Books & CDs

On the pages under this banner I offer content and purchase information on resources that I, Dr John Gardiner-Garden, have produced to help people better understand and enjoy our wonderful dance and dance music heritage. Click on picture or links below to go to a web-page showing more detail contents of works. 

Enjoy exploring these notes and the linked to pages!


STOP PRESS:  33 NEW PUBLICATIONS available from LULU

31 of the new books are dedicated to historical dance and 2 offer original choreographies in historical styles are available.

At the very end of this page read also about 2 sets not available from LULU.

See below for ordering options- including option of big discount on whole set.


31-book magnum opus Dancing through the Ages 30 years in the making, it will be a library at your finger-tips.


Dancing through the Ages is an 10,800 page work offering background on, reconstruction of, and chorded music for nearly 1,000 dances from between from 1400 to 1900, as well as extensive notes analysing links between these dances, the evolution of dance forms, movement ideas and notation systems through this 500 period, and the changing nature of ball culture and dance sources in countries across the old and new word.  The whole is supported by thousands of quotations, diagrams and illustrations from original sources.


The work is broken into 31 books, each of between 300 and 460 (average 350) double-sided A4 pages. After the 'Orientation and Overview' book 1, the work is organised into ten 'Volumes', each of 3 books.  


Each 3-book Volume is devoted to a particular period and consists of 1,000 plus pages of research, discussion, analysis, illustrations, musical scores, dance reconstructions, source extracts, transcriptions and translations. The first book (Part 1a-d) looks at dancing in general (the social, political and geographic contexts in which dance and the institution of the ball was evolving; the nature and evolution of the period’s main forms of dance; dance elements such as style, etiquette, honours, holds, formations, figures and steps; developments in dance teaching, notation and publication, and period-relevant primary sources (including little known ones). The second and third books (Part 2a and Part 2b respectively) offer sources and music for, and reconstructions and analysis of dozens of dances from the relevant period, presented in alphabetic order.


N.B. Because of the interconnectivity of dance over the 500 years covered by this series (and the cross-referencing between books in the series), it is recommended that you order the full set—which means clicking individually on all 31 books in the series. If your interest is exclusively in a particular period it is recommended that 

in addition to ordering the books pertaining to that particular period, you also order books from the adjacent period collections plus the invaluable Book 1: 'Orientation and Overview' (which beside many other things, offers a bibliography, consolidated contents, and comparative dance evolution analysis that helps better understand the dances and dance history presented in all the other volumes).


TO ORDER there are 2 options.


EITHER go to the LULU Spotlight page for these books, select 'Sort by Publication Date Ascending' and put as many as you like in their shopping cart. The books are all AUS$36 each (approximately US$27), plus postage. LULU does not offer discounts on book sets but per-book postage will diminish with the more books in your order. As your books will be sent from the nearest Lulu printer on your continent, you will not be paying for overseas shipping and will not be waiting long for the books to arrive. Orders are normally filled at local postage rates within a week. 


OR let us (as author) place an order on your behalf for all 33 new books (the 31 in the Dancing through the Ages series plus our 2 other new LULU-published dance books described below) for just $890 (plus shipping), a discount of more than 25%,  saving you about $300 and saving you the problem of trying to place a long LULU order yourself. To take up this offer, just email us with your full name, postal address and phone number, and we will generate a 33-book LULU order and shipping quote for you, send an invoice with payment options to you for AUD$890 plus the shipping amount, and, upon receipt of payment, we will activate the LULU order for you. Your order will be sent from the nearest LULU printer on your continent so it won't take long to arrive.


Should you have any questions about any of the publications or how to order them please email us or phone using the number given on the home page.


For images of front covers and links to contents either scroll down or go to Dancing through the Ages Orientation and Overview, 1400-1550, 1550-1600, 1600-1650, 1650-1700, 1700-1750, 1750-1800, 1800-1825, 1825-1850, 1850-1875, 1875-1900

Book 1 =

Orientation and Overview

Series introduction, acknowledgements, consolidated contents, bibliography of secondary scholarship, history of dance in ancient and medieval times,

overview of dance types, forms, figures, devices and orders that persist through 500 years, and the ball tradition post-1900.

