HDS AGM 26Nov22 Chairs Report ## **Chair’s Report 2021-2022, 26 November** ## **2022 Trustees and Associates** I wish to begin by expressing my thanks and appreciation to the other Trustees and to all the Associates. Without their commitment the Society could not function. They give their time freely and enthusiastically and I am very grateful for their support. Considering that we are staffed entirely by volunteers, we run a large range of activities and services. We are sorry to receive A Ashton-Redlin’s resignation from the Board of Trustees and thank her for her work. We are always looking for new Associates to help us with our activities so please do not hold back if you are interested in becoming more involved. The Trustees met four times on Zoom during the year. I would like thank A Smithies and A Daye for their support, hard work and dedication to HDS. ## **Publications** The Publications Sub-Committee, chaired by A Daye, has been working on commissioning and producing new items and managing the process of rationalising and digitising resources. I particularly wish to thank Jan and Derek Guyatt for their dedication, commitment and hard work in managing publications and our online shop. As our international sales continue to grow this can be a complex process at times. HDS produced two new publications this year. The first is _La Belle Dance: Essential dances from court and theatre in early eighteenth century France and England_ by Kimiko Okamoto. This book and recording is designed as a baroque dance primer. The second is _Music for English Ball Dances 1700-1740,_ a recording with 63 music tracks and a supporting booklet by I Cutts. The work brings together all the English ball dances of the baroque period which survive in notation. Both authors have generously given their time and expertise free of charge. _A New Collection of Dances for Jane Austen_ by Anne Daye continues to sell well and was used as the ‘textbook’ for the 2022 HDS Summer School. 1 HDS AGM 26Nov22 Chairs Report There are several new publications in preparation: _Dances for Fashionable Society_ by Ellis Rogers; a collection of Playford dances and _Dances of the French Court._ 2 Work continues on digitising older publications and preparing them for sale as digital downloads. Thank you to David Parsons for his work behind the scenes in scanning and preparing items for digital release. ## **Events and** ## **Activities Face-to-** ## **Face activities** This year we are pleased to have been able to make a return to in-person activities and events. After a break of two years’ we were able to hold a successful Summer School in July 2022 at a new venue, Bromsgrove School in the West Midlands. The topic was _Regency Dancing: dances from Britain and the rest of Europe c.1800._ It was well attended with a short weekend course and a full week’s course running concurrently. Tuition was excellent and there was a good range of evening activities including two costume balls/dances. Bromsgrove School was a great venue with comfortable accommodation, superb dance and drama facilities and helpful staff. The campus was large and attractive with the main issues being the distance required to walk from place to place and personal IT access. We are looking at ways to solve these issues in the future. Special thanks to Gill Plant, Summer School Administrator, for her cheerful and tireless work and support. Preparations are well advanced for the 2023 Summer School which will be held at Bromsgrove School, 14-21 July 2023. The topic is _Dances of the Italian Renaissance: exploring fifteenth and sixteenth century dance._ We ran the following weekend and one-day courses: _Shakespeare and Dance_ residential weekend at Halsway Manor, Somerset, 7-9 January 2022. After a slow start with bookings the weekend was fully subscribed. _La Belle Dance_ day course and book launch at Holy Trinity Parish Centre, Stratford- upon-Avon, 24 April 2022. _Dance in the Spanish Golden Age_ non-residential course with Ana Yepes at Springs Dance Studio, Bedford College, 1-2 October 2022. ## **On-line activities** We are continuing to run some purely on-line events. Following the success of the on-line _An Assembly for Jane Austen: a celebration of dance, music and costume_ in November 2021, we ran another on-line Festival on Zoom in November 2022. This time the focus was on Shakespeare and dance, _Shakespeare’s Dances: a celebration of dance, music and costume._ This attracted an international audience with attendees from the UK, Europe, USA, Thailand and Australia. As well as presentations