This year's Summer Lunch will look at dance across a wide range of settings. 

LECTURE 1    THE ART OF BALLET     

Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts in the 15th century and when Catherine Medici an Italian noblewoman married the French King Henry II in 1533, she brought Ballet to the French court. A century later, King Louis XIV, a passionate dancer, popularised and standardised the art form and in 1661 he founded the Royal Academy of Dance, the popularity of ballet soared in Russia in the late 19th century when Russian choreographers and composers took it to new heights. And in the early 20th century, Sergei Diaghilev went beyond the confines of classical ballet fusing together the latest in art, music and dance in spectacles that dazzled and astonished audiences around the world.  George Balanchine changed ballet even further when he created neo-classical ballet, and he was the greatest innovator of the contemporary “plotless” ballet. Today, ballet is multi-faceted. Classical forms, traditional stories and contemporary innovations intertwine to produce the character of modern ballet. In this lecture we'll take an exciting and colourful look at ballet from its origins to modern day ballet bringing it alive with video clips and music as well as stills. 

LECTURE 2   THE ART OF MODERN DANCE  

This lecture looks at the explosion of modern dance that took place during the 20th century after Isadora Duncan introduced a new free flowing form of dance at the turn of the century. Modern dance pioneers included Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman and these in turn were succeeded by post WW2 choreographers such as Merce Cunningham who broke the rules paving the way for post-modern dance from the 1960s, We’ll also look at hip hop, street dancing, jazz and some extraordinary site-specific works that take us up to the present time. In all these lectures, we’ll take an exciting and colourful look at the different forms of dance bringing it alive with video clips and music as well as stills.

We will start the day with coffee/tea and biscuits and there will be a 2 course lunch

Ticket price £60 per person