John Gardiner-Garden
John Gardiner-Garden is a dance teacher, researcher, performer, leader, choreographer, organiser and musician (on hurdy-gurdy, border pipes and wooden flute) with 25 years of experience. He is well-respected for the rigour he brings to his historical research, the creativity he brings to his his productions and the enthusiasm he brings to his teaching. He is literate in every dance notation system from the 15th to the19th century and possesses a library of over 200 historic dance manuals. He is Earthly Delights' band leader, dance troupe artistic director, and main dance leader for public classes, workshops and balls. Here is a brief skim through his artistic life-and he regards himself as still all the time learning more about the wonderful world of social dance.
From 1980 to 1986 John danced with Renaissance, Irish, Scottish, Finnish, Australian Colonial and International dance groups in Canberra, learnt dances in many other traditions from visiting dance teachers, and sampled many styles of dancing during various study periods in the former Soviet Union, Europe and Asia.From mid-1986 to 1987 he learnt Baroque, Irish, English country, American contra, Cajun, Tex-Mex, Vintage and Scandinavian dancing in the US and was honoured to receive a scholarship to the Medicino Dance Camp in California.
Upon his return to Canberra in 1987 he started 'Dancing in the Park' and 'Country Dancing' and co-ordinated these series for 4 and 6 years respectively - during which time he helped form such bands as 'Fancy Footwork', called for 'Dancerye', 'Miller's Reel', 'The Porch Band', organised guest appearances by many talented local, interstate and international artists (including Americans, Finns, Swedes, Norwegians and Slovenes), and organised many specialist dance workshops. During this time John was a guest at folk festivals in Victoria (Yackandandah), the A.C.T. (the National Folk Festival), N.S.W. (Jamberoo, Sydney and Thredbo’s Shakespeare Festival) and Queensland (Maleny)- and danced at the Sydney Opera House with a leading Finnish dance troupe. In 1991 he wrote and published A Country Dance Companion- a book which included a substantial history of social dance in the western European tradition and notes on 180 dances and 120 tunes.
In 1991-92 John was President of the Monaro Folk Music Society and in 1992 he started 'Peasant Wedding', a band which specialised in western European dance music from the 16th to the 20th century and which played for Medieval and French theme Fetes, English country dance nights, multicultural functions, Bohemian balls, American Contradances, Scandinavian and Baltic dance workshops, National Art Gallery evenings, Botanic Garden concerts, spots at National Folk Festivals and Folk Clubs, outdoor fairs and wedding / work / school bush dances.
In 1995 John founded the band 'Earthly Delights'. In 1998-99 he also played at festivals and on radio with the Hungarian band 'Lotsi and Friend', led by fellow Earthly Delights' member Laszlo Lakk. In September 1998 he won a Canberra Critics Circle Music Award for the 32 dances and 90 tunes which he composed for A Book of Earthly Delights and the double CD set A Box of Earthly Delights. He also wrote all the tunes, dances and commentary to the big book and 4 CD set The Lost Dances of Earthly Delights, released in November 2000.
In addition to working with bands, John also works as a solo dance teacher- for example in 1999 in the A.N.U.'s Continuing Education program, the Victorian Folk Dance Weekend at Lorne, Ausdance Professional Development course, and the Illawarra Folk Festival; in 2000 running Brain Gym evening dance courses at the Canberra College Woden campus and various workshops sponsored by Healthpact ACT and in 2001 for the Early Music Weekend at Bundanoon, the A.N.U.'s Young Musician With Talent program and the A.N.U.'s Sports and Recreation 'Dancing through the Ages' courses. In November 2002 John published The Christmas Carol Dance Book, presenting dances he'd written to go with more than 60 carols. Since then he's written another 50 plus dances and 120 plus tunes which he and the band is now leading and performing.
In about 2002 he issued ‘Lost Dances of Earthly Delights: Pleasures for Four Seasons – a book of 64 original dances and over 200 tunes- all composed by himself. The arts magazine The Muse has headlined him as 'The Dancing Master' (February 2004) and the editor of Freefolk.com kindly wrote (Issue 12, March-April 2002) 'I have heard most of what we, in the British Isles and Ireland, have produced but in John Garden we have met our match. He is up there with the very best and the best and leaves most of the rest yapping at his feet'. Throughout the first half of that decade he continued to research, teach, play and compose both dances and tunes.
