Stanford Daily, Vol. 165A, Issue 4, July 9, 1974
Hilton Performs, Teaches Early Dance at her Early Dance Workshop,
by JANICE ROSS
Last Monday evening in Dinkelspiel Auditorium artist-in-residence Wendy Hilton
presented a unique lecture-demonstration on French dance and music of the early
18th Century. Despite the fact that most Early dances were couple dances, Hilton,
costumed in a dazzling white satin 18th Century gown, succeeded in presenting an
hour long, one-woman lecture — demonstration of dances without the aid of a
partner that was both enchanting and informative. Her knowledge, devotion and
personal charm helped lend life to a subject which might all too easily become
dry and tedious to the layperson. This lecture-demonstration marked the high point
of a two week long Summer Workshop in Early Music and Dance, directed by Hilton
and sponsored by the Stanford Music Department. A native of England, Hilton is an
internationally reknown authority on the dance form of the French Baroque Court.
She has resided in New York for the past several years where she choreographs and
performs in addition to teaching period movement and dance classes at the Julliard
School. Hilton's dance background includes considerable training in the classical
ballet tradition. It wasn't until the late 1950s that she met Melusine Wood, a
pioneer in historical dance research, who stimulated her interest in dance of the
French Baroque period. However, it hasn't been until recently that Hilton has been
able to devote her full time to the study of Early Dance. As she explains, "In
1961 I formed a dance group called the Domenico Dance ensemble. At first there was
no opportunity to make a living, but gradually I was able to do less ballet dancing,
and to teach Early Dance instead. Eventually I began teaching on a full time basis
at the Guildhall School of Music and Dance and the Royal Academy of Dancing in
London." With the aid of old dance prints, diaries, commentaries and dances recorded
by the Feuillet system of notation, which was devised by the Frenchman Raoul Feuillet
in 1700, Hilton has succeeded in reconstructing dances of the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth Century, many of which have never been accurately performed since that
time. As a result of her extensive knowledge in this unique area Hilton has
understandably little patience for inaccuracies and exaggerations in the performance
of these dances. "Get those Ballet arms down, and look prouder!" She frequently
admonishes the Workshop students; "Don't swing your hips so far out to the side, no
one would have dared be that vulgar in the presence of his Majesty!" Meticulous about
period authenticity, Hilton is also justifiably piqued at many contemporary film and
theatre directors who depict 18th Century dancers as "fops" or "fags." "These
gentlemen were not 'fags'," she protests. "Despite the elegance of their dress and
the artifice of their manners they were very masculine and self assured .... They
would go to their dancing masters anywhere from one to three times a week .... and
that was not just because they were gentlemen who did not have to work hard for a
living.... Even if people in society found themselves temporarily impoverished the
dancing lesson was one of the last things to be sacrificed. It was not regarded as a
luxury at all." Indeed, the twice daily technique classes that Hilton teaches the
workshop students are in themselves lessons in court etiquette as well as dance
styles. Seated at the head of the dance floor Hilton maintains a regal presence
despite the often clumsy and graceless antics of her students. "In the 17th and 18th
Centuries dancing was a very formal ritual, when you had a ruler in England or
France who was a good dancer, then it was important for everyone at court to be able
to dance well ... you had to participate, it was not especially an evening of sport
or fun, it was a ritual, a social duty," she reminds her students. At Monday evening's
program Hilton performed several dances which she has adapted from original sources
and set to instrumental music. Ranging from the stately and controlled releves and
plies of the Minuet and Courante to the lively and gay runs of the Gigue and the
Canarie, these dances all demonstrate a careful attention to details of symmetry and
formal structure. The harmony and serenity of the dance, and the emphasis on proper
carriage and deportment as well as the repetition may have been, in part, a
reflection of the social mileu, where everyone and everything had its place, and the
highest goal was to be gentile and elegant. At times it seems as if many of the dances
were created simply as a pretense for displaying one's fine clothing and manners.
Because of the complexity and yet subtlety of these dances, they may appear disarmingly
simple, and similar. But the more one observes the dances, the more he comes to
appreciate them and recognize their distinctiveness. For hidden within the elegant
movements, simple lines, precise foot work, and carefully articulated jumps and hops
were the beginnings of Ballet.
The Annual Stanford University Summer Workshop in Baroque Dance and its Music.
Wendy Hilton, Director
Linda Tomko, Co-Director
Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière
Julie Andrijeski
Baroque Violins:
Bronwen Pugh
Julie Andrijeski
Guest Lecturers: Dr. Carol Marsh, Week I;
Dr. Meredith Little, Week II
The Baroque Dance Summer Workshop at Stanford University offers intensive
study in the style, technique and notation of French court and theater dance
at the beginning, intermediate and advanced levels; the individual dance
types and their music; performance technique, etiquette, and bows and
courtesies.
Daily activities include two technique classes, the second concluding with
contradances; a dance notation class; a music class or
lecture-demonstration; and time to use the music library with its extensive
dance collection and the Lully Archives. Beginning and intermediate couples
are allocated a one-hour daily practice slot. Evening practice space is also
available. Advanced students are allocated practice space and have four
private, or semi-private, notation sessions with Wendy Hilton. The Workshop
concludes on July 30th with a demonstration followed by a farewell party at
5:00 p.m. for faculty, students, and guests.
The leading figures of the second generation of historical dance research include
Shirley Wynne and her Baroque Dance Ensemble which was founded at Ohio State
University in the early 1970s and Wendy Hilton (1931–2002), a student of Belinda
Quirey who supplemented the work of Melusine Wood with her own research into
original sources. A native of Britain, Hilton arrived in the U.S. in 1969 joining
the faculty of the Juilliard School in 1972 and establishing her own baroque dance
workshop at Stanford University in 1974 which endured for more than 25 years.
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