Dancing Bookworms

by Caroline Sherwood

‘It is a strange dance, strange and lilting, and changing as the music changed. But it had a kind of leisurely dignity, a trailing kind of polka-waltz, intimate, passionate, yet never hurried, never violent in its passion, always becoming more intense. The women's faces changed to a kind of transported wonder, they were in the very rhythm of delight. From the soft bricks of the floor red ochre rose in a thin cloud of dust, making hazy the shadowy dancers; the three musicians, in their black hats and their cloaks, sat obscurely in the corner, making a music that came quicker and quicker, making a dance that grew swifter and more intense, more subtle, the men seeming to fly and implicate another strange inter-rhythmic dance into the women, the women drifting and palpitating as if their souls shook and resounded to a breeze that was subtly rushing upon them, through them; the men worked their feet their thighs swifter, more vividly, the music came to an almost intolerable climax, there was a moment when the dance passed into a possession, the men caught up the women and swung them from the earth, leapt with them for a second, and then the next phase of the dance slower again, more subtly interwoven, taking perfect, oh, exquisite delight in every interrelated movement, a rhythm within a rhythm, a subtle approaching and drawing nearer to a climax, nearer till, oh, there was the surpassing lift and swing of the women, when the woman's body seemed like a boat lifted over the powerful, exquisite wave of the man's body, perfect for a moment, and then once more the slow, intense, nearer movement if the dance began, always nearer, nearer, always to a more perfect climax.’

This description by D.H. Lawrence comes from his book, ‘Twilight in Italy.’ The sexy sensuousness of the dance is mimicked so clearly in the writing: the extraordinary long sentence manages, in its fragmentation, to mimic the rhythms and moods of the dance, while keeping everything linked through commas and semi-colons.

Hay on Wye is probably best known for its 30 second-hand bookshops, but how did a small town in Wales become a Mecca for book lovers? It all started in 1961 when Richard Booth, an Oxford graduate, whose family had lived near the town since 1903, recognised it to be ideal for this purpose; standing as it does about half way between Bristol and Birmingham and being, widely speaking, en route to Ireland! Wanting very much to stay in his family’s stomping ground, he fostered the idea that a town of bookshops could be an international attraction. How right he proved to be!

This year the Hay Festival runs from 26 May to 5 June. 85,000 people attend the five hundred or so events offered, which, says the Independent, ‘Since 1988…has become an essential feature of the cultural calendar…unmissable for authors, publishers, and other assorted literary types.’ The Los Angeles Times commented that it is 'the unlikeliness of the location that makes the festival so glorious.’

'True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.'

Alexander Pope

A rich tradition links literature with dancing and two enterprising impresarios have organised three summer weekends of ballroom and Latin dancing to coincide with the Hay Festival in the comfortable, relaxed setting of the Paddocks Hotel at Symonds Yat in Ross on Wye, just an hour’s drive from the festival. So booklovers can browse the bookstores, and attend Festival events by day, and dance the night away in the Paddocks’ Regency Ballroom - one of the largest in the UK.

Tobi Tobias, writing of the phenomenon of dancers who become excellent dance writers, says, 'the articulate dancer is strengthened further by the fact that dancers in ever-increasing numbers are finding their voice through writing about dance…More and more, dancers are speaking out and, having found their voice, writing - commenting on, judging, and influencing the activities in their profession.' Indeed, several famous dancers have produced arresting autobiographies, including Twyla Tharp's Push Comes to Shove and Margot Fonteyn's Autobiography. Tobias points out that when a dancer writes about dancing this expands his or her 'firsthand experience of what is involved in getting the body to speak worlds.'

In 16th century England, the poet, John Davies wrote a staggering 131 verses in an archaic form that is somewhat difficult to decipher today. He called his Poem of Dancing, ‘Orchestra.’ In it, he likened dancing to a ritual of love:

This wondrous miracle did Love devise,
For dancing is love’s proper exercise.
What makes the vine about the elm to dance
With turnings, windings, and embracements round?
What makes the lodestone to the north advance
His subtle point, as if from thence he found
His chief attractive virtue to redound?
Kind nature first doth cause all things to love;
Love makes them dance, and in just order move.

In several non-European cultures the relationship between literature and dance has traditionally been close. Parimal Phadke, a classical Indian dancer from Pune, writes, ‘In a country like India with twenty eight states and 18 languages and with seven styles of classical dance, it is just natural that every dance style, howsoever close they may be, express the same content through different languages…In a style like Bharatnatyam the gestures become an important entity to visually translate the lines of the text. Just like any text has a literal meaning and a deeper meaning, the same is interpreted into dance.’ 

A contemporary teacher at Western Carolina University, Maria Delphi Birchfield, has used dance to enliven and enrich the teaching of Shakespeare to undergraduates; observing and recording students’ engagement prior to and following the teaching of Othello through movement.

