As always, I wish to begin with my thanks to the other Trustees and to all the Associates and other volunteers. Without their commitment the Society could not
function. They give their time freely and enthusiastically and I am very grateful for
their support.
The Trustees were pleased to welcome Helen Young onto the Board of Trustees.
Helen is an active member of the Teachers Sub-Committee and involved in many of
our activities, including the Summer School.
We are always looking for new volunteers to help us with our activities so please get
in touch if you are interested in becoming more involved.
The Trustees met four times on Zoom during the year and there were regular
meetings of our sub-committees, including the Teachers Sub-Committee and Publications Sub-Committee.
In particular, I would like to thank Anne Daye, Lizzie Abusch, Jan and Derek Guyatt,
David Parsons, Gill Plant, Anne and Richard Smithies, for their support, hard work
and commitment to HDS.
Publications
The Publications Sub-Committee, chaired by Anne Daye, is one of our most active
groups and this year has been no exception.
I particularly wish to thank Jan and Derek Guyatt for their dedication, commitment
and hard work in managing publications and our online shop. This can be complex
as we receive a significant number of international enquiries.
HDS published Dances of Fashionable Society: Cotillons, Quadrilles, Country
Dances, Couple Dances and a Solo, 1762-1887, by Ellis and Christine Rogers. The
publication is available as a book and 2 CD set or as a download. Ellis and Christine
re-visited dances they previously researched for HDS summer schools and selected
Ellis’s favourite dances. Ellis hopes that these will enthuse dancers to follow in his
footsteps and pass the dances on to others. The publication was launched at an event in September and we were delighted that Ellis and Christine were able to attend.
Work continues on future publications, Dances of the French Court, a collection of
dances for Queen Victoria’s balls by Joseph Lowe and a Playford dances collection.
Our other publications continue to sell steadily from the HDS online shop.
Work on digitising older publications and preparing them for sale as digital
downloads has been completed. Thank you to David Parsons for his work behind the
scenes in scanning and preparing items for digital release.
Events and Activities
The theme of our annual Summer School was Dances of the Italian Renaissance:
exploring fifteenth and sixteenth century dance. It was held at Bromsgrove School in
the West Midlands, 14-21 July 2023. As usual there was a short weekend course
and a full week’s course running concurrently. Tuition from Letizia Dradi, Anne Daye
and Robert Huggett was excellent and there was a good range of evening activities.
Bromsgrove School has superb dance and drama facilities and helpful staff. The campus is large with attractive grounds. Although feedback was generally very positive there were concerns about the choice of food particularly for people who
have vegetarian/vegan diets. We are raising this with Bromsgrove School. Special
thanks to Gill Plant, Summer School Administrator, for her cheerful and tireless work
and support.
Preparations are well advanced for the 2024 Summer School which will be held at
Bromsgrove School, 12-19 July 2024. The topic is Strictly Victorian and the tutors are Birte Hoffmann-Cabenda, Sasza Zargowski and Libby Curzon.
For many years Anne Daye has been managing and planning the Summer School.
She has now decided to stand down from this role and we are grateful to Helen Young who has taken this over. Many thanks to Anne for all her hard work.
We ran the following weekend and one-day courses:
Dancing Well, Dancing Longer, 3-5 February 2023, at Benslow Music. Kath Waters
was the tutor and she explored dances from Renaissance and Baroque periods with
a focus on the development and application of technical skills and safe dance
practice.
Dances of Fashionable Society, 23 September 2023, at St Pancras Church Hall,
London. This was a celebratory day, launching the new HDS publication of the same
name by Ellis and Christine Rogers (who attended) with a day workshop run by Libby Curzon.
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 events have not attracted as many bookings as we would wish
which is disappointing. The Trustees will be looking at ways of maximising
attendance, marketing events to a wider audience, collaboration with others on events and the possibilities of combining online elements.
HDS Website
We are extremely grateful to David Parsons for his work on keeping the website up
to date and introducing improvements. David has now taken on the role of webmaster.
