Capering & Kickery

May 2024 Gig Calendar

I'm going to start off May with a long trip to England to teach and call at a folk festival and then do some research in London, where the British Library is finally semi-functional again after last autumn's cyberattack.  I have a lengthy "shopping list" of sources to look at and a list of museum exhibitions to visit while they are paging them!

After that, and April's travel insanity, I'm going to spend the rest of the month at home recovering and hopefully catching up on processing and cataloguing my research photos all the way back to February...

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Friday-Monday, May 3rd-6th ~ Evesham, UK
May Heydays
Major folk festival with a wide variety of dance and music.  I will be doing six workshops Saturday-Monday, a talk Saturday evening, and a Regency ball Sunday night.  Advance registration is closed but you can join at the door!

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I am available to travel for in-person dance teaching, lecturing, and ball precepting.  I am also still available for private or group online lessons and talks via Skype or Zoom (or your videoconferencing software of choice).  Please email me directly if you would like to schedule an event or workshop!

 

Coming in June: back in Boston to DJ for Bluesy Tuesy and do a bit of research, and a private online lecture!

The White Dove Dance

Please note the original date of this post!

A contemporary image of the White Dove shown in traditional weeping mode

The recent rediscovery of detailed documentation of the famous White Dove ritual dance has finally enabled dance historians to effectively locate it within the long tradition of syncretic miming dances tracing back to the well-documented branle subgenre of sixteenth century France and perhaps best considered in light of the later tradition epitomized by the early nineteenth century French chicken dance (La Poule), as suggested by its subtle incorporation of the pas de basque setting step.

Careful evaluation of the elaborate sequences of the dance and the skill required to mesh them with the irregularly structured traditional music that has been handed down to us indicates that this was no amateur social dance.  Performance of the ritual was likely limited to a dedicated corps of acolytes who underwent significant training and rehearsal prior to public performance in specially designed costumes, culminating in the metaphysical liberation of the soul, as symbolized by the release of white doves at the climax of the dance and the subsequent embodiment of the dove via the emulation of the motion of its wings by the corps.

While it is generally accepted that the tune of the White Dove dance originated in the Netherlands, the international transmission of the performing arts is evidenced by the undeniable fact that the first known lyrics were written in English, and the surviving documentation of the dance is associated with a rendition in Spanish.  As the lyrics and the complex code concealed within them and the symbolism of the Weeping Dove have been extensively analyzed elsewhere, and the details of the traditional costumes are beyond the scope of my studies, I will focus here on the practical performance of the elements of the dance and the required sequence matched to the music.  The dance elements may be divided as follows:

• the marching sequence, having both regular and extended versions
• the jumps to the left
• the arming sequence
• the Embodiment of the Dove