Where to find out more — Other sources of information on historical dance
The Calendar and our pages for Classes and Teachers and Groupslist balls and dances, events and performances, workshops, summer schools and conferences, as well as regular classes, through out the UK and overseas. Our pages are the place to find a class in Renaissance, Baroque, Regency or Victorian Dance and then to find somewhere for an evening out doing the dances.
The Early Dance Circular is the magazine of the Early Dance Circle. It contains news, views and reviews pertaining to historical dance in general and to EDC activities in particular. It is sent to members three times a year, in January, May and September. A specimen copy will be sent on request at members@earlydancecircle.co.uk.
Early Dance Circle mailings normally include publicity material about future events and courses that is supplied by their organisers.
Dance through History, on this website, is a regularly updated downloadable resource on each main period of early or historical dance from the Middle Ages to the 19th century and on the related arts of music and costume for dancing. There is abundant reference to books and pamphlets for further reading. It also includes a section on Learning the Dances. See Dance through History
EDC publications include a number of items specifically for study, as well as the Proceedings of past conferences on Early Dance themes. Regency music is also available. See Publications.
The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House (2 Regent’s Park Road, London, NW1 7AY) is mainly devoted to Folk Dance and Song, but it also has a substantial section on historical dance. This includes Melusine Wood’s papers as well as printed sources.
Use of the Library is free to members of the English Folk Dance and Song Society; non-members are charged a daily fee. Postal and telephone enquiries are welcomed (tel: 020 7284 0523). Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., but sometimes closed for lunch.
The British Library, 96 Euston Road, St Pancras, London, NW1 2DB, holds many rare books relating to early dance that are difficult to find elsewhere. In order to use the reading rooms, you will need a reader’s pass, obtainable only in person from the Reader Admissions Office in the front hall. It would be wise to seek advice in advance about the formalities involved in obtaining a pass, by e-mailing reader-admissions@bl.uk or telephoning 020 7412 7677.
The National Resource Centre for Historical Dance, set up by the EDC, is a working library, open to the public, that covers all aspects of early dance. This includes dance music, period dress (including costume-making) and social history of the most relevant times and places. For more information, see NRCHD
Digitised collections of Historical Dance publications, several excellent on-line archives exist with links through to primary source material available on the internet. These collections are actively maintained by third parties and, in many cases, link through to digitised material provided by Libraries, Museums and similar acrhives from around the world. Examples include the Library Of Dance, the Historical Dance Bibliography and the Regency Dance Sources pages.