LS/HDS AGM 6Dec25 Chairs Report
Chair’s Report 2024-2025
Trustees and Associates
I wish to begin by thanking the other Trustees and all the Associates of HDS and other volunteers. It would be impossible for HDS to function without their support and commitment. They give their time freely and enthusiastically and I am very grateful for their support.
Trustees 2024-2025: Lynne Spicer (Chair), Richard Smithies (Secretary), Rachel Cavet (Treasurer), Anne Daye (Director of Education and Research), Talitha MacKenzie, Helen Young, Steve Collins.
We welcomed Rachel Cavet who has taken on the role of Treasurer.
Associates of HDS: Lizzie Abusch, Libby Curzon, Ian Cutts, Hazel Dennison, Jan Guyatt, Derek Guyatt, Ann Hinchliffe, Felicity Maxwell, David Parsons, Gill Plant, Anne Smithies. Our Associates are volunteers who take on a particular role in supporting the Society. We are very grateful for their expertise and help to enable HDS to operate effectively.
We welcomed Felicity Maxwell as the new Publications Manager. She will be working closely with the Publications Sub-Committee, initially for one year.
Particular thanks goes to Jan and Derek Guyatt who have worked tirelessly for HDS Publications for many years. They will be retiring in the New Year and we wish them all the very best. We are still seeking someone to take on the job of physical sales and stock but it is proving difficult to find someone.
Our Book Keeper, Lizzie Abusch, also wishes to stand down and we are looking for someone who can support the Treasurer in this role.
We are always looking for new volunteers to help us with our activities so please get in touch for an informal talk if you are interested in becoming more involved.
The Trustees met four times during the year, three times online on Zoom and once in-person at the Quaker Meeting House in York. There were regular meetings of our sub-committees, including the Teachers Sub-Committee and Publications SubCommittee.
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LS/HDS AGM 6Dec25 Chairs Report
Publications
The Publications Sub-Committee, chaired by Anne Daye, is one of our most active groups. Two new products were published this year:
Dances of the French Courts: 16[th] century dance, music and songs from France by Dr Anne Daye. Book and CD or digital download. £30.
The Boone Companion: dances of mid-seventeenth century England from the Pattricke, Sloane, Lansdowne manuscripts and Playford by Ann and Paul Kent with music by the Granary Musicians arranged and directed by David Gordon. Book or digital download £20, Music CD or download £10. We thank Ann and Paul Kent for their generosity in making their research and all the preparation work freely available to HDS for publication.
Dances for Queen Victoria (Joseph Lowe dance collection) by Dr Anne Daye is our latest publication and it has just gone on sale through the website shop.
Publications continue to sell steadily from the HDS online shop.
Special thanks to Anne Daye who gives so much time and expertise to HDS.
Events and Activities
The theme of our 55[th] annual Summer School 2024 was Dancing at the Late Renaissance Courts of Italy, England and France. It was held at Bromsgrove School in the West Midlands, 11-18 July 2025. It followed the usual format with a weekend course and a full week’s course running concurrently. 30 people attended and the majority of attendees were from overseas. All attendees thought that the tuition from Markus Lehner, Anne Daye and Richard Huggett was excellent. Feedback from last year’s Summer School highlighted some issues with catering and accommodation. Helen Young, Summer School Manager and Gill Plant, Summer School Administrator worked with Bromsgrove School to make improvements and feedback this year was far more positive.
Preparations are well underway for the 2026 Summer School. The theme will be Dancing in the Ballrooms of 18[th] century England and France, 10-17 July 2026. The venue will be Bromsgrove School and the tutors will be Nicolle Klinkeberg, Anne Daye and Ann Hinchliffe.
We ran the following one-day courses/workshops:
Playford’s Dance Steps , led by Ann Hinchliffe, at St Wulstan’s Church Hall, near Newcastle-under Lyme, Saturday 10 May 2025.
More Dancing Like a Tudor, led by Helen Young and Ann Hinchliffe, at St Pancras Church House, London, Saturday 20 September 2025. This popular day course aimed at beginners followed the success of last year’s Dance Like a Tudor course at the same venue.
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LS/HDS AGM 6Dec25 Chairs Report
The 18[th] Century Allemande, Cotillions and Country Dances , led by Sam Gosk, at St Pancras Church House, London, Saturday 20 November 2025. This course was aimed at dancers with some experience and proved very popular as it was fully booked with a waiting list.
We are planning these future events:
Dance, Music and Masquing at the Court of Elizabeth I, weekend house party with Anne Daye and Ann Hinchliffe, at Halsway Manor, Somerset, 16-18 January 2026.
