Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian
This month will be very, very quiet for sixteen days. Then it will be very, very busy for ten days as I ricochet from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to London, England, leading balls and teaching. Whee!
After my London weekend I will be wandering around the UK for a few days doing research. Dorset, here I come!
Life and dancing return! October is going to be filled primarily with a two-week trip to Europe for a conference and a very special dance workshop, then home to Connecticut to prepare for a crazy late November.
To sleep, perchance to actually get rested? Once again, I have a non-gig calendar for the month, though I will be making a couple of personal trips, including an Actual Vacation for the first time since 2018. See you in October, when things get lively again!
We are now on May, Take III, and I have nothing original to say about it except that I am really looking forward to autumn. I'll make a short trip to Boston for DJing and library research, then back at home again for research and writing and all the mundane life stuff.
For the first time in four years we have a non-gig calendar! Previous July plans have been postponed, so I will be hibernating quietly at home this month, getting things prepared for later in the year (autumn will be lively!) and taking care of non-dance business.
June feels a bit like May, Take II: a quick trip to Boston early in the month to DJ and do a bit of library research, then holing up at home for research and writing…and yardwork and home renovations and all those little things I do when I'm not working.
Tra la…it's May! Waltz workshops and DJing a waltz afternoon in Boston early in the month, then I'll be taking a break from travel for some needed time at home for research and writing!
As April begins I'll still be on my March Chicago trip, now extended to Wisconsin. Then after a couple of weeks at home, I'll be on the road again to the amazing New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) and a Civil War ball in Pennsylvania, with a bit of DJing tucked in between. I'm looking forward to a fabulous and eclectic month!
March for me will come in like the proverbial lion as I wrap up my little European tour with a weekend of workshops in Munich and go out, err, still like the lion with a trip to Chicago for research and an evening of country dancing (loosely defined). In between, I'll be in Boston for DJing (and more research). Updated: the DJing and Boston trip are canceled, conveniently replaced by a class at a local university! Whee!
February starts gently for me with an online lecture that is a sort of sequel to one I did in Moscow eight (!!) years ago and one of my regular trips to Boston to DJ before I head off to Europe at the end of the month for a teaching trip to Belgium and Germany that will also take me briefly through Dublin and Amsterdam for research, art, and reunions.
Happy new year! I wasn't planning to travel for anything but library research this month while I wait out the post-holiday Covid surge and polish a bunch of old and new reconstructions for my European trip in February-March. But it seems I'm going to Boston to DJ again. Tomorrow! Whee!
Winding down for the year after a busy late autumn with a final trip up to Boston. Then home for a few weeks to attempt to catch up on writing projects!
Things are getting lively again! Online and in-person workshops, two balls, and a DJ gig, plus at least two library visits, and I'm hoping for four…
Writing time! I have a huge backlog of papers and articles to get written, so I'll be spending most of October home doing that, with one trip at the end of the month to the UK for an academic conference.
Finally, a month that begins to look like normal for me, with workshops and DJing and lots of research time. On the road again!
Onward goes the hot and quiet summer! I am still consolidating and collating and cataloguing my research collection, with interesting results, especially in the "collating" area, with my only event this month a reunion with my pandemic group of online cotillion students!
Well, now I have two months of a fairly long, hot summer ahead of me without much going on before things kick back into gear again in the autumn. I've been making a project for the last month or so of organizing and cataloguing my rather enormous collection (and, um, backlog) of research photos from various libraries, so I expect I'll continue with that, and I have plenty of writing to do! But first, one more online lecture!
Another month full of exciting travel, this time to Germany, and then on to precepting a Civil War ball in Pennsylvania. In-person teaching and dancing, hurrah!
IN-PERSON EVENTS. That pretty much sums it up. See you on the real, live dance floor!
Spring has sprung, I'm still in the USA, and I have one more month of online events before transitioning back to primarily in-person teaching in May and June!
Please note: online events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance!
Well.
The major possibility I was expecting for March was to move back to Moscow and resume teaching dance in Russia and Ukraine, so I didn't plan much of anything else. As anyone who has not been living under a rock for the last few days is no doubt aware, that is probably not happening this month, and it's hard to say whether it will happen in the foreseeable future. Or at all.
So…new possibilities are needed. I'll make a quick research trip to Boston early this month and will be working on other events and workshops in the USA for later this spring, plus planning for one or two conferences in Europe. For those who've been wanting me in the USA but have been blocked first by my mostly being in Russia and then by the pandemic, this is a great time to book me.
Is anyone else tired of being resilient after the last two years?
Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance!
As we come out of the Omicron surge, I’m starting to plan actual, in-person events for later this spring (May/June), hoping they will actually take place this year. Meanwhile, I’m back with the California-based Historical Tea & Dance Society again this month for another Zoom lecture and will have a research trip or two as well.
Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance!
Happy new year! It’s got to be better than the last one, right? Did I say that last year, too? (Nope.)
This month I’m back (online) with the California-based Historical Tea & Dance Society for another lecture and will have a research trip or two, but we’re in the midst of the Omicron surge, so not much else is happening, alas.
Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance!
And…we may be heading into another winter viral surge. Fortunately, I've only got online events this month, but I'll be making research trips to Boston and Washington, D.C., and continuing to push my writing (now with extra added translation!) forward. Life may be quite, but it's not boring!
Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance!
Back in the ballroom at last! This month I will return to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for a Remembrance Day Ball (though in a different location and with a different organizer than in previous years) as well as doing a presentation for an online conference in the UK. I'll squeeze in a research jaunt around the Gettysburg trip and expect to spend time early in the month sewing a new costume for it since my ballgown is (sigh) still in Moscow. I'm so excited to get back on the dance floor in costume for the first time since early March, 2020!
Please note: the events listed below are hosted in different cities/countries in different time zones. Please adjust for your own time zone before planning online attendance!
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Susan de Guardiola, Social Dance Historian
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