Allerton Park & Retreat Center

Traveling Time Machine: Dancing in Illinois from Statehood to the 60s

Led by: Jeanette Watts

Thursdays: March 14, 21, 28; April 4, 11, 18

5:30-7:30pm

Music Barn

Registration Deadline: March 13, 2024; 1 day prior to each subsequent class

Skill level: All Levels

Registration fee: $75/full course OR $25/class

Course Description:

Each week, we will tackle the popular dances of Illinois starting with the fashionable dances of 1818. (Think Jane Austen and Bridgerton.) Each class will teach the basic skills, and some popular variations of the time so that attendees get a real feeling of what it was like to live/dance back then. Each class will be an hour of technique, and a second hour of less intensive play time, when we will apply the learned skills in the context of set dances of the time and have a chance to do at least one dance to review the material of the week before. Registration for the entire series is not required, but highly recommended for maximum comfort. Not every week builds on the skills of the week before, depending upon the era being covered. The final class of this series will be a mid-century dance to showcase all the new steps you learned throughout the course.

About the Instructor:

Jeanette Watts has been teaching historical dances for over 20 years. She is the founder of the Terpsichorean Delights Dance Assembly in Dayton, OH, Queen City Vintage Dance in Charlotte, NC, and spent Covid writing an 8-volume series of instructional dance manuals for historical museums.