In 2005, after a decade of constant dance teaching, social dance leading, and dance and dance music composing, John released his two volume book set ‘Lost Dances of Earthly Delights: Volume 1- Pleasures for Four Seasons and Volume 2, Favourites for Four Settings, together with 8 CD he produced with the playing of his band Earthly Delights—the full set presenting 128 dances of his own composing and about 400 tunes of his own composing, together with a work of fiction to explore and satyrise the art of dance composition, reconstruction and transmittion.
No sooner was John finished with that (effectively 10 year) original music and dance project, than he started work on what 9 years later has become his 10 Volume work Historic Dance.
In 2006, 2007 and 2008 John continued with dance teaching about 3 nights a week (including once a week at the Australian National University), continued organising and preparing the repertoire for monthly balls (12 a year for 10 years-each with a different thoughly-researched historic theme), and continued calling, teaching and playing on demand (including at festivals such as the National Folk Festival, St.Vitis Renaissance Dance weekend) and continued to organise and teach dancing, sometimes alongside invited interstate and overseas specialists, at special weekends he and his wife have organised on Renaissance, Baroque, Regency and Victorian era themes. He also during this period directed dozens of costumed live-music dance displays of repertoire from Renaissance, Baroque, Regency and Victorian times at Festivals and open-days-including performances in all these eras at the Governor-General's and twice took a 24 strong Renaisssance dance and music troupe on tour to Queensland. All these performances were all being billed as by Earthly Delights and the Bordonian Heritage Dances, but his dance teaching was starting to be consolidated under the banner of the Earthly Delights Historic Dance Academy ('Australia’s only Academy specialising in dance, music and costume of 1450 to 1900').
In 2009 and 2010 John cut back on his private function playing and his festival appearances but still devoted 2 nights a week to dance teaching, presented 11 historically-themed public balls each year, still organised displays and dance participation for big events (from Parliament House in Canberra to Old Government House in Sydney), still led dancing for special days at schools, and still guested at some festivals (such as the Bundanoon Traditional Dance festival and the Jane Austen Festival Australia). During this period his band members and troupe were billed as 'musicians and dancers from the Earthly Delights Historic Dance Academy' as most had not been part of the earlier Earthly Delights and Bordonian Heritage Dancers line-up. His main musical collaborators had become pianist Sally Taylor. In this perid he also presented a series of public lectures hosted by the Australian Capital Territory Library Service on 'Dance, Dances and Dancing Masters'.
In 2011, in between all his regular dance teaching and displaying commitments, his now slightly-irregular 3rd-Saturday of the month public balls (Peacock Renaissance Ball, a Russian Arc ball, a Christmas Carol Ball etc), and dancing teaching all day every day for back to back Jane Austen Festival and '19th century dance week', John undertook an 8 week trip which will involve him teaching and leading dances in a dozen different styles, from a dozen different periods at a dozen different places across north America and Europe. He not only enjoy the musical and dance company of some of the northern hemispheres leading dance musicians, teachers, organisers and researchers, but also enjoyed dancing and playing in some wonderful venues with wonderful dance communities in the US, Canada, England and Denmark.
In 2012, in between running regular classes, John directed a 16 person strong 2 hour long Journey through Italian Renaissance at the National Gallery of Australia, directed a Dickens era dance performance at the High Court, ran a 6 day festival of 'English dance from Shakespeare to Austen', led a music and dance troupe through a day of performances at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, directed a special 3 days 18th century dance, and produced many differently themed balls (including ran a Peacock Rennaissance Ball, a Russian Arc ball and a Christmas Carol Ball). He also released the first edition of his magnum opus Historic Dance: 10 volumes of working notes on the Dance, Dances and Dancing Masters of the 1450-1900 ballroom, and undertook a 3 week tour of Italy and Germany enjoying workshops, balls and seminars with some of Europe's leading historic dancers at a Napoleonic weekend in Lucca and at the 3rd Rothenfels Dance History symposium.
In 2013, in between leading a full Canberra schedule of regular dance classes (including his 'Dancing through the Ages' class at the Australian National University) and balls on different themes (including Time traveller balls covering 500 years of dance), John directed the Baroque and Rococo dancing for the Centennial of Canberra's 'Night at Versailles Ball' at Canberra's grand Albert Hall, directed the regency era dancing for the 6th Jane Austen Festival Australia, directed the Victorian era dancing for the Yarrangobilly 19th century dance and costume retreat, presented period dancing for a literature conference and once again for the historic Hyde Park Barrack's open day in Sydney, and arranged a day of 1890s dance for the Centennial of Canberra's Vintage car rally on the lawns in front of Old Parliament House. John also played for and presented dances at 5 differently themed workshops/dances in different historic venues across southern England, including at a town hall in London, in the Guildhall in Winchester, at Barrington Court in Illminster, at Sir Walter Elliot House and at the Forum in Bath (the later as part of Bath's Jane Austen Festival).
