HOW TO DANCE THROUGH TIME Volume IV _ The Elegance of Baroque Social Dance

Product Description The fourth volume of the How Dance Through Time series teaches the famously patterned dance steps from the French Baroque courts and countryside. These forms are the precursor to ballet and ballroom dance. Learn the Minuet, danced as a romantic courtship ritual, and the intricate Allemande, known for its kaleidoscope of handholds. Next, take a respite from the more formal steps and try the Contradance (Country Dance), an easy line dance that let dancers frolic at the end of Baroque period balls. Follow the Dance Through Time company as they recreate the most influential social dances of the French Baroque Court. The most famous of 18th century dances, the Minuet s patterned steps are delineated on the dance floor for clear viewing. The Allemande s complex and picturesque series of handholds are carefully depicted, and viewers learn of this dance s role in the transition dancing separately to dancing together in an embrace. Eight dancers demonstrate the Contradance s -Country Dance recognizable line dance pattern. The DVD also illustrates French Baroque culture through dance, such as how courtiers learned the townspeople s dances on official visits to the countryside, brought the steps back with them to the courts, and incorporated various changes. Review These instructional videos will be invaluable to choreographers who create dances for period films or for cotillions and charity balls. They preserve the art form and provide the story of the cultural phenomenon, thus making a perfect addition to dance, design, and anthropological libraries. --Dance On Camera Journal Each of these 45 minute splendidly presented videos easily permit the viewers to achieve competency and fluency in these period dances and are highly recommended additions to personal, professional, dance school, public Library, academic, and community theatre video reference collections. --The Midwest Book Review The organization of the material in each of these sets is first to go over each step of a dance several times in different tempos, from different angles, and with full explanations by the creator and head of the company, Carol Teten. You can watch, then skip back and try the steps yourself as you watch a second time, and over and over until you have it down pat. she [Teten] explains the social structure of the society as it is reflected in each dance and now