I didn’t really do a lot today. I planned out a period dance workshop for this Saturday and created the handout and CD for it.

My friend James Wagoner, GHP teacher, is directing Pride and Prejudice this fall and asked me to come up and teach his cast some English country dance to use in the ball scenes. So I am.

You may not know this about me, but historical social dance is one of my specialties. In college (UGA, 1972-76), I was president and chief researcher of the UGA Period Dance Group, a performing group based in the theatre department. We performed social dances from Shakespeare’s time to the 1940s, and we had a blast. We’d stage them in the round, with audience seated all the way around the space as if they too were attendees at our balls. We had dances, songs, gossip, flirting, just a riproaring time.

You can see it all at http://perioddance.org.

Every summer, at GHP, I teach a weekly seminar on period dance. I start with the waltz, then English country dance, then ragtime dances like the foxtrot and tango, and then we have a grand ball. It is loads of fun. One year I shall have to get pictures.