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Dancing Well, Dancing Longer
Participants will explore dances from the Renaissance and Baroque periods with a focus on the development and application of technical skills and safe dance practice. The course will be useful to both individual dancers and group leaders.
Course Director: Kath Waters
Benslow Music, Benslow Lane, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG4 9RB
Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th February 2023
Registration from 4pm on Friday
Course finishes with tea on Sunday afternoon
Description
The purpose of this course is to develop awareness of the technical skills needed to allow us to maintain our bodies, prevent injuries and keep dancing year on year. Many people, not all of course, who enjoy historical dance have not been through a formal dance training and may therefore not have had the anatomical instruction to understand fully the mechanics of the steps we use.
This course will explore aspects of dance technique that can be applied to historical dance forms to ensure safe practice and improve physical and interpretative skills. Sessions will explore effective warm up exercises for all levels of fitness and ability and specific physical skills that will improve alignment, strength and co-ordination. These aspects will then be applied to specific steps and dances of the Renaissance and Baroque eras to demonstrate how improvements in technical execution will also improve performance skills.
The first evening and each morning will start with a general warm up, using exercises that can be taken away for personal use or use with a group. This will be followed by exploration of technical aspects such as strength, stamina, posture, alignment and co-ordination. These skills will then by applied to sociable Playford country dances on the first evening, Renaissance dances on the Saturday and Baroque dances on the Sunday
Kath Waters
Kath has been teaching dance professionally for 30 years. Having graduated from Middlesex Polytechnic with a degree in Performing Arts, she completed the Teaching Certificate for Post-Graduate and Professional Dancers at London College of Dance/Middlesex University. This course not only equipped her with practical teaching skills in Ballet, Modern and National Dance, but it also allowed her to gain RSA certificates in Applied Anatomy and Physiology and History of Western Theatre Dance to underpin this work.
University. Kath has taught in both studio and educational settings alongside her performance and choreography work and is also an examiner for A Level Dance, a Standards Verifier for BTEC and an External Moderator for University of Arts, London.
She is Artistic Director of Stratford Renaissance Dance, co-founder of Apollo’s Revels; a Baroque music and dance ensemble; and a teacher and performer with Mercurius Company, as well as regularly dancing with Shakespeare Morris.
She teaches a wide range of ages and abilities with core values of technical strength and understanding of one’s own anatomy at the heart of all her classes. With this as a foundation, she believes all learners can achieve a greater level of performance and therefore enjoyment and longevity in their dancing.
Practical Details
Our venue is Benslow Music, near Hitchin, Hertfordshire. It is in a tranquil setting in its own grounds https://benslowmusic.org The campus is close to the A1 and there is ample free car parking on site. There are regular trains from London King’s Cross, Peterborough and Cambridge to Hitchin Station which is a 7 minute walk away. The fee includes tuition and modern, high quality, full-board accommodation per person. Please be aware that we may wish to take photographs or short videos during the course for HDS purposes.
Fees
Ensuite Single: £325 HDS Member/£330 Non-member
Ensuite Twin/Double: £315 HDS Member/£320 Non-member
Standard Single: £305 HDS Member/£310 Non-member
Standard Twin/Double: £285 HDS Member/£290 Non-member
Booking forms and further details
You can BOOK ONLINE and pay here on Web Collect (see below). We take Paypal, Direct Debit (Go Cardless), Cheque and Bank Transfer (including IBAN and SWIFT payments).
or you can use the Booking Form which you can download from this page.
Please do contact Gill if you have any queries. Gill is available to answer enquiries after 5th December. Before this date please direct any enquiries to chairman@historicaldance.org.uk
Tel: 07811 782104
Email: gillplant@btinternet.com
Cancellation and Refunds
We advise you to take out holiday insurance as, depending on circumstances and the timing of the cancellation, we may not be able to offer a full refund. If HDS has to cancel the course due to government regulations or circumstances beyond our control then HDS will provide a full refund.