Master Class: Baroque Dance with Philippa Waite

Master Class: Baroque Dance with Philippa Waite

Saturday, April 7
4:00-5:30pm

Class Fee: $20.00

Register Online Today!

Dance in the 17th century marks the very beginning of our modern ballet art form and was cultivated under the aegis of Louis XIV in the royal courts of France. This style, we now call Baroque dance, developed into a highly stylised art form which, with the help of the newly formed notation system and numerous French Dancing Masters, was disseminated throughout the courts of Europe and further afield into the New World.

Baroque dance uses beautiful symmetrical spatial patterns and subtle arm movements which, with the steps, are intricately linked to the music of the period.

Using extracts from a number of 17th & 18th-century Baroque dance notations, in a variety of rhythms, this workshop will focus on basic technique and style including the ways the motions of the arms and head plus different musical interpretations can enhance the performance of dances in the Baroque style.

An understanding of basic steps and their rhythmic content, of various dance types such as the menuet, gavotte, gigue and sarabande can enhance any dancer’s understanding of the origins of ballet, be used in the performance of Country Dances of the period, contribute to an actor’s expertise in period theater, increase appreciation of the literature of the period and enrich the musician’s approach to the music of the Baroque.

We invite you to explore this ancient and beautiful dancing with us! All dance levels are welcome and you don’t need a partner!

UK based PHILIPPA WAITE, Artistic Director of Consort de Danse Baroque, is well known as a teacher, choreographer and performer of Early dance. After training as a dance teacher, she specialized in Baroque dance, and studied with Wendy Hilton, an internationally acknowledged expert in the field, in the USA, where Philippa subsequently acted as one of her teaching assistants.

Philippa wrote and presented an edition of BBC Radio 3's The Early Music Show on Baroque dance music. As well as performing and choreographing in period style Philippa teaches regular historical dance classes in the UK and is a guest tutor of Period Movement and Dance at the School of Acting, Birmingham City University and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff.

Philippa is the co-author with Judith Appleby of "Beauchamp-Feuillet Notation: A Guide for Beginner and Intermediate Baroque Dance Students" and is currently working with her on the publication of a collection of new choreographies in the Baroque style to Telemann’s Hochzeit-Divertissement.

All ticket sales are final. Performances, dancers, and guest artists subject to change.