Performing Groups

1. Music
2. Theater
3. Dance Organizations

1. Music Ensembles and Organizations

Jane suggests a lecture-demonstration and an active workshop on the dance forms found in music during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical music eras. Musicians of all ages will gain a much deeper understanding of appropriate meter, tempo, and phrasing of the dance forms that they so often play in their repertoire. Jane can perform in your concert to share this with the audience. Vocal students will also enjoy a workshop on baroque gesture. Jane has taught at Indiana University Early Music Institute, St. Scholastica Early Music Program, University of Minnesota, Madison (WI) Early Music Festival.

2. Theater Companies

Choreography: Jane suggests a workshop and choreography tailored to your production. Produce a period play of any era with the authentic feel that Jane’s historic choreography can give. Authentic period dance can be passionate and exciting in the hands of a choreographer who knows the full range of the era’s dance. Jane has done pieces for Shakespeare, Moliere, Restoration plays, Dickens, and Jane Austen productions. She has also choreographed for musical theater: Annie (1930’s American), Fiddler on the Roof (19th c. Yiddish), Fantasticks (timeless). A Christmas Carol with period dance would be innovative!

Workshops: Jane’s workshop, Stage Movement from Moliere, Shakespeare, and Restoration Comedy, includes baroque theater gesture and commedia dell’arte, as well as etiquette of various socioeconomic groups. Actors discover that period stage movement conveys the true sense of the character and the time period. The workshop can include specific dances commonly found in 16th and 17th c. plays, such as minuets and contradances. Jane also teaches Ragtime, Twenties, and Thirties dances, as well as 19th c. Jane has taught and choreographed for the Guthrie Theater, theater departments at U. of M, Macalester College, Carleton College, Hamline U, as well as community theaters across the Midwest.

3. Dance Companies

Jane offers both workshops and choreography for dance companies and schools. She is one of a handful of performing dance historians who can teach an active workshop on pre-classical theater dance, The Birth of Ballet. Pre-classical dance will train your dancers in a precise rhythmic and spatial patterning that they often don’t get in ballet or contemporary dance. It also offers an understanding of the roots of ballet found in French daily life. Jane offers dance from many eras. Young choreographers will be prepared to respond to future period theater requests. Imagine a Bach suite with a mix of new choreography and actual dances of his day. The Nutcracker will be fresh again with the actual dancing of an early 19th c. Christmas party. Jane has received a Jerome Travel Grant for her study of 18th c. French theater dance. She has taught dance history at the U. of M. and UW Madison. Her professional training is in modern dance and choreography.