Over a period of many centuries, and often influenced by disapproving Christian writings, several Anti-Dance manuals were published which condemned the dangerous effects of dancing on a believer’s soul! Using tree metaphors, one manual warned against a surprising list of ‘fruits’ of dancing - ‘pride, lasciviousness, lying, drunkenness, embezzlement, fornication, cruelty, idolatry, prostitution, abortion, and assassination.’

It is astonishing to us today to realise that, when the Waltz was first introduced in the early 19th century, many were scandalised by it, as it was the first dance which allowed people to have close bodily contact. As late as 1825 it was still being described by some as ‘riotous and indecent.’

'Dance was not separate from everyday life for most people in the nineteenth century,' writes Cheryl A. Wilson, Assistant Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, who has devoted a whole book to the subject. '…we should not separate how they danced from how they read and how they wrote,' she explains. Trollope, Thackeray and, most notably, Jane Austen, all feature the importance of dance in social intercourse: 'dance provided a vehicle through which writers could convey social commentary and cultural critique on issues such as gender, social mobility, and nationalism.'  Interestingly, Arlene Croce, founder of Ballet Review magazine, was a renowned dance critic and writer who didn't dance. She became known as 'the Jane Austen of dance.'

Much social dancing took place at the heyday of the London Club, Almack's (1810-1840) which was often mentioned in the novels of the day. Almack's patronesses appear in the early Regency period of Georgette Heyer's very popular novels. It's even mentioned in the Scarlet Pimpernel, and, much more recently in Sarah MacLean's young adult fiction novel, The Season.

Samba dancers are said to need to be able to dizer no pé ('speak with the feet'), and Barbara Browning says that the samba dancer can be 'funny, terrifying, painfully beautiful, but above all she must be eloquent. She is committed to saying something that has not been and cannot be spoken…her feet have to speak…'

Research into the relationship between music training and mathematical ability in adolescents showed that children who played music also demonstrated enhanced intelligence in reasoning, mathematics and spatial skills. Dancing and writing could well prove happy companions, each assisting the development of excellence in the other.

The National UAE newspaper reported after one Hay Festival, ‘Writers were conversant, talks intimate, and readers and authors alike felt part of a vast, vocal and increasingly powerful literary community. Words in this border town pushed boundaries and opened up a dialogue that will keep us talking for years.’ The Independent described the festival as ‘a smorgasbord of heterogeneity, a mixumgatherum of creativity and gravitas.’ Adding a splash of English wine tasting, and a few nights of dancing, to the brew might well provide a weekend to remember.

This year's Festival highlights:
Dara O’Briain’s stand-up show
Ladysmith Black Mambazo in concert
Jo Brand
Philip Pullman
Simon Russell Beale on acting Shakespeare
Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul
Nobel Peace Laureate and weapons inspector Mohamed ElBaradei
Nobel Literature Laureate Jean-Marie le Clezio
Vanessa Redgrave will be talking on Palestine
Simon Russell Beale on acting Shakespeare
Israeli novelist David Grossman
Archbishop Rowan Williams on Shakespeare
Film-maker John Waters

To book: 0044 497 822 629
boxoffice@hayfestival.org
www.hayfestival.org

Dancing dates at the Paddocks Hotel:
27-30 May £179pp
30 May-3 June £189pp
3-6 June £149pp
Brochure and information: 0044 395 223 645
www.holidays4dancers.com
www.paddockshotel.com

Nearby Places of Interest:

The Hay Festival is held 10 minutes from the centre of town. Y Gelli is the Welsh name for Hay on Wye. It means ‘enclosed forest.’ Situated in the corner of the Brecon Beacons National Park, there is not only a wealth of exquisite scenery all around, but plenty of interest in the locality.

The Three Choirs Vineyard – half hour drive from Paddocks Hotel

Ledbury, also about 30 minutes away, is famed for its black and white architecture

Raglan Castle is 16 miles west of Ross on Wye

Broadway Tower was a favourite holiday destination of William Morris. You can see 13 counties from the top.

Yat Rock affords spectacular views of the river and surrounding countryside and from here you might spy the Peregrine Falcon.

References:

Literature and dance in 19th century Britain, Cheryl A Wilson

Bodies of the Text: Dance as Theory, Literature as Dance, Editors: Ellen W Goellner and Jacqueline Shea Murphy

Cheek, Joyce M., and Smith, Lyle R. (Winter 1999). Music training and mathematics achievement. Adolescence, 34, 759-761.( http://www.kuzmich.com/roslyn_thesis/Chapt_2.pdf)

Photo credits:
Deckchairs for bookworms - Made by Finn
Festival site - Made by Finn
Stephen Fry - Jeff Morgan
The Paddocks Hotel - John Hake
Ian McEwan - Jeff Morgan