Historical dance Workshops

Ken Pierce teaches these workshops for online and in-person learners Saturdays and Wednesdays. Each session focuses on an aspect of early dance - whether a certain set of dances or steps, these workshops are designed to link explore the ideas and movement of ballet’s predecessors. See our 2024 - 2025 offerings below.

  • An overview of Baroque dance, with particular attention to similarities and differences between Baroque dance steps and ballet steps with the same name. In anticipation of the character dance workshops that Caroline Cooper will be offering at Northeast Arts, we'll also look at some steps found in Baroque character dances.

    Saturdays, Sept. 7, 14

    or

    Wednesdays, Sept. 11, 18

    $30 In person

    $25 online

  • The Canary is an improvisatory, percussive dance described in French, Italian, and Spanish sources. We'll learn the basic form of the dance and explore steps and variations, particularly those described in late-16th and early-17th-century Italian sources.

    Saturdays, Oct. 26, Nov. 2, 9, 16

    or

    Wednesdays, Oct. 30, Nov. 6, 13, 20

    $60 In person

    $45 online

  • A single session devoted to the notated dance "Le Vieux Canarye" [LMC 8360], from early-18th-century sources. This dance has some characteristics in common with the dances of the previous workshop, but it is much less complex.

    Saturday, Dec. 7

    or

    Wednesday, Dec. 11

    $20 In person

    $15 online

  • (Focus of workshop to be determined.)

    Saturdays, Jan. 18, 25, Feb. 1, 8

    or

    Wednesdays, Jan. 22, 29, Feb. 5, 12

    $60 In person

    $45 online

  • Focus TBD

    Saturdays, Mar. 1, 8, 15

    or

    Wednesdays, Mar. 5, 12, 19

    $45 In person

    $35 online

  • Focus TBD

    Saturdays, Mar. 29, Apr. 5

    or

    Wednesdays, April. 2, 9

    $30 In person

    $25 online

Ken Pierce trained in ballet and modern dance, studying on scholarship at both the American Ballet Theatre School and the Merce Cunningham studio. He has specialized in early dance—especially, late-Renaissance and Baroque dance—for the past three decades, as choreographer, reconstructor, performer, and teacher. Companies he has performed with include the Court Dance Company of New York, the New York Baroque Dance Company, Ris et Danceries (Paris), Danse Baroque Toronto, and the baroque dance trio Hémiole (Paris), of which he was a co-founder. He directs his own company, the Ken Pierce Historical Dance Projects (formerly Ken Pierce Baroque Dance Company), for which he has choreographed or reconstructed dances for performances with Tafelmusik, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Concerto Copenhagen, The King’s Noyse, Handel & Haydn Society, and the Boston Early Music Festival. Choreographic credits include dances for Les Élémens, Les Festes d’Hébé, Tirsi e Clori, and les Festes de l’Amour et de Bacchus; King Arthur at the Boston Early Music Festival, and such twentieth-century premières as Le Carnavale Mascarade; Les Plaisirs de Versailles, with Ex Machina Baroque Opera Ensemble; the masque Oberon, at Case Western Reserve University; and le Mariage de la Grosse Cathos at the Amherst Early Music Festival. He was assistant choreographer for Quelques pas graves de Baptiste, Francine Lancelot’s baroque-style piece for the Paris Opera Ballet, whose cast included Rudolph Nureyev. Mr. Pierce has taught at summer dance and music workshops in the U.S. and abroad. He directs the early dance program at the Longy School of Music of Bard College (Cambridge), and teaches classes and workshops in the Boston area.

Past Workshops

  • Gagliarda di Spagna

  • LMC 1900 Chaconne de M. Feuillet

  • Step sequences or patterns found in Barriera, as found in Carroso

  • Gigue Anglaise danced by Mlle. Subligny in Angleterre (LMC 5020)

  • Caroso’s Alta Vittoria

  • Pécour (LMC 4620)