Dance History Alive

Dance History Alive!

Jacob and Nancy Bloom 781-648-8230 Jacob@DanceHistoryAlive.com

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Dance in Colonial America

Teaching dance is a powerful way to introduce history to kids or adults. Teaching history through dance allows us to go beyond the usual string of dates, gives a social context to names from history books, and brings the past to life.

Picture of Nancy and Jacob

Our colonial workshop teaches students what colonial dance was like and why it was important in colonial society. The students learn a variety of historically accurate colonial steps and perform age-appropriate colonial style dances. We come dressed in 18th-century costumes, and bring along recorded period music, which reduces the expense to your school. We are located in Eastern Massachusetts and would be happy to come to your school or meeting-place to help introduce your students to this aspect of colonial life.

If a program with more historical content is preferred, we can teach some colonial steps and have the group perform a dance using those steps. We then give an age-appropriate version of our program on the politics of dance (below). The program includes information about how Joseph Warren, Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock interacted with an important dancing master from Boston named William Turner, who worked with them during and after the Revolution.
--- Read More about Revolutionary Dance and Politics ---

In the colonial period, and during the revolution, dance and music became intertwined with politics, religion and economics. The careers of William Turner, a dancing master in Boston, and Thomas Pike, a dancing master in Philadelphia, affected each other, and were affected by the times. Pike was a staunch Royalist, Turner was a Son of Liberty, and they both suffered because of their political beliefs. We share primary sources that reveal the course of their lives, and illustrate how important dance was to colonial America.
--- Read More about The Politics of Dance ---

In addition to the above programs, we can also teach and rehearse a group for an 18th century performance, or lead an evening of 18th century style dancing for a community of any age.