Early Dance and Music Project

The Early Dance and Music Project, directed by Rachelle Palnick Tsachor, with Ruth Williams as music director, practices the art of courtship, love and intrigue as experienced in the courtly ballrooms of the 15th - 19th centuries. 

The Early Dance Project was formed in 2003, and has performed at the Renaissance Festival, University of Northern Iowa, and at  public schools in Iowa along with early music performers from our area.

Recent programs were based upon reconstructed social dances from the dancing manuals of Fabritio Caroso's Nobilt・di Dame (1600) and Il Ballarino (1580) , Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesography (1589) and Cesare Negri's Le Gratie d'Amore (1602), John Playford's English Dancing Master (1651), and the Baroque manuals of Louis Pécour, Raoul Auger Feuillet (1700) and Andr・Lorin (c. 1686).

Ruth Williams died January 18, 2009 of cancer.  She was lead musician for Habeas Corpus Early Music and Dance for the last few years, and played with members of our group for the last 20 years.  We will miss her music, her can-do spirit and her generosity.  Her family is planning a celebration of her life in May.  Condolences may left at Lensing Funeral.

Early Dance Project is sponsored by Arts a la Carte, a not-for-profit organization in Iowa City supporting the Movement Arts http://www.artsalacarteic.org/, which provides rehearsal space for the company.  Our group is inter-generational and welcomes new participants of all ages and abilities.   We are often joined by the English Country Dance Society of Iowa City, which is coordinated by Barbara Zilles, and local musicians interested in learning and performing early music.

Early Dance Project director Rachelle Palnick Tsachor earned her BFA in Dance at the Juilliard School and her Masters of Dance Research and Reconstruction at the City College of New York, where she studied Renaissance dance with Dr. Julia Sutton and Baroque dance with Wendy Hilton.  She has taught period Movement and dance at the University of Iowa, where she is currently faculty at the School of Music. Tsachor has staged dances for the UI Madrigal Dinners for 10 years, the University of Iowa Theatres and Riverside Theatre in Iowa City.  She as been invited to give presentations on Early Dance at the International Conference of Early Dance in Ghent, Belgium, the Society for Dance History Scholars, The Association of Theatre in Higher Education, the Association of Theatre Movement Educators, and the Laban Institute of Movement Studies.  Tsachor is currently serving as managing editor for the forthcoming scholarly edition of Andr・Lorin's late 1680's manuscript of Country Dances, which was commissioned by Louis XIV. Tsachor was a major consultant to the video "How to Dance through Time:  The Majesty of Renaissance Dance."

For information about the Early Dance Project, please contact Rachelle Palnick Tsachor at Tsachor at mchsi.com  or go to Rachelle's web site. More information about Rachelle's Adult Ballet class and Ease of Movement class is available also.

For information about the English Country Dance Society of Iowa City and International Folk Dance in Iowa City, please contact Barbara at Barbara-Zilles@uiowa.edu.

Recent Early Dance Project programs included:

• Dances from Cesare Negri's Le Gratie d'Amore (1602) as staged by Julia Sutton:

  La Caccia d'Amore (The Chain of Love),
  

  La Battaglia (The Battle of the Sexes)
  So Ben mi c'ha Buon Tempo (I know who's having a good time)

• Dances fromFabritio Caroso's Nobilt・di Dame (1601)  staged by Rachelle Tsachor
  

  Allegrezza d'Amore (Joys of love)
  Alta Regina
  Nido d'Amore
  Amor Costante
  Passo e Mezzo

• Dances from John Playford's The English Dancing Master  (1651 and 1685), staged by company members such as Janet Gibson, Bill and Amy Morris, and Lorelei Falsetti

  Rufty Tufty 
  Jenny Pluck Pears
  Hunsdon House
  Christ Church Bells
  Newcastle
  Boatman and many others

• Dances from  Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesography (1589)

  Les Mattasins, as staged by Julia Sutton
  Galliard
  Branles (various)

• Dances from Andr・Lorin's Livre de Contredanse

  English Minuet
  Chirstchurch Bells