“Ballerinas in the church hall”—Virginia Taylor’s thesis online
Joyce Kilmer thought she would never see a poem as lovely as a tree; well, I’m pretty sure I will never see a thesis as lovely as Virginia Taylor’s “Ballerinas…
Learn quadrilles for a day in Charing, Kent, 28th April 2019
Here’s a lovely idea for a Sunday in April—come to Charing in Kent for a day of learning to dance 19th century quadrilles with early dance expert Nicola Gaines. Nicola…
Do marches really have to have dotted rhythms?
Nice to see an article about marching music, one of the weird, esoteric topics that perplex ballet pianists like me: a 2018 conference paper byNiels Hansen, Nicholas Shea & David…
Tia DeNora, affordances, and more on the lyrical waltz
In a previous post about the so-called “lyrical waltz” (a term sometimes used by some ballet teachers) I took a long time to come to the conclusion that perhaps “lyrical”…
10 fabulous ballet women for International Women’s Day 2018
One of the reasons I started blogging was because I was frustrated that journalists and historians tended to focus only on the big names: the stars, the directors, the choreographers,…
The mysterious case of the Lyrical Waltz
I’ve just had an email from a teacher, asking me what I understand by the term “Lyrical Waltz.” Short answer, I don’t understand anything by it, but the long answer…