Strictly Historical Summer School 2015

with Darren Royston
23-28 August 2015
Harrogate in United Kingdom

Join the Nonsuch Dancers for a fully residential dance course this summer

Led by Nonsuch Artistic Director, Darren Royston, the Dancing Master from BBC Four’s “Dancing Cheek To Cheek: An Intimate History Of Dance”. You’ll be learning alongside members of our professional dance company. You will have the opportunity to dance social and theatrical dances from the circle dances of the Medieval period to the Charleston of the 1920s, including dances of country, court and ballroom. We will connect to different historical periods, with music, art, costume and evening dances. Watch performances and demonstrations, be instructed by Darren all the way from your first step to your final bow.

Daily dance classes exploring the style and technique of each historical period.
Instruction of dances from historical material revived for contemporary performance.
Evening sessions having fun recreating the dancing and pastimes of the Tudor, Stuart, Regency, and Victorian societies.

Optional activities include talks, lectures and local history trips or take the opportunity to explore the local area for yourself. No need to bring a partner – the course welcomes all ages of adults.

The venue, Ashville College, is set in beautiful landscaped grounds with plenty of parking on the outskirts of Harrogate and is accessible by road, rail or air, it is an ideal venue for this year’s Nonsuch Summer Holiday Course. The college has easy access to country walks and tours in the North Yorkshire Moors and the Yorkshire Dales. Take an afternoon to get refreshed in the world-famous Bettys Café Tea-rooms - established at the time when 1920’s crime novelist Agatha Christie hid-away in Harrogate as the Charleston shook the knees of dance history. So come and follow the dancing steps of Harrogate’s history this summer, flowing all the way from the middle ages to the syncopated age of jazz.

Address: Ashville College, Green Lane, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG2 9JP

This is a fully-residential course:-

Accommodation you will stay in recently refurbished twin study bedrooms (please contact us about single occupancy).
Three meals are provided daily, with everyone dining together in the spacious school halls:
- Breakfast; Full English and Continental options
- Coffee and Tea Breaks
- Two-Course Lunch and Dinner with Salad Bar and Fruit are included in the price.
Residents can use the schools facilities including: Sports Centre, Swimming Pool, Music and Games Rooms, TV, Internet, Computers and Lounges. There is a kitchen with refrigerators and cooking facilities for evening snacks and bed-time drinks.
Non-residential option available.

The Course, with 36 hours of tuition over four days, dance classes start after breakfast with a Laban based warm-up followed by classes where you will explore different dance histories, with exercises designed to teach performance style, sample dances, and references to history, costume, art, and the social world. Some live music will be included as a form of accompaniment, as well as CD recorded tracks which can be purchased with instructions to remember the dances. You will have the opportunity to work in separate groups with different technical skills. During the afternoons you will be able to develop and practice dance, or to take a break from the dancing and try some other historical activity, visit the local area, or simply relax.

Classes will accommodate all levels of dance experience, from beginners to advanced, and would be of interest to students, teachers, actors, choreographers and those interested in social history. The dance classes allow an opportunity to taste the historical style, then develop a good physical technique, before experiencing a wide range of dance repertoire. Beginners and Non-Dancers will be instructed in the basics. Intermediate and Advanced students will be offered master-class and advanced training. Some classes will bring all levels together.

Dances from History will stretch from medieval dances that would have been danced in Knaresborough Castle to the Servants Ball at Downton Abbey.

In between, we will meet the cosmic dances of Leonardo da Vinci, the theatrical dances of Shakespeare, the secret dances of Samuel Pepys, the polite dances of Jane Austen and the dances of Dickens’ Victorian London. Nonsuch instructions and CD’s are available for all the dances so as well as taking home happy memories from the course, you can also teach some of these historical dances to others.…

Accompanying instruction manuals and CDs available for purchase.

Prices & Information

Option 1 - £365 - Fully-Residential

Includes shared twin room, all tuition & meals from buffet supper on Sunday 23rd to breakfast on Friday 28th August
(£335 for members of Nonsuch) Become a member

Single accommodation can be booked at a supplement of £120

Residential students are requested to arrive at the College after 5pm on Sunday 23rd August (buffet supper available from 8pm.) Students are requested to depart after breakfast on Monday 28th August.