Book 2, 3 & 4 =

Volume I: 1400-1550

Dance and dances in Europe in the 15th and early 16th century, the early renaissance.

Book 5, 6 & 7 =

Volume II: 1550-1600

Dance and dances in Europe in the late 16th century, the high renaissance, Elizabethan period.

Book 8, 9 & 10 =

Volume III: 1600-1650 

Dance and dances in Europe in the early 17th century, the late renaissance, early Stuart, early baroque,

cavalier period.

Book 11, 12 & 13 =

Volume IV: 1650-1700


Dance and dances in  Europe in the late 17th century, the baroque, 

restoration, Charles II, Louis XIV, early Versailles period.

Book 14, 15 & 16 =

Volume V: 1700-1750


Dance and dances in Europe and the New World in the early 18th century, the late baroque, early rococo, middle Versailles period.  

  

Book 17, 18 & 19 =

Volume VI: 1750-1800 

Dance and dances in Europe and the New World in the late 18th century, mid-Georgian, late rococo, Age of Enlightenment period. 

Book 20, 21 & 22 =

Volume VII: 1800-1825 

Dance and dances in Europe and the New World in the first quarter of the 19th century, the  Napoleonic, Jane Austen, Regency period.  

 

  

Book 23, 24 & 25 =

Volume VIII: 1825-1850 

Dance and dances in Europe and  the New World in the 2nd quarter of the 19th century, the early-Victorian, Biedermeier period.  


 Book 26, 27 & 28 =

Volume IX: 1850-1875 

Dance and dance in Europe and the New World in the 3rd quarter of the 19th century, 

the mid-Victorian, Second Empire, period. 

Book 29, 30 & 31 =

Volume X: 1875-1900 

Dance and dance in Europe and the New World in the last quarter of the 19th century, 

the late-Victorian, 

Belle Époche 

period.

The Christmas Carol Dance Book

Under The Christmas Carol Dance Book you can find out about a work which is a must for anyone who wants to bring song and dance together in the festive season. New 2020 edition released January 2021 Order from LULU for AUD $36.  Add to an order for the Dancing through the Ages set!.  


Christmas Carol Dance Book

Dance Delights

   Under Dance Delights, you will find a book of newly devised dances in dozens of styles set to 500+ years of music.  Published end of 2020 and released January 2021. Order from LULU for AUD $36. Add to an order for the Dancing through the Ages set!


Lost Dances of Earthly Delights (2 Books with 8 CDs)

Under Lost Dances of Earthly Delights Volume 1 and Volume 2 you can discover the books and full-band CD sets (the result of a 6-year project some years ago) that will open up to you the wonderful music and dance world of the Bordonians.  To order these famous works you have to email us- they are not available from LULU. The price for 1 book and its 4 included CDs is AUS$85 plus postage, and for 2 books and their 8 CDs AUS$130 plus postage. 

Lost Dances Vol.1 & 4CDs - Pleasures for Four Seasons
Lost Dances Vol.2 & 4CDs - Favourites for Four Settings

Under Early works you can learn of my now out-of-print (and unorderable) early dance brochures and books and my first award-winning book & 2CD set.

To end this page on a high note (literally), here is a link to a wonderful animated movie made by film-maker Nick Hilligoss and featuring some music composed by myself (John Gardiner-Garden) and performed by Earthly Delights (track no.1 from the 'Summer' disc of  our Lost Dances of Earthly Delights- Pleasures for Four Seasons collection). Fool or Creator? An animator needs to be both. On a desert planet, a medieval jester unfolds his portable stage and compels his puppets to perform an old story of transformation. A slightly different angle on the myth of Adam and Eve. Nick told me that he didn't originally intend to make them dance, but the music made him do it.