HDS Journal
Thank you to David Parsons, Editor of the Journal and to the Editorial Committee. David maintains the Journal pages on the website. This provides an invaluable resource for historical dance researchers and students. David adds new articles on-
line and when there are a sufficient number they are compiled into a printed edition
and sent to members. Historical Dance Volume 4, No 4, 2022 was printed and
posted to members.
The latest articles in Volume 4, Number 5 of Historical Dance are now available
online. These articles reflect the importance we place on our legacy. A short piece
entitled Music and Movement – Music and Dancing – Dancing, Movement and
Music by Nathalie Dolmetsch (founder of the Historical Dance Society) was recently
passed on to the society by Louise Bailey, her daughter. We have published this online in Historical Dance, a transcription by Anne Daye. Although clearly a first draft, as suggested by the titles, the topic remains relevant to historical dancers today. To accompany this, we have a biography of Nathalie Dolmetsch (19051989) by Anne Daye. It paints a picture of a talented musician, dancer, teacher and
organiser (she was also instrumental in founding the Viola da Gamba Society and
began the historical dance summer schools) from a remarkable family. The article is
based on written sources, on conversations of Anne and Ann Hinchliffe with Marie-
Louise Bailey and Marie-Thérèse Budd, Nathalie’s daughters, and on Anne’s
recollections of Nathalie from summer schools and the early years of the Historical
Dance Society.
HDS Newsletter
We are still seeking a new Editor for the printed HDS Newsletter. As an interim measure myself and Talitha MacKenzie are currently preparing the Winter 202324
edition for printing and this should be with you soon.
The Members Email News goes out fortnightly to members and is a compilation of
events, activities and news items about historical dance, music, costume and related
activities. Contributions are always welcome and I rely on you to keep me informed.
External Contacts and Collaboration
Several members of HDS ran workshops and dance/music performances at Medieval Music in the Dales, 8-10 July 2023, at Bolton Castle, near Leyburn in the Yorkshire Dales. This is an annual music festival attracting many early musicians and other interested people. This year the theme was Transitions: the fifteenth century and the focus was on dance. All the dance workshops were fully booked
from an early stage. HDS gave a contribution of £400 towards the festival. In March I gave an informal illustrated talk on Medieval Dance at the Medieval Music in the
Dales online festival as a ‘taster’ for the main festival.
We were delighted to be able to send a group of dancers to perform Renaissance dances at the Early Dance Circle 40 th Anniversary Festival, held at Hereford Town
Hall, 20-22 October 2023. The group included a couple of dancers who had represented (D)HDS at the first Festival, and another one who had danced for the society at the second Festival. Our programme included Dolce Amoroso Fuoco also
danced at the second Festival and two balletti from our published and recorded collections.
The proceedings of Stepping On: A conference on Stepping in Dance held at Cecil Sharp House, London on 16-17 November 2019, edited by Toby Bennett) have been
published. The conference was organised jointly by the Historical Dance Society, English Folk Dance and Song Society, Instep Research Team and the Dance Department of the University of Roehampton. A printed copy has been deposited in
the HDS Archive.
HDS was represented at the EDC Annual Lecture and the Oxford Symposium.
During the year, HDS has received numerous enquiries from students, researchers,
the media and the general public, mainly through the website. We try to provide helpful answers to all enquirers.
Organisation
We very much appreciate the support of you, our members. We rely on you to maintain a dynamic and thriving organisation. Thank you for your continued support.
Lynne Spicer
November 2023
Secretary’s Report for the Year 2022-2023 Richard Smithies November 2023
Membership
The Society currently has 92 members including 10 international members.
Web Collect continues to work well thanks entirely to the hard work of our Membership Secretary, Anne Smithies, which has enabled The Society to keep its members informed of the many things it is doing.
Web Collect has greatly simplified the booking and administration of Events.
Membership continues to support the activities of HDS so I would encourage everyone to continue their membership.
Website
Our thanks go to David Parsons for continuing to administer the Website.
Workshops and Events
Summer School
July 14[th] - 21[st] 2023
Dances of the Italian Renaissance – Exploring Fifteenth and Sixteenth Century Dance
Venue: Bromsgrove School.