The Boone Companion launch of new publication, day course led by Ann and Paul Kent, HDS/Herts Early Dance, at St Albans, 14 March 2026.
One of the issues raised at last year’s Members Forum was a request for more courses to be run outside London. Sadly we have found that generally day courses outside London do not attract sufficient numbers of bookings to make them viable unless they are run jointly with another organisation.
We reviewed the fees paid to teachers leading our courses and Summer School and agreed to increase them to bring them more in line with those recommended within the wider dance world.
Thank you to everyone who works in the background, planning, finding tutors, managing bookings and payments, and organising practical arrangements. As well as organising the Summer School which takes a lot of work over the year, Helen Young, together with Gill Plant, is also very involved in assisting with other courses including creating and managing online bookings. Helen, Ann Hinchliffe and Anne Smithies also do much to publicise the courses and events that we run.
HDS Website
Thank you to David Parsons for his work on keeping the website up to date and for introducing improvements. Recent work has included ensuring that website security is robust.
HDS Journal
David Parsons is also Editor of the Journal and 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.
HDS Newsletter
The Members Email News goes out fortnightly to members with a short break in the Summer and at Christmas/New Year. It is a compilation of events, activities and news items about historical dance, music, costume and related activities.
Contributions are always welcome. It is also encouraging to receive your comments on items in the Email News.
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LS/HDS AGM 6Dec25 Chairs Report
Social Media
Thank you to Anne Smithies for her work in increasing our social media presence, particularly on YouTube and Facebook. This is a particularly important part of our work as social media provides a great opportunity for us to widen our scope and reach a large global audience. Videos of historical dances are particularly widely viewed.
External Contacts and Collaboration
We were encouraged by the Government’s recent announcement of the Curriculum and Assessment Review. For the first time in years the government is recognising the value of dance in the curriculum. This can only be a good thing for all types of dance.
We try to maintain strong links with the Early Dance Circle as it is important to collaborate and support each other.
HDS maintains links with other organisations including the Oxford Symposium, the Rothenfels Historical Dance Symposium and the European Association for Dance History.
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
Finally thank you to all our members for your continued support. HDS simply would not exist without you and our membership numbers have remained stable. Following last year’s AGM we established a new Student Member category. The Secretary’s report covers Membership but I would like to thank Anne and Richard Smithies for their work in maintaining the infrastructure of HDS.
Lynne Spicer November 2025
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Draft Accounts
The Historical Dance Society Charity Number: 1178919
Financial Report 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025
The accounts included at the end of this report summarise the Society's financial transactions over the past two years.
Financial Summary:
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Total Income: £29,198
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Total Payments: £22,721
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Surplus for the year: £6,477
No long-term liabilities were recorded at the end of the year. The Society continues to operate solely with the help of volunteers and does not engage in any fundraising activities.
Trustee Payments:
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Total Payments:
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Tutor Fees: £900
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Reimbursement for Costs: £854
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Total: £1754
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All payments are reviewed and deemed appropriate according to the Society's guidelines and constitution.
Subscriptions:
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Membership income dipped slightly again this year but numbers increased
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The drop reflects our membership structure, with some members paying for 5-year memberships, all counted in the year of receipt.
Donations:
- Donations totalled £318, including Gift Aid.
Draft Accounts
Books and Recordings:
- Sales were especially strong, generating £5,028.
Events:
The Society held a wide range of events this year, including:
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Dance Like a Tudor / More Dance Like a Tudor
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Summer School 2025 – Dancing at the Late Renaissance Courts
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The 18th Century Allemande / Playford Dance Steps Workshop
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Halsway 2026: Preparatory costs only incurred in this year
Projects:
- £702 spent on books and recordings
Core Costs:
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Core and fixed costs included IT systems, accounting software, insurance, Zoom, bank fees, and membership software
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These costs rose slightly but remain covered by our income
Other Expenses:
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£204 spent on Publicity and Communications
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Three bursaries were awarded this year, supporting subsidised attendance at the Summer School in line with our charitable remit
Reserves:
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The Society maintains a prudent reserves policy, mindful of risks associated with its activities
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Current reserves: approximately £37,374 in the COIF Charity Fund Deposit Account
Summary:
The Society’s financial position remains strong.
