d'apporter aux danseurs un éclairage théorique sur leur pratique des danses à figures anglaises.

La deuxième partie en français (2/3) sera donnée le samedi 27 mars 2021 de 18h00 à 19h30 (heure de Paris).

The lecture will be given in French. At other proposed dates, it will be spoken in English. First part (1/3) in English : Saturday, March 13, 2021 

Au programme de cette deuxième partie : 

Cécile Laye nous aidera en s'inspirant du mémoire qu'elle a écrit pour le centre Centre National de la Danse à comprendre comment et à partir de quoi une danse de John Playford se structure.  Nous verrons plusieurs vidéos filmées.

Il est possible d'assister à cette 2ème causerie même si on n'a pas assisté à la première.

---> Inscription : ici  <---

Cécile LAYE étudie les danses historiques en Angleterre avec la Dolmetsch Historical Danse Society, Nonsuch History and Dance et la EFDSS (English folk Dance and Song Society). Elle a en particulier l’occasion de travailler sous la direction de pédagogues ou de chercheurs éminents tels que Anne Daye, Anne Cottis, Peggy Dixon, Ethyl Anderson, Marjorie Fennessy, Tom Cook et Alan Davies. En France, elle étudie avec Francine Lancelot, Andréa Francalancci et Barbara Sparti. En 1998, elle fonde la compagnie CHESTNUT pour faire découvrir et aimer au public français le répertoire des danses à figures anglaises qu’elle s’applique à replacer dans le continuum historique chorégraphique européen.  Formée à la comédie et à la mise en scène au Cours Florent dont elle est diplômée, elle s’attache aussi à mettre en rapport le répertoire anglais avec certains aspects de l’histoire et de la littérature britannique. 

Elle enseigne en France, en Belgique, en Angleterre et au Amherst Early Music Festival aux Etats-Unis. Elle obtient en 2016, l’Aide à la Recherche et au Patrimoine en Danse du Centre National de la danse pour constituer une typologie des danses de la 1ère édition de l’English Dancing Master.

Cécile LAYE is CHESTNUT’s artistic director.

She studied old dance forms in England with the Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society,  Nonsuch History and Dance and EFDSS (English folk Dance and Song Society). She worked in particular under such famed teachers and researchers as  Anne Daye, Anne Cottis, Peggy Dixon, Ethyl Anderson, Marjorie Fennessy, Tom Cook and Alan Davies. In France she studied with Francine Lancelot, Andréa Francalancci and Barbara Sparti.

At the end of the eighties, she founded AMARILLIS, a dance company meaning to bring to the public figure dances of the Stuarts’ time and the English inheritance, as well as some aspects of history and literature, with the collaboration of musicians and singers. AMARILLIS was replaced by CHESTNUT in 1998. CHESTNUT took over its predecessor’s artistic activities (creating dance and theatre shows), its teaching (preparing dancers for Balls through a rich program of workshops and classes) and its publication ones (CDs, dance descriptions, articles on Playford and modern dances).

Over the years, Cécile LAYE has build up a strong experience as a dancing master and ball caller (French Renaissance balls/ English figure dances balls, or a mixture of both). She can pass on her taste for and pleasure in elegant dancing to beginners as well as seasoned dancers.

Besides her activities in the field of dancing, Cécile Laye studied dramatic art and staging, graduating at Cours Florent. She also graduated at Eva Ruchpaul’s Yoga Institute and the Paris school of Gestalt-therapy. She played Shakespeare, Molière and Marivaux in Paris and elsewhere in France and takes part in creating new plays and shows, for children in particular.

She draws on both sides of her extensive training, physical and artistic, to develop her teaching method.

Her constant aim is to understand the needs of a given group and of each person making up the group, to build up a class so that each person gradually understands the dance, becomes aware of his/her body and its expressive capacities, be it during a lesson, a ball, or on stage.

First (1/3) in a serie of three talks given in English and devoted to the repertoire of 17th Century English figure dances and its reference text.

After the generalities of use and the reminder of the historical context, I propose to guide you step by step through the English Dancing Master.

In this first talk program: 

1. – Generalities
2. – Historical background
3. – False leads
4. – Let’s open the book: orientation, numbering, proper and improper, music, …

• In the 2nd talk (2/3), I will use my ranking work done with the CND (National Dance Center in Paris) to do a structural study of the 1st edition dances starting with the Measure.

• In the last talk (3/3), I would like to mention the Revival movement for dance and its head figure, Cecil Sharp.

Cécile Laye's talk "Playford 1651 ... and more !" (1/3) in English

Saturday, March 13, 2021 

(France : 19h30 / UK : 6.30 pm / USA : 1.30 pm East ST / USA : 10.30 am  Pacific ST)

Registration: here

---> Please note: registration will be definitively closed on 03/12/2021 at 22:00 (Paris time)

Cécile LAYE is CHESTNUT’s artistic director.

She studied old dance forms in England with the Dolmetsch Historical Dance Society,  Nonsuch History and Dance and EFDSS (English folk Dance and Song Society). She worked in particular under such famed teachers and researchers as  Anne Daye, Anne Cottis, Peggy Dixon, Ethyl Anderson, Marjorie Fennessy, Tom Cook and Alan Davies. In France she studied with Francine Lancelot, Andréa Francalancci and Barbara Sparti.

At the end of the eighties, she founded AMARILLIS, a dance company meaning to bring to the public figure dances of the Stuarts’ time and the English inheritance, as well as some aspects of history and literature, with the collaboration of musicians and singers. AMARILLIS was replaced by CHESTNUT in 1998. CHESTNUT took over its predecessor’s artistic activities (creating dance and theatre shows), its teaching (preparing dancers for Balls through a rich program of workshops and classes) and its publication ones (CDs, dance descriptions, articles on Playford and modern dances).

Over the years, Cécile LAYE has build up a strong experience as a dancing master and ball caller (French Renaissance balls/ English figure dances balls, or a mixture of both). She can pass on her taste for and pleasure in elegant dancing to beginners as well as seasoned dancers.

Besides her activities in the field of dancing, Cécile Laye studied dramatic art and staging, graduating at Cours Florent. She also graduated at Eva Ruchpaul’s Yoga Institute and the Paris school of Gestalt-therapy. She played Shakespeare, Molière and Marivaux in Paris and elsewhere in France and takes part in creating new plays and shows, for children in particular.

She draws on both sides of her extensive training, physical and artistic, to develop her teaching method.

Her constant aim is to understand the needs of a given group and of each person making up the group, to build up a class so that each person gradually understands the dance, becomes aware of his/her body and its expressive capacities, be it during a lesson, a ball, or on stage.

This is a practical introductory workshop in eighteenth-century ballet technique, focusing on the serious and half-serious styles. The fundamentals of the technique (positions, constituent movements, orientations) will be presented, and the student will be systematically guided through a number of composite steps and their variants. The differences between the technique of the ballroom and that of the stage will be stressed, and entrenched misconceptions addressed. It is recommended that the student have some background in classical ballet, but the event is open to all. The workshop is led by Edmund Fairfax (author of _The Styles of Eighteenth-Century Ballet_ (2003)), and the material presented is based on his extensive research into this topic. See also his website: eighteenthcenturyballet.com.