Announcing the 37th Early Dance Circle Festival – for the first time online!

About this Event

The Early Dance Circle’s Annual Early Dance Festival is a community focused dance festival where amateurs and professionals from across the UK and Europe perform to share the art of Early Dance.
This year due to the ongoing Coronavirus crisis the Festival takes a new form: virtual. The EDC have collected some of the best examples over the 36 years of the Festival as well as specially prepared performances for this year to celebrate dance heritage for the 37th year.
To open the Festival Richard Powers, a celebrated dance master from Stanford University, USA, will share the fascinating history of 19th century Polkamania and how Bohemian folk dance made possible the pleasure of spinning in each others’ arms. Additionally we will travel across the UK to visit St Cecilia Hall: Concert Room and Music Museum in Edinburgh to look at 500 years of making music for dance with help from Dr Sarah Deters, the museum curator. Then we experience how dancers performed on stage 300 years ago at the Georgian Theatre Royal in Richmond with Bill Tuck, who will share Chalemie’s experience of staging a performance on one of the oldest stages in the British Isles. Clips from a recent performance by The Weaver Ensemble on this same stage may follow.
Further information and the Festival programme can be found at https://www.earlydancecircle.co.uk/

Why attend?
• Over 25 performances from early dance groups across the UK and Europe.
• Special Guests, including speakers Richard Powers (Stanford University, USA) and Dr Susan Deters (University of Edinburgh, UK).
• Special Events include a visit to the Georgian Theatre Royal, a look inside Brighton Pavilion and Palace House Beaulieu, as well as revisiting performances over the last 37 years.

The Early Dance Circle (EDC) is a UK charity that aims to promote the enjoyment, performance and study of historical dance in the UK and beyond. Formed in 1984 as an umbrella organisation, it counts individuals and groups, both amateur and professional, among its members. The EDC believe that knowledge of earlier forms of dance helps enrich the cultural life of the UK, by accessing a heritage of international importance that belongs to us all. Early Dance Circle work to get dancers up on the dance floor of history.

Find out more about the Early Dance Circle here.

To register for a free ticket (or make a suggested donation of £5) to the Festival click here.