On Common Ground (1996)

Middlesex University School of Dance, incorporating The London College of Dance, Bedford, 24 February 1996

On Common Ground was organised by the HDS, with the assistance of Middlesex University School of Dance, as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations. The aim of the conference was to explore the common ground of the principles and concepts of historical dance shared by researchers and practitioners in the field by bringing together people who value a valid and informed representation of dance of the 15th-19th century in their work and study. It was attended by teachers, researchers, performers, choreographers and students. The common ground was marked out by the sources they all share in arriving at a representation of dancing in the past.

All of the papers are available to download.

Ivor Guest – The establishment of the ballet d’action in France

Moira Goff – Serious, Grotesque or Scenical? The Passagalia of Venus and Adonis and dancing on the London stage 1700-1740

Ann Hutchinson Guest – Capturing details of performance

Peggy Dixon – The Estampie. Arrangements of value to teachers and performers

David Wilson – The art of transcription. A discussion of the issues in transcribing, using fifteenth century Italian texts

Ian Gatiss – Will the music tell you what to do? Illustrations from Playford

Nicola Gaines – The I.S.T.D. Dance Research Committee – the first five years

Jennifer Thorp – Style or Stylus? Mr Isaac’s dance notators in the early eighteenth century.

Diana Cruickshank – Rooted in the Renaissance. A study of basic step structure and its development from early renaissance manuscripts to the early baroque period