I will be teaching two dance workshops for The Elegant Arts Society in New York City this Sunday, September 7th. Logistical details are here.
The first (1:00-3:45pm) will focus on the dances of the Regency era (1810-1820), including steps and figures for country dances and the Royal Scotch and Caledonian Quadrilles, plus the Regency-era waltz. The Royal Scotch Quadrilles feature the "star" figure described in an earlier article here. We will also dance the nine person reel known as the Bumpkin!
The second class (4:00-6:00pm) will focus on the swaying moves of the maxixe, or Brazilian tango, a hot dance fad in the early 1910s. This is not a class in Richard Powers' maxixe choreography; I will be teaching how to dance the maxixe freestyle to the music of Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth.
Ooooh. Is the Maxixe music you have available? We have only the two tunes to work with at The Conservatory, and are always hoping for more.
Posted by: Jeff | September 02, 2008 at 09:49 AM
Look for recordings of Ernesto Nazareth's music - there are plenty of them out there, though you may have an interesting time finding ones played in a danceable way. The maxixes may be labeled as tangos or the CDs may distinguish between "Brazilian tango" (=maxixe) and "Argentine tango" (=the usual sort of tango).
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | September 02, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Jeff, on the Maxixes check The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project of UC Santa Barbara.
There are recordings of the National Promenade Band that have some early 20th Century favorites including 3 Maxixes: Dengozo, Amapa Maxixe and Sans Souci.
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query=national+promenade+band&queryType=@attr+1%3D1016
They are available for download as mp3 or wav files. The sound quality varies, but you can do your own clean up.
Posted by: Jessica | September 06, 2008 at 07:48 PM
Thanks,
I'll do some lookups this evening.
Posted by: Jeff | September 08, 2008 at 10:43 AM