during the day we also ran an on-line do-it-yourself Shakespeare Revel in the evening with dancing and other entertainments. Regretfully we have been unable to continue running any on-line lectures as we do not have the people available to organise these at present. For all our events there is always a team of people working quietly in the background, planning, commissioning tutors, managing bookings and payments, and organising practical arrangements, to ensure that things run smoothly on the day. Some of our recent in-person events have not attracted as many bookings as we would wish. This may be because of continuing caution around Covid and other health concerns, economic uncertainty and a large number of other competing activities. Other organisations appear to have similar problems in attracting participants. We have considered ways of possibly running a combined in-person and on-line event but have decided that this is not possible at present due to technical practicalities. ## **HDS Website** We are extremely grateful to D Parsons and L Curzon for their work on keeping the website up to date and introducing improvements. In February 2022 we commissioned an independent company, Lime Web Development, to produce an Optimisation Report on the website. Since then David has implemented many of their key recommendations. ## **HDS Journal** We were sad to hear of the death of Margaret McGowan who has been a long standing member of the Editorial Advisory Committee. We welcome Professor Theresa Buckland and Dr Jennifer Nevile who have joined the committee. Thank you to David Parsons, Editor of the Journal, who edits the Journal and maintains the Journal pages on the website. This provides an invaluable resource for historical dance researchers. David adds new articles on-line and when there are a sufficient number they are compiled into a printed edition and sent to members. The next edition of the Journal will be sent to members shortly. ## **HDS Newsletter** We are still searching for a new Editor for the printed HDS Newsletter. The Members Email News goes out fortnightly to members and is a compilation of events, activities and news items about historical dance and related activities. Contributions are always welcome and we rely on you to keep us informed. ## **External Contacts** HDS was represented at the Oxford Symposium, the EDC Biennial Conference and the Rothenfels Symposium. We continue to work closely with the Early Dance Circle. Our legacy is important to HDS and A Daye and A Hinchliffe have been visiting the daughters of Nathalie Dolmetsch, Louise and Tesa, to record their memories. Anne Daye is working on a biography of Nathalie Dolmetsch. During the year, HDS has received numerous enquiries from students, researchers, the media and the general public. We try to provide helpful answers to all enquirers. ## **Organisation** The Society received generous donations from Robin and Maureen Lambie, Theresa and Paul Jolley and Andrea Dunbar. More recently we received a donation from the Early Dance Circle (for help given with the Velma Pursehouse costume bequest). Many thanks to everyone who has given a donation. We very much appreciate the support of you, our members. Membership numbers have remained steady and we rely on you to maintain a dynamic and thriving organisation. Thank you for your continued support. Lynne Spicer November 2022 **Secretary’s Report for the Year 2021-2022 Richard Smithies November 2022** ## **Membership** The Society currently has 102 members including 17 international members. Web Collect continues to work well thanks entirely to the hard work of our Membership Secretary, A Smithies, which has enabled The Society to keep its members informed of the many things it is doing. Membership continues to support the activities of HDS so I would encourage everyone to continue their membership. ## **Online Presence** Our online presence has continued through this year. This has only been made possible by the tireless efforts of a number of members; associates and speakers to whom we are all grateful. ## **Weekend and Workshops** Shakespeare and Dance 7-9[th] January 2022 at Halsway Manor; La Belle Dance 24[th] April 2022 at Holy Trinity Parish Centre Stratford-upon-Avon: Dance in the Spanish Golden Age 1[st] & 2[nd] October 2022 teacher Ana Yepes at Spring Dance Studio, Bedford College. ## **Summer School** Regency Dancing : dances from Britain and the rest of Europe c.1800; Venue: Bromsgrove School. Tutors: L Curzon A Daye J Schou-Pederson ## **Shakespeare’s Dances: a Celebration of