My November has two main events: a weekend of waltzing in which I travel up and down I-91 from Connecticut to Massachusetts and back, and the big Remembrance Day Balls in Gettysburg. In between, another Bridgerton class. Afterward, rest and catching up on life!
Category: Announcements
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October 2024 Gig Calendar
I’m going to be bouncing around geographically in October, both physically and virtually: first, a quick trip to Boston to do research and DJ for Bluesy Tuesy and a virtual appearance at an Oregon event focused around the composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Then I’m off to Scotland once more (wasn’t I just there?) for the European Association for Dance History’s annual conference, complete with a workshop on the double quadrille by the not-nearly-notable-enough Mrs. Nicholas Henderson. The workshop is free, if anyone happens to be in Scotland!
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September 2024 Gig Calendar
This month is going to mostly be personal time for me: a family visit and an Actual Vacationtm. I’ll be squeezing a few days of library research (three different sites) in around these, but mostly I’ll be quietly traveling around doing non-dance things.
Then, at the very end of the month, something new: Bridgerton dance! This is specifically dance from the television series which — news flash! — is not intended to be historically accurate. I regard the show as speculative fiction (alternate history) and the dances as fantastical, not historical. You can read some of my thoughts about this here. I taught a couple of these dances in Scotland last month, but this will be the first time teaching them in the USA.
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August 2024 Gig Calendar
I'll be starting out August with a couple of weeks in Scotland. The first weekend, I'll be teaching a dance workshop and leading a tea dance in Edinburgh, both with a general theme of Scottish dances influenced by or connected to those of Continental Europe and Continental dances that appeared in Scottish sources. The second weekend, I'll be having a very eclectic time at the World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, which for me will include giving a popularly-oriented paper, leading a masquerade ball for which I've been reconstructing some truly terrifying dances from video, and DJ'ing a blues dance. In between: library time and perhaps a bit of tourism!
Later in the month I'm looking forward to a reunion with a group of my most dedicated online students from pandemic times.
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July 2024 Gig Calendar
I was expecting to spend July quietly at home, but it looks like I'll be making a quick DJing-and-research trip to Boston before returning home to prepare for my trip to Scotland in August!
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June 2024 Gig Calendar
Summer is a-coming in, and it's likely to be hot. I want to spend my time in nice, cool libraries doing research instead of hot, sweaty dance spaces with no air conditioning! I'll be DJ'ing in the Boston area early this month and spending at least five days reading in various libraries. And doing yardwork. Lots and lots of yardwork. Sigh. Stay cool!
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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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April 2024 Gig Calendar
April is going to be fun! I'll be heading to Chicago to run dance workshops and a ball for a Regency-themed LARP and an evening of 18th and 19th century French dance, to Massachusetts for the New England Folk Festival (NEFFA), and then down to Staten Island (NYC) for an 1824 Lafayette Ball. I don't put library days on my schedule, but I'll have time this month at both the New York Public Library and the Newberry. In between I'll try to keep catching up on cataloguing material from previous library trips!
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March 2024 Gig Calendar
March is…Massachusetts month! Two trips to Boston (well, Cambridge and Concord) for DJing, researching, and teaching a weekend of waltz and more, plus an online lecture for a Lowell group. Woo hoo!
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February 2024 Gig Calendar
The end of winter is in (distant) sight. and I am slowly ramping up travel again as we hopefully pass out of peak-respiratory-illness season. But I still expect to spend most of February quietly at home muttering over translations from several languages.