The Farms: Traveling Time Machine: Dancing in Illinois from Statehood to the 60s
Skill Level: All Levels
Use dancing to take a trip through time at Traveling Time Machine: Dancing in Illinois from Statehood to the 60s from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursdays between March 14 and April 18 in The Music Barn. Each week, popular dances of Illinois will be learned, starting with the ones that were in fashion in 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 and dance back then. Classes will include an hour of technique and a second hour of less intensive playtime, when you 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.
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.
$75/person for the entire series or $25/session. Register here by March 13 or one day prior to subsequent classes*. All sales are final.
Registration for the entire series is not required, but highly recommended.
*Individual class links:
— March 14: Basics of Country Dancing
— March 21: Cotillions and Quadrilles
— March 28: Waltz
— April 4: The Polka Craze
— April 11: Schottische
— April 18: 1860s Civil War Ball
If you will need disability-related accommodations in order to participate, please email owarren@illinois.edu.
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, Ohio, Queen City Vintage Dance in Charlotte, North Carolina, and spent covid writing an 8-volume series of instructional dance manuals for historical museums.
About The Farms
The Farms: An Allerton Folk School, offers classes, workshops, and gatherings focusing on art, health & wellness, history, nature & outdoor education, or science. All experiences value hands-on, experiential teaching and learning, and are facilitated by and for the members of the community.
See the complete winter class schedule here.
