Prof. Theresa Buckland from the Department of Performance and Digital Arts, De Montford University, recently gave a two-day lecture series at TNUA on European dance history at TNUA.
Prof. Buckland also offered advice and suggestions in the School of Dance’s evaluation of its graduate curriculums. According to the scholar from the British university, the various changes in the development of dance reflect the times and their social backgrounds. During the reign of Queen Victoria in the 1870s, dance featured in banquets and feasts in palaces was a ritual for royalty, the nobility and upper class society to underscore their social status, and it could also be used as a tool to build up political links. But in the 20th century, such dance activities were gradually peripheralized as society changed.
Prof. Buckland indicated that London was the most influential city in Europe in the 19th century, its prosperity and advancement unparalleled in any other European cities. Its emerging media pursued stories of balls and the luxury life of the nobility, just like what paparazzi do today. Every May, nobles and powerful people were gathered in London for various gatherings, such as operas and balls. These were not just necessary social functions for the nobility, but also chances for courting. Prof. Buckland pointed out that women were usually not allowed to attend most of other public functions, and balls were young women’s chief social activities where they could find their future husbands. With dance serving such functions, dance teachers at the time had a rather high social status, and they could have good ties with different classes. They taught people not just how to dance, but also how to stand, sit and greet others.
The most popular dance teacher in the 18th and 19th centuries was Marie Taglioni. Taglioni was strict with students, requiring the highest precision for the manner of greeting, because at the time these bodily movements and gestures were a gauge of one’s education and social status. The nobility needed to learn to dance well, but their dance skills must not be too perfect to lead people think that they were professional dancers from the lower classes, Prof. Buckland stressed.
Prof. Buckland is a member of the AHRC Peer College Review, the AHRC Beyond Text Steering Committee and a former postgraduate panel member for the AHRC. She is a panelist for RAE 2008 (Dance, Drama and Performing Arts), vice chair of the International Council for Traditional Music Study Group for Ethnochoreology.