Dance, Music and Costume** **(November 5[th] & 6[th] )** Lecturers **:** D Royston H Young N Monahin L McJannet E Winerock L McCulloch A Daye A Hinchliffe J Walton Pauline Loven Crow’s Eye Productions ## **The Global Reach of HDS** ## **1. Face Book** 1,800 Followers 1,700 Likes Gender of Followers: Female 76.8% Male 23.2% Which age groups view? Only 4% are aged 18-24 After that followers are fairly evenly spread at 14-16% of each group. ## **2. Twitter** 427 Followers ## **3. YouTube** HDS has three Channels ## _**A. The Historical Dance Society = the dance videos** (lifetime statistics)_ Subscribers 2,409 Views 619,387 Watch Time 12,000 hours Most watched videos The Galliard 144,704 views La Volta 105,881 Branle de l’Official 91,065 Branle des Lavandieres 74,859 Which age groups view? 18-24 years 33.8% 25-34 31.0% 35-44 10.6% 45-54 16.2% 55-64 1.9% 65+ 6.6% ## _**B. HDS Lectures Channel (Lockdown Lectures Channel)** (lifetime statistics)_ Subscribers 350 Views 14,200 Watch Time 6,600 hours Most watched videos 1. "Baroque Dance Notation: Deciphering Feuillet - Beachamp Notation of the Anthony L'Abbe's minuet performed by Mrs Santlow”: Speaker: Dr Alena Schmakova **2,372** views 2. Captain James Cook: a culture of music and dance **1,213** views 3. The Doctrine of Affects: methods of working with emotions of the past in dance **1,101** views 4. “The English Dancing Master” Speaker: Ann Hinchliffe **684** views Which age groups view? 65+ 100% ## _**C. HDS Dance Tutorials**_ Subscribers 117 Views 11,200 Watch Time 434 hours Most watched tutorials La Volta 1,663 Coranto Dance Instructions 1,247 The HDS Vitual Revels 1,105 Branle Charlotte 798 Which age groups viewed? 55-64 47.2% 65+ 52.8% ## **Trustees Meetings** The Trustees have met on Zoom at regular intervals throughout the year. ## **The Journal** David Parsons Editor reports : The next issue of _Historical Dance_ has now been printed and will soon be distributed to members. It contains four articles and two book reviews. Following our open access policy, these are also available on the website. For the first time, some of the illustrations are printed in colour, which has been made affordable by digital printing. The death of Margaret McGowan and other changes over the last few years had left the Editorial Advisory Committee with only two members (Anne Daye and Jennifer Thorp). We are very pleased that Professor Theresa Buckland (University of Roehampton) and Dr Jennifer Nevile (UNSW) accepted our invitations to join the Committee. I would like to thank the Editorial Advisory Committee, the article reviewers and the authors for their contributions to the continued publication of _Historical Dance_ . We thank David for his continuing diligence and hard work in editing The Journal as well as the work of the Editorial Advisory Committee. Richard Smithies Secretary The Historical Dance Society Charity Number: 1178919 ## **1[st] October 2021- 30 September 2022** At the year-end 30[th] September 2022, the Society’s assets stood at **£57,675** . Our total income for the year was **£37,117** and our total payments **£17,712** This is an increase of £19,405 from the previous year. It does come with a caveat - there is a short-term liability of £14,948 which comprises the settlement of our Summer School. This payment cleared a week after the end of year. As we use cash accounting, we cannot present it as an adjustment but if we could it would create a truer picture, bringing our assets down to £42,727 and still leaving us with a surplus for the year of £4,457. There were no known long-term liabilities at year-end and the Society is run entirely by volunteers and does not perform Fund Raising. ## **TRUSTEE FEES AND EXPENSES** This year, a total of £1,206.05 **1276.90** was paid to Trustees for services received. This consists of Speaker and Tutor fees. These payments are reviewed and considered justified under the Society’s guidelines and constitution. ## **SUBSCRIPTIONS** Revenue from subscriptions also rose this year by £1,352. There are several explanations for this. Our use of Webcollect makes collecting renewals easier so instead of payments being received just after the 1[st] October, more people are paying before. There also appears to be more of a crossover this year with some members paying late last year but early this year so that both payments end up in this year’s accounts. We have also had a high number of renewals this year of people paying for 5- year memberships. The overall picture reflects that membership numbers overall are static. ## **DONATIONS** This