Tutors:
Letizia Dradi
Anne Daye
Robert Huggett
Medieval Music in the Dales
September 7[th] - 10[th] 2023
HDS sponsored this event and awareness of the Society was raised by participating dancers from Herts Early Dance and Grantham Danseyre.
Dances of Fashionable Society
September 23[rd] 2023.
An event held at St Pancras Church Hall to launch the publication of Dances of Fashionable Society by Ellis and Christine Rogers together with an accompanying CD.
A workshop was led by Libby Curzon of Mrs Bennet’s Ballroom.
Early Dance Circle 40[th] Anniversary Festival
21[st] October 2023 in Hereford.
HDS was represented at the Festival by the following dancers:
Anne Daye
Carol Wallman
Peter Greener
Hazel Dennison
Steve Young
Helen Young
Elaine Corke
They did the following dances:
Spagnioletta
Dolce Amoroso Fuoco
La Barriera Nuova
America’s Dance Revolution 1876-1900
November 25[th] - 26[th] 2023 at Sadler’s Wells
Tutor: Susan de Guardiola.
The Global Reach of HDS
1. Face Book
1,900 Followers 1,700 Likes
Gender of Followers:
Female 76.9% Male 23.1% These are virtually unaltered from 2022.
The majority of “likes” are from the UK 876
Then from the USA 372 Then from Italy 106
Which age groups view?
Only 4% are aged 18-24
After that followers are fairly evenly spread at 14-16% of each group.
The older age groups look at FaceBook.
2. Twitter
421 Followers = virtually the same as 2022.
3. YouTube
HDS Channels
A. The Historical Dance Society = the dance videos (lifetime statistics) Subscribers 2,827 = an increase of 422 this year. Views 743,000 = an increase of 124,000 this year Watch Time 14,300 hours = an increase of 2,300 hours this year. Most watched videos The Galliard 169,000 views = an increase of 25,000. La Volta 120,000 “ = an increase of 15,000. Branle de l’Official 115,000 “ = an increase of 24,000. Branle des Lavandieres 89,000 “ = an increase of 14,000.
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%
The top three viewers are from : USA UK France
The younger age groups watch YouTube.
B. HDS Lectures Channel (Lockdown Lectures Channel) (lifetime statistics)
Which age groups view? In 2022 65+ 100% In 2023 A Third are 18-24 A Third are 25-34 A Third are 65+ Quite a shift in interest.
The top three viewers are from USA UK Germany
Trustees Meetings
Your Trustees have met on Zoom at regular intervals throughout the year.
The Journal
David Parsons Journal Editor’s Report :
Historical Dance Volume 4 Number 4 was distributed to members shortly after the last AGM. It is too soon to say when the next issue will be published, as it depends on the number of articles received. So far we have published on-line a note by Nathalie Dolmetsch that was recently passed on to the Society by her daughter Louise Bailey. To accompany this, we have published a biographical article about Nathalie Dolmetsch written by Anne Daye.
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 accounts included at the end of this report summarise the Society's
financial situation over the past two years.
Our total income for the year was £25,174 and our total payments £25,842. It is noted that this year, the Society's funds decreased by £668 No long-term liabilities were recorded at the end of the year. Additionally, the Society operates solely with the help of volunteers and does not engage in any fundraising activities.
TRUSTEE FEES AND EXPENSES:
In the current year, Trustees were paid a total of £593.37 for the services they provided. These payments covered fees for speakers and tutors, including travel expenses. It should be noted that all these payments were reviewed and deemed appropriate according to the Society's guidelines and constitution.
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
Revenue from subscriptions experienced a decline of £502 compared to the previous year. This decrease can be attributed to a significant number of 5- year membership renewals that occurred last year. As a result, we anticipated a decline in membership income this year (but not in members), as reflected in the accounts, with fewer couples renewing their annual or 5-year memberships, but an increase in individual annual members.
DONATIONS:
We are grateful to report that this year we received donations from the Early Dance Circle, which were the proceeds from the sale of Velma Pursehouse's costumes. Additionally, we received £661 through Gift Aid. These donations contributed to an increase in our overall voluntary income this year.
