Reconstructing Technique - Creating Performance

DHDS Study Forum

This Study Forum will emphasise the role of practical research in early dance. The twin themes will be technique and performance, ranging from the 15th to the 19th century and extending beyond dance to music and drama. We hope to address such questions as:

• Can we really reconstruct technique from surviving sources?
• What is technical mastery and how can we achieve it?
• How should we teach early dance?
• How can we turn written or notated choreographies into fully realised dances?
• What makes a reconstruction into a performance?
• How should we present surviving dances without their original contexts?
• Can we revive past dance works where key elements, e.g. choreography or music, do not survive?
• Can early dance reconstructions be historically informed and entertaining?

Programme of the study forum

Proposals for workshops and abstracts of papers should be sent to arrive no later than 30 September 2012 at the following address:

Dr. Anne Daye, 96 Dover Crescent, Bedford, MK41 8QH, UK .