John started 2014 running a special ‘Dancing with the Masters’ 8 week summer course featuring dances by named Renaissance and Baroque masters. He went on to enjoy a capacity enrolment of 50 in his ANU first semester ‘Dancing through the Ages’ and an inaugural (and still continuing) weekly ‘Historic Dance’ class at the Canberra Girls Grammar School. In April he enjoyed (survived!) 7 dances and nights of back-to-back dance teaching and leading at JAFA 2014, for the first time ever at University House, and the Yarrangobilly 19th century dance retreat, for the first time ever filling both wings of the heritage caves house and turning into the most memorable dance school-cum-Victorian house party. In June he inaugurated the Festival of Early Dance, with 3 full days of concerts, dance workshops and balls on themes from the 16th to 18th century. In late June and early July he spent 4 weeks researching, dancing and teaching in Italy and German—studying dance with experts, attending international balls at Napoleon’s residence on Elba and in a grand palace in Potsdam, visiting many other historic dance venues and teaching 16th century balli in Augsburg, 18th century minuets, contredanses and cotillions on different days in Potsdam, and allemandes from the 16th to 19th century in Hamburg. Throughout the year he continued his teaching 3 times a week, his academy’s 3rd Saturday of the month balls, his guest teaching for events organised by others, and the revision and expansion of his Historic Dance books.
In 2015 John started the year with restarting all his regular dance classes and ball series and releasing a new edition of his Historic Dance books. In April he presented 3 days and evenings of back-to-back Georgian/Regency era dancing at Canberra's Albert Hall, the new home for the Jane Austen Festival Australia, followed by 4 days of Victorian-era dancing at the Yarrangobilly 19th century dance retreat, and in mid-June he again presented a long weekend of early dance- though this time with a focus on Renaissance. From late June to early August he and his wife Aylwen Gardiner-Garden ndertook a research and teaching tour of Canada and the US, travelling in an arc from Boston Massachusetts, via Toronto and Brantford Ontario, to Pittsburg Pennsylvania, to Louisville (and other towns) in Kentucky, and on to San Antonio Texas, then across to Los Angeles. Along the way John taught/led dance from across a 500 year spectrum at a dozen different events, Aylwen taught and studied historical costume at a few special events, and they both enjoyed lots of inspiring dancing, costuming and company. Upon returning he brought together a Bordonian and Cinderilla ball, a b
ig display at a Dance Kaleidoscope event, and even bigger project running dance for 1840s commemorative ball event for the National Trust Ball in Yass, and Steampunk and Victorian fayre in Goulburne andr a full spring and summer class, ball and display program.
In 2016 he continued his regular teaching at the Australian National University in the ANU Sports’ Lifestyle program, at his own studio, and started to running ‘Dancing from Shakespeare to Jane Austen’ in the LakeNite Learning program at Ginninderra College’s evening program. He continued his regular monthly balls, with the venue moving to Canberra Baptist Church Hall in Kingston, and ran again 3 days of 18th and 19th century dance workshops and evening balls at Canberra’s Albert Hall as part of the Jane Austen Festival Australia directed by his wife Aylwen.
From late May to early July 2016 he had the honour of teaching 5 different centuries of dance in 5 different European countries across 5. The itinerary started with being a presenter of workshop, evening dances and academic research findings at the 4th International Historical Dance Symposium at Rothenfels castle, Germany, and continued with leading Renaissance dance in Augsburg, Roccoco&Regency dance in Salzburg, early 19th century dance in Leipzig, late Baroque dance at the International Baroque dance days in Potsdam and late 19th&20th cent. dance in Paris. In between he also attended dance events and balls in Budapest, Prague and Paris.
Upon his return from overseas he was busy not only with regular teaching and ball commitments and continuing his research projects but also with directing music and dance performances by his band and dance troupe at Floriade on a Baroque theme, at the Australian National Museum and at schools on a Renaissance theme.
