I shouldn't have to say this, but apparently I do:
Authenticity and aesthetics are separate qualities. A high level of one does not imply a high level of the other. Lack of one does not imply lack of the other. They are almost completely independent variables.
That means that...
...if I say that a dance is a very good reconstruction, that doesn't mean it's a great dance, or a fun dance. It just means it's a good reconstruction, authentic to the period. There are plenty of very accurate reconstructions of really bad dances. I know; I've done some of them myself. History is chock-full of lousy dances. I try to not do those, because they may be historical, but they aren't fun. In some cases, sure, I might be failing to appreciate their qualities because of a failure to understand their original context or the enormous cultural gulf between today and centuries ago. But some dances are just bad.
...if I say something is a bad reconstruction, that does not mean that it's ugly, or awful, or even that I don't enjoy dancing it. It's just that it's not historically accurate. There are a lot of great dances that are not historically accurate. In fact, it's easier for an inaccurate dance to be good -- finding unambiguously great historical dances is something of a needle-in-a-haystack search, but one can tinker with a modern choreography or adaptation to take out all the silly bits and leave only the best parts. That's why I said almost completely independent above. Bad reconstructions can cheat.
...if I say something is a good dance, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a historically accurate reconstruction. I can appreciate the beauty of dances that are not well reconstructed, though this is obviously affected by my personal taste in dances. Something I consider beautiful, others might not, and vice-versa. I'm allowed to have preferences, just like anyone else. Because of my field of study, I am somewhat more likely to find a dance appealing if it is also a good reconstruction, because I am more than normally sensitive to bad reconstructions, and I find certain kinds of bad reconstruction very annoying. But there are bad reconstructions and historically inaccurate dances that I acknowledge are very good, even if they are not to my personal taste.
...if I say I don't want certain dances at a historical event because they are bad reconstructions, it's not because I think they are bad dances or even because I don't like them. They might or might not be, and I might or I might not; those issues are irrelevant. If I'm trying to do a historical event, I want to use only good reconstructions, preferably of good dances, because that is what striving for historical authenticity is all about.
So if you ask me if I like a particular dance, you're either going to get an ambiguous answer if I don't feel like explaining myself or an overly-detailed one if I do. If you want to know if I think something is a good dance, ask that. If you want to know if I think it's a good reconstruction, ask that. Don't ask if I like it if you actually want the answer to either of those other two questions, because that doesn't produce a useful answer to either of them. Heck, there are some fairly mediocre dances and dreadful reconstructions for which I have a nostalgic affection, just like any other guilty pleasure.
That is all.
There's one interesting complication. For many people not very well versed in dance history simple references to historical dance are enough to make any dance more romantic and interesting. If it resemble something dances in a "historical" movie and have a "historical" label pasted on it, that adds to the excitement.
When one knows more about the actual historical practice such references often clash with one's expectation. This can make the same dance much less interesting and exciting for them.
Posted by: Ростислав Кондратенко | September 06, 2018 at 06:17 AM
Rostik -
Yes, certainly. It doesn't really work on me, perhaps because I see so few movies that I didn't imprint on any of them before learning enough about historical dance to make watching them painful. And now it has something of the reverse effect; the more people who moon about particular ahistorical dances in particular films/TV shows (*cough*MrBeveridgesMaggot*cough*) the more irritating I find them.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | September 17, 2018 at 09:46 AM
...also interesting and logical..............
Posted by: rc | January 13, 2019 at 03:05 PM