year donations were gratefully received from Robin and Maureen Lambie and Theresa & Paul Jolley. The latter donation has been designated for bursary payments and this designated fund currently totals £706. ## **BOOKS AND RECORDINGS** Including purchases from Vimeo, books and recordings brought in sales of £3,377. As our publications are budgeted and produced to break-even, it is a sign of very robust sales. ## **EVENTS** There was a welcome return to in-person events. Three were well attended making small surpluses and although Essential Baroque did not break-even, the deficit was covered by the other events. ## **CORE COSTS** Our core costs were £709. As there is a level of knowledge and expertise needed to manage our website, the Trustees decided that we needed to engage a professional company that could help with the technical updates and maintenance on an ad hoc basis. Our core costs also include insurance, bank charges and subscriptions for Zoom and Webcollect ## **PROJECTS** We spent £1,110 on new publications and recordings. One project, Music for English Ball Dances has been completed and is selling very well. ## **RESERVES** The Society has an established reserves policy in consideration of the potential risks from its activities of £30,000. The current economic climate and our emergence from the pandemic will have an impact making all activity riskier and more expensive. We are in a good position though to carry on our work knowing that we are prepared to meet any challenges ahead. Lizzie Abusch, Nov 22 Recelpts InrYJme 20ZU22 2020121 Pawwnts Expendhure 2021ni 2020121 Voluntary Servlce5 SubscrIp￿on5 D¢ffj8Yon$ Glft Ald Interèst retelvedfrom COIF Chrlty Fund D4posltAe¢ourt Tradln8Adtvllles Books and re￿rdIn15 EFDSSSale ol Pubs collabor0￿c 3.IB2 324 1,830 519 255 147 3.377 2,810 ExP•ndIt￿r• 90 Boo*s and r•cordln8S EFDSS Sale ol Pub5CcllabDra¥on ICO3 1.006 Prol•¢ti Pwlttts A N•w Coll•¢Uon ol Dan￿5 foiJ•MAust•n La Bell• ￿ne• Mu$l¢for EnilSsh B411 D•n¢es Dances for Fajhlonable so￿ety Pl•yford D4ne•s A N•wColl•cifjon of D•nc•iforJ•n• Auit•n Belle Dancè Muslcfor Ewlsh B•ll D¥fK•$ Dances for FJ5hlon•ble Soclety Pliyford D•n¢•s 2.285 2,070 i￿) 410 Eventi E¥•rti 1,134 1,217 20121 Workiho P14ylord F•siival Surnm•rschool 2020 Assembly lorjini Austtn D4nc•5 with Sh•k•sp••re Essen141 French Biro4U• AM Yepes D•ncln8 W¢ll, D4ndni Lonier It•llart Ren￿SSInCe Danc•. Oanc•s for Nob￿ ￿￿1$ 750 10121 Pl•yford F•6U¥•l Sumffl•r5£hool 2022 Ass•mbley lorJ*n•Ausln D•nc•s wlth 5h•k•$p•4r• Essendal French Baroqu• Ani Yepes D•nclniWell. O•nclni Lonier lilllan R•nalssanc• Dance- D•nc•sfor Nobl• Halls 31 19984 1190 8220 366 45 50 498 7749 578 12123 12123 22123 M•n•pmert 22123 22123 22123 M•n•pment 520 151 rr4ndcore cost5 G•nernl Publlclty and Communlc4llor R•paym•nts for canc•lla¢Sons R•paym•nt of brld8ln8 loan Teachers. Mu$lc•nd pubs re$e•rch IT￿d c(XWC05t5 General publldty4ndc0rnmunlci￿on1 R•paym•nt5 fOr￿n(lI1•￿0n¥ R•paym•nt of brl*ln6 loan Teachers, Mu$lcand pubs rese4rth 709 567 633 112 161 37,117 Ttstal PAYMENTS 8.154 ASSETS 8AL4NCESHEEr CIO HSBC COIFCharlty Fund DeposltAccount 24,867 5609 32808 32661 BalanEefrom la5tyear Addtotal recelpts from above Less total payments from opwslte Balance at year end 30 09 2022 38270 37.117 17,712 57675 TOTAL Carried Forward to 2022-23 57675 38270 Ms. Lizzie Abusch Treasurer The Historical Dance Society C/O The Secretary Sawter House Farm Mill Bank Road Mill Bank Sowerby Bridge HX6 3DY Rob Harper Licensed Bookkeeper 52 Briarigg Kenda l Cumbri a LA9 6FA RHLB ref. RPT-060123-HDS 6[th] January 2023 ## Review of Accounts for 2021-2022 ## Dear Lizzie, I am pleased to provide the following brief report on the information kindly provided by yourself in relation to the accounts for the Historical Dance Society for the year to 30[th] September 2022. The review is intended to provide assurance of the correctness of the accounts, allow for additional checking of the figures and highlight possible unintentional errors. The reviewed accounts, along with any amendments you make subsequently, should allow greater clarity for the Charity’s Board, membership and ultimately the Charities Commission. ## Conclusions Following my review of the accounts, notwithstanding the suggested minor amendments mentioned in the review, I am of the opinion that the accounts summary included in the 2021-22 Treasurer’s Report represents an accurate summary of the Charity’s financial position at year-end. Yours sincerely, Rob Harper BSc MSc MICB Kendal, Cumbria 07887 985654 ICB Certified Bookkeeper ICB Practice Licence 23748