BOOKS AND RECORDINGS :
Net sales of books and recordings amounted to £3,293, which is consistent with the previous year's sales.
EVENTS:
Throughout the year, the Society organized a total of five events. While three events (Dance in the Spanish Golden Age, Dancing Well, Dancing Longer, and Dances of the Italian Renaissance Summer School) incurred a deficit, the Shakespeare Online Festival and the launch workshop for Dances of Fashionable Society generated surpluses. Overall, the events program broke even, with a surplus of £191. However, it is worth noting that our events suffered from low attendance, and it is this that has impacted our income for the year.
PROJECTS:
The Society spent £250 to complete an ongoing project. No new projects were initiated during this period.
FUNDING SUPPORT:
We received an application for funding support from Medieval Music in the Dales, which was granted. The Society allocated £400 from its funds to support the Festival.
JOURNAL:
Volume 4 of our Journal was successfully published during this year.
CORE COSTS:
As our accounting method follows a cash basis, certain costs may appear in years where they do not belong, potentially distorting the overall picture. However, core costs, which reflect the necessary expenses to operate the Society, should remain relatively stable. This year, spending on core costs increased by £405. This difference can be attributed to additional payments made, such as an additional Zoom invoice and the cost of fulfilling our legal obligation to have our accounts independently examined, as well as an increase in prices and fees.
RESERVES:
The Society maintains an established reserves policy, which considers the potential risks associated with its activities. As of now, our reserves amount to £33,987.
SUMMARY
Overall, the Society experienced a decrease in assets amounting to £668. Of this amount, £400 was intentionally granted from our funds. The remaining deficit of £268 can be explained by the additional costs incurred this year. Given the predicted increase in prices for the upcoming year, we will remain vigilant of any further increases in expenses.
Lizzie Abusch Treasurer November 2023
Income lQll113 IOIV22 nditure 211/11 1011122 voluta Ser¥e5 5thiPtN5 Donat5 .710 420 Gift Aid 147 Tradln Pro Events ActIvIt5 Bllak5d recordin Tradln Pro ert5 Events Actiylties Printhigd90t I77 Book5andre(ordll 150 Wor WorOF•sr sMe5[hOo1Lozl 20 Pknyfotd F•5111 5umffler5(kn012022 50 19.9U 14.948 A55?mbtyforJanE Aue L190 semblyforJaneAu5t?n CE5WrthShake5pEAfE 8220 Danr05Wlth3keSPa[e 7.749 57¥ [( inthe shG0len #<e 45 DanInthE Sp3Thi5hGddenAge 5hake5ppaie'5Dan(E&Online nRenal55JO D(e5fLYDbk Ha115 823 5hake5pe3fE'5DanLP5.. OnlnE Fe5tN allReaI55aThL0Inr-DaTrL5ffDT NO HaN5 120 151 21 Vl•lLO•rt 3th38 smerSO23 D50fth Sumfflr5thMI 21 501th knna15c 2211 rSfDT Fash35(1ty.l3vth DansforFthlOnab 5DLiEty- (h 23 Revul1 23 24 AmeTiEa'5 Reb7J1Jn lJJ56 23121 Mana D£T4%1 Ship•&r•'y Er• 700 ement Mana ement and(e (05ts ttand(DieiD5t5 U14 709 nera b1Kityd CommunKètion5 GEnETal PubkityandCommuThi(at5 fj94 544 TeathetsMU5d pu rESP(h TeatherMu5irandpubsie5earth 69 Re(oF15 kni•r4IT4¢•bd tromCOIFO•poib Fund Pawnent5 GrwT Ta14PAI74l5 LAf4cESHE CVJ H58( 21A67 Balaffl frarn Ve Addtota reteyt5fiomabo Le55t0tPaYmeTrt5fr0M opposite aA270 COF Dposk 32JO8 17.711 B•l4n¢• at y••r •nd 3010912023 57,006 57.675 TOTAL Carried Forwardto2023124 57,rJ)6 57.675