In 2017 he taught dance classes Saturdays at ANU, Monday at Ginninderra Community College, Wednesday Yarralumla and Thursday at Erindale Community College). He directed and performed for monthly live-music balls of his academies own creation—with repertoire from across 500 years of dance. He also directed and performed in shows on a Victorian-era theme at the National Museum and on a Baroque-Rococo theme at the National Gallery of Australia—culminating in a 2 ½ hour show in the Gallery’s theatre entitled ‘A participatory journey through the social dance of Versailles’ on 5 March. His preoccupation was, however, the series of 33 books which he has been working hard on for some years and which will cover every aspect of ‘ballroom’ dance from 1400 to 1900. He was also commissioned to arrange participatory music and dance shows for Schools (mostly Medieval material) and the Monaro Folk Society (mostly John’s original material), and to choreograph the dancing for a new Victorian-era play ‘The Rational Dress Society’, staged by the Canberra Academy of Dramatic Arts).
In 2018 besides all the regular weekly dance teaching and monthly ball directing commitments, in the first part of the year he ran the 3 days and nights of dances and balls (on Georgian, Regency and Victorian themes) at the Albert Hall as part of the ACT Heritage Festival’s JAFA, organised and led costumed workshops and balls on 3 different themes on three different days across the National Folk Festival, and organised a special week of baroque dance instruction with visiting artist Philippa Waite, culminating in a ball and dance concert featuring a line-up of mostly interstate musicians whom he had directed and a Masque presentation that he directed. In the middle of the year he released the long-awaited first working-version of Dancing through the Ages, 33 books on the dance and dances of the 1400-1900 ballroom and did library dance research and some dance calling at Cambridge University. He also, upon request, choreographed some dances to some Bach suites. In the latter part of the year, in addition to regular teaching and balls, he choreographed the dancing for a new play staged in Canberra, ‘Shakespeare and His Mistress’, took up invitations for he and his wife to lead and show some dances at Regency balls in the Blue Mountains and Hobart, organised a main stage music/dance show at the Goulburn Steampunk and Victoriana Fair, and worked with choral ensemble I Projetti and musicians from the Canberra Filipino Orchestra in order to include some Latin American and Filipino carols in the EDHDA’s annual Christmas Carol Ball.
In 2019 John ran three streams of regular weekly dance teaching (two at his home studio one at the ANU), ran bi-monthly ball on Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Regency and Victorian-era themes, ran the dance and music program of the 3-day JAFA 2019 festival at the Albert Hall and organised dozens of historical dance music and dance performances both locally and interstate with themes from the Renaissance to Edwardian and always mixing theatrical-display and led-participation (e.g. shows for schools, the Canberra Open Garden scheme, the Monaro Folk Society, private hirers, the Steampunk@altitude festival in Nimmitabel, and the Goulburn Steampunk and Victoriana Fair. The Bach choreography project was rounded off with perform of the works created and he started to update all of his notes on his original choreographies with a view to publication in 2020. He also continued to work his big 30-plus book Dancing through the Ages series with a view to release in 2020.
In the middle of 2019 he undertook had a very successful tour of three Baltic countries. He ran 3 days of master classes in Riga, Latvia (teaching mostly Renaissance dance but some original choreographies as well); performed in a historical dance display on the main stage of the Dinaburg 1812 Festival in Daugavpils, Latvia; ran a big multi-era dance workshop in for combined dance groups Tallinn, Estonia; and was special guest at Ropecon2019 in Helsinki Finland (Europe’s largest role-playing convention, with a major historical dance stream) offering dance teaching to a combined historical dance group session on the Wednesday before the convention, and then offering dance workhops for the 3 days of the convention, guest calling off their main stage for their main ball, offering two well-attended 1hr 45min video-talks (one entitled Dancing through the Ages—bringing historical dances to life, the other World building through dance-the Bordonian experience) and giving a live national television interview.
In 2020 he restarted three different weekly dance class (one at the ANU, two at this home studio) and was building up newly-researched
repertoire for a big 3-day 2-ball JAFA2020 at the Yarralumla Woolshed with focus on 19th Australian dance, for a May Renaissance Ball, a June Cavalier ball, and for other outside engagements, when all was cancelled due to the Pandemic. He's thrown himself into trying to finish the 30-plus books in his Dancing through the Ages series and the two books devoted to his original choreographies.
To book John Gardiner-Garden, the Earthly Delights musicians or dancers,
please phone John Gardiner-Garden on (02) 62811098 (ah).
John leading mazurka workshop at the Albert Hall in Canberra, teaching at 'The Forum' in Bath, UK., and cakewalking with Aylwen at Yarrangabilly.
leading dancing at a historic house in N.S.W. and in a church hall in Canberra.
and with Aylwen at a ball in Italy and ending a ballet at the National Art Gallery in Canberra.
and a c.2015 candid shot taken of me from behind my desk working on dance books...as I am still doing today!
