Gaspard Le Roux was a composer active around 1700. Little is known of his life, or even the years of his birth and death. He left just seven dance suites. With this small surviving output and not many clues in respect of his life, he has been left to languish in the shadow of the bigger names of his time.
Nowadays there is a growing number of people who, on knowing his music, find much to admire in it. As one such enthusiastic fan myself, I wanted to know the reasons why his music has such power. What is most interesting to me is that his music has two dimensions: On the one hand it keeps the typical features of baroque dance music, rhythmically and formally. On the other hand, it gives the emotional power from the beginning to the end, thus letting a contemporary audience easily understand and become involved.
I choreographed his music with a modern dancer and myself in mind. Each dance is for either of us dancing solo or for both of us together on the stage while incorporating each other’s style. At the conference, I will present the edited video and my dance demonstration, hoping to share my thoughts on the music and its power.
The title of the show is “Gaspard Le Roux, magical music with two harpsichords, baroque dance and modern dance.”
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Nobuko YUASA began to learn contemporary dance well before starting her career in historical dance in the UK in 1995, working with Peggy Dixon, Philippa Waite and Diana Cruickshank, later in the USA with Ken Pierce, and also with Barbara Segal and Ana Yepes. She dances baroque and renaissance dance, organises concerts and teaches dances – choreographed and country dances – in several cities in Japan. She has received the Okayama Prefecture Art and Culture Distinguished Service Award and is a member of both the Early Dance Circle and the European Association for Dance History.