Draft Accounts
| 2024/25 2023/24 |
2024/25 2023/24 |
2024/25 2023/24 |
2024/25 | 2023/24 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income | Expenditure | |||||
| Voluntary Services | Trading Activities | |||||
| Subscriptions | 2,040 | 2,180 | Printing and postage | 1,196 | 653 | |
| Donations inc Gift Aid | 318 | 1,214 | ||||
| Trading Activities | Projects | |||||
| Books and recordings | 5,028 | 3,067 | Books and recordings | 702 | 2,000 | |
| Events | ||||||
| Dance in the Spanish Golden Age | 816 | Dance in the Spanish Golden Age | 936 | |||
| Shakespeare’s Dances: Online Festival | 823 | Shakespeare’s Dances: Online Festival | 1,056 | |||
| Dancing Well, Dancing Longer | 3,928 | Dancing Well, Dancing Longer | 3,663 | |||
| Summer School 2023 Dances of the Italian Renaissance | 9,557 | Summer School 2023 Dances of the Italian Renaissance | 9,198 | |||
| Dances for Fashionable Society-Launch | 196 | Dances for Fashionable Society-Launch | 47 | |||
| Summer School 2024/Strictly Victorian | 14,823 | Summer School 2024/Strictly Victorian | 14,058 | 2,066 | ||
| America’s Dance Revolution | 811 | America’s Dance Revolution | 1,033 | |||
| Dancing in Shakespeare’s Era | 7,765 | Dancing in Shakespeare’s Era | 8,533 | |||
| Dance Like a Tudor More Dance like a Tudor Summer School 2025 Dancing at the Late Renaissance Courts The 18th Century Allemande Playford Dance Steps Workshop |
179 944 914 17,579 1,239 290 |
Dance Like a Tudor 452 More Dance like a Tudor 350 Summer School 2025 Dancing at the Late Renaissance Courts 2,549 The 18th Century Allemande 350 Playford Dance Steps Workshop 373 |
280 | |||
| Halsway 2026 | Halsway 2026 750 |
|||||
| Management | Management | |||||
| IT and core costs | IT and core costs | 1,622 | 1,387 | |||
| General Publicity and Communications | General Publicity and Communications | 204 | 517 | |||
| Research/rehearsals | 478 | Research/rehearsals | 478 | |||
| Printing stationery | 116 | |||||
| RECEIPTS | 27,587 29,990 |
PAYMENTS 22,721 |
26,262 | |||
| Interest received from COIF Deposit Fund (estimated) | 1,611 | 1,776 | ||||
| TOTAL RECEIPTS | 29,198 31,766 |
|||||
| Assets | ||||||
| Balance Sheet | ||||||
| Balance from last year | 62,510 | 57,006 | CIO HSBC | 31,613 | 26,747 | |
| Add total receipts | 29,198 | 31,766 | COIF Charity Fund Deposit Account | 37,374 | 35,763 | |
| Less total payments from opposite | 22,721 | 26,262 | ||||
| Balance at year end | 68,987 62,510 |
TOTAL Carried Forward to 2025/26 68,987 |
62,510 |
Draft Accounts
This report has been prepared by Lizzie Abusch, HDS bookkeeper, on behalf of the Trustees. January 2026
A Treasurer appointed at last year’s AGM was unable to continue in the role beyond the Autumn and is no longer acting as Treasurer. The Trustees are actively seeking to appoint a replacement
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I.D.E.A.L
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Accounting & Bookkeeping
Date: 12 February 2026
Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of The Historical Dance Society
I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 30 September 2025.
The charity’s trustees are responsible for the prepara�on of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under sec�on 144(2) of the Chari�es Act 2011 and that an independent examina�on is needed.
I have carried out an independent examina�on of the accounts in accordance with sec�on 145 of the Chari�es Act 2011. My examina�on was conducted in line with the Direc�ons given by the Charity Commission. An independent examina�on includes a review of the accoun�ng records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes considera�on of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explana�ons from the trustees concerning such ma�ers.
My role is to state whether any material ma�ers have come to my a�en�on that give me cause to believe:
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accoun�ng records were not kept in accordance with sec�on 130 of the Chari�es Act 2011, or
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the accounts do not accord with those records, or
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the accounts do not comply with the applicable accoun�ng requirements of the Chari�es Act 2011, or
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there is any other ma�er that should be drawn to the a�en�on of the trustees to enable a proper understanding of the accounts.
Independent Examiner’s Statement
In the course of my examina�on, no ma�er has come to my a�en�on that gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect:
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the accoun�ng records were not kept in accordance with sec�on 130 of the Chari�es Act 2011, or
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the accounts do not accord with those records, or
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the accounts fail to comply with the requirements of the Chari�es Act 2011.
I have no concerns and have come across no other ma�ers that I consider should be drawn to the a�en�on of the trustees.
Independent Examiner’s Name: Erina Templar – ACMA CGMA, MAAT
Address: 61 High Street Graveley, Cambridgeshire PE19 6PL
Date: 12 February 2026
Signature: Erina Templar