Dalcroze Dance sessions

[ahinton]

That rather depends on hard or soft

Yes, I suppose that it might.

what?

I know not what.

[ardcarp]

Could I ask for suggestions please? We need ideas for classical music sequences to be used in our 65+ Dalcroze dance/fitness class. We've used Shostakovich Jazz Waltz 2 and it was excellent; just the right mood and tempo. Our teacher has also used both the Downton and the Poirot themes but we're fed up with those! I've googled for ideas, but sites only come up with sequences that are pounding and relentless for fitness freaks! Thanks for any ideas.

Try Khachaturian's Waltz from "Masquerade". I can distinctly remember my mother choreographing a sequence using it. Uplifting and energising...just so long as more 3/4 time is OK!

[ardcarp]

Further info about Dalcroze...

https://www.dalcroze.ch/the-jaques-dalcroze-institute/

[ahinton]

"The chief reason for the degeneration of present-day musc lies in the fact that people want to get physical sensations from music more than anything else. Emotion is out of date and intellect a bore. Appreciation of art which has been born of profound thought and intensity of experience necessitates an intellectual effort too exhausting for most people of the present day. They want to be amused; they would rather feel music with their bodies than understand it through their emotions. It seems as though a tarantula has bitten them - hence the dancing craze: Dixie, Dalcroze, Duncan, Diaghilev, they are all manifestations of the same thing. In an age of neurasthenics, music, like everything else, must be a stimulant, must be alcoholic, aphrodisiac, or it is no good..."

"Bach fugues are employed as exercises in muscular mathematics and Beethoven sonatas interpreted(!!!) by every hysterical, nymphomaniacal old woman who can gull the public into seeing "a revival of the Greek spirit" or some other highfalutin vision in the writhing and contortion of her limbs".

"By all means become dancing dervishes if you want to, and dance in a delicious cortège right into the lunatic asylum; but don't try to justify your procedure in the name of art, nor degrade the works of great artists in doing so. Above all, don't spoil works of art for other people who may not want to dance in the same direction. We do not all go the same way home".

OK - so all from the same article, published almost 100 years ago; so by whom? Anyone got any ideas?...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So - Rab G Nesbitt?

[ahinton]

So - Rab G Nesbitt?

Rab C Nesbitt, surely? But anyway, no, not at all. Nearly a century ago, as I mentioned. Have another go!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Rab C Nesbitt, surely? But anyway, no, not at all. Nearly a century ago, as I mentioned. Have another go!

There's someone called "Sorabsi"???

[umslopogaas]

Could those quotes be by Constant Lambert? I dont recall them from 'Music Ho!' but they are the sort of thing he could have written.

[ahinton]

There's someone called "Sorabsi"???

But it wasn't him! - although he did contribute the occasional piece for the publication in which the above appeared...

[ahinton]

Could those quotes be by Constant Lambert? I dont recall them from 'Music Ho!' but they are the sort of thing he could have written.

Style-wise, perhaps, but othewise I doubt it, especially given his involvement in the world of dance; anyway, it wasn't him either!

[Bryn]

Reads like something someone schooled in Bradford might say.

[ahinton]

Reads like something someone schooled in Bradford might say.

Right you are, sir! - but he didn't get the sack for it...

[ardcarp]

So that's why Delius was so c**p at rhythm!