Upcoming events, new books and other dance news

Dear Friends

6 items of news for this month—something for everyone!

1) Thanks to all our friends, local, interstate and overseas who’ve joined us in April at our 18^th century Night at Versailles, c.1800 Jane Austen Festival  and mid-late 19^th century Yarrangobilli retreat, in May at our Time Traveller’s dance party, in June at our Renaissance ball and in July for our Regency show at Hyde Park Barracks and Playford ball in Ainslie. We’ve put a few photos and dance programs from these events up at http://www.earthlydelights.com.au/dance-events/2013

2) It’s great that our present Saturday afternoon class is so well attended and thrilling to have 30 young (and not so young- I just turned 55 this weekend!) enthusiasts both lapping up early dance and keeping our 19^th century Australian dance heritage alive with lots of waltzing, galoping and mazurka-ing. We’ve 2 more weeks of the current Saturday class, 4 weeks break, then welcome returnees and newcomers back on 28 September.

3) Planning is now getting quite advanced on our two big events for 2014: Jane Austen Festival Australia  (to be centred at University House in Canberra) and our Yarrangobilly 19^th century music, dance and costume retreat (northern Kosciusko National Park, 2 ½ hours from Canberra). We’ve just put flyers for both up at http://www.earthlydelights.com.au/dance-events/upcoming .  As was the case last year, to make it easy for interstate and overseas enthusiasts to join us for both, we’ve put the events back-to-back—so you can enjoyed 7 magical days and nights of historic dance (and more) the week running up to Easter. We’ve got 40 on-site beds at each event but they need to be reserved early. If interested in Regency-era dance, please follow the link to the list for  JAFA ticket-release notification. If interested in Victorian-era dance, press the button for the Yarrangobilly early-bird ticket (expires end of August—and fast being taken up!).

4) We’re pleased also to announce the availability of a new edition of our Historic Dance volumes.  Please check outhttp://www.earthlydelights.com.au/books-cds, where you can find links to contents and extracts and mechanisms to order discount sets through us (something we are organising for some people this week) or individual volumes through the publisher. These new much improved and expanded (and not-to-be-superseded-in-the-near-future) volumes offer a comprehensive guide to social dance forms from 1450s to 1900, with overviews of dance context, study of dance technique, detail reconstructions of dances and surveys of dance sources. As dance never fell into neat boxes but evolved over this 450 year period, you won’t find everything you are interested in just one volume (e.g. early dance technique weaves through the first 5 volumes, English country through the middle six volumes, Australian Colonial dance through the last 5). If on a budget though, don’t hesitate to just start with one volume —perhaps Volume I or II if interested in Renaissance, Volume III if interested in the latest Renaissance and earliest English country, Volume IV and V if interested in Playford, his successors and continental contemporaries, Volume VI or VII if interested in Jane Austen era, and VIII, IX and X if interested in Victorian era dance in general, or just Volume X for the biggest concentration of discussion of Australian sources (though not of course the exclusive subject of the Volume), and then let that one volume start to open up new dimensions in your understanding of the dance you are enjoying while at the same time giving you everything you need to bring more of your favourite dance to life.  Let us know if we can help you.

5) Our next 3 balls at  St Johns Church Hall, Constitution Ave, Reid, Canberra, 7.30- 11.30pm, are:

• 19 October 2013 - Time Travellers Ball (followed by Sunday Picnic)
• 16 November 2013 - Mad Hatters Ball (followed by Sunday Victorian Tea Party)
• 14 December 2013 - Christmas Carol Ball

These themes are always fun and the extras planned for the next day mean interstaters can make a weekend of it—so do diary the dates. More details are at  http://www.earthlydelights.com.au/dance-events/upcoming.

6) For anyone receiving this news who is in the UK or knows people in the UK, please join us for 4 workshops we are offering over there on different themes in different places early next month:

• Wed. 4 Sept. 7pm-10:00pm, Time Traveller Dance Party, tasting treats from all 10 of John’s Historic Dance volumes, Old Finsbury Town Hall, Rosebery Ave., London EC1R4RP (possibly making theme of dances from outside the mainstream—e.g. from Gresley, Chistiano, Il Papa, Instruction pour dancer, Chigi, Pattricke/ Lovelace, Ramsey, Lansdowne, Sloane, Durlach, O’Neal mss or from Essex, Mrs Henderson, Christison etc)
• Sunday 8 Sept. 2:30-5:30pm, Jane Austen Dance Party, enjoying late Georgian & Regency-era dance, Guildhall, Broadway, High St, Winchester 2023 9GH (possibly all from Historic Dance Volumes VI and VII)
• Wed. 11 Sept. 2:30-5:30pm, Manor House Dance Party, tracing dances that lasted from Tudor to Victorian times, Barrington Court, Ilminster, Somerset TA19 ONQ (possibly making a theme of dances from across the eras featuring timeless corner stealing, partner chasing, weaving, relay mixing, and baulking)
• Mon 16 Sept. 4:30-6:00pm, ‘Regency dancing from downunder’, a special workshop on regency dancing, The ball-room at the Forum on St James Parade, Bath (possibly all from Historic Dance Volumes VI and VII)

Tickets for the first 3 are available from http://www.earthlydelights.com.au/dance-events/upcoming.

Warmest regards,

John (& Aylwen) Gardiner-Garden

0409817623 www.earthlydelights.com.au