May I Have This Dance? Exhibit and Lecture
When: Saturday, May 31, 2025 at 2:00pm
Where: Weston History & Culture Center: 104 Weston Rd. Weston, CT ( Parking and entrance accessed from High Acre Rd. Tickets and Check-in Visitor's Center)
Join the Weston History & Culture Center and social dance historian, Susan de Guardiola for the exhibit opening and lecture - "May I Have This Dance?"
[Buy Tickets/Register Here.
Free - Members of Weston History & Culture Center
$10 - Non-Members](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/weston-history-culture-center/quot-may-i-have-this-dance-quot-exhibit-opening-amp-lecture)
Join us for a special talk with social dance historian Susan de Guardiola about the exciting changes in dance and music in the years from the sinkingof the Titanic through World War I.
Hear about the early appearances of familiar ballroom dances like the tango and the foxtrot long before Dancing with the Stars as well as long-vanished dance fads like the Grizzly Bear, Maxixe, and Lulu Fado and the lives of some of the remarkable dancers and musicians of the era.
Then explore the companion exhibit, "May I Have This Dance?" featuring rare social dance ephemera from the World War I / Titanic era from the private collection of dance historian Susan de Guardiola. The exhibit includes original early 20th century dance manuals, rare sheet music, and actual dance cards relating to the early days of ballroom dances such as the tango and foxtrot! Browse the cases while enjoying the exhibit soundtrack of popular ragtime dance music of the 1910s.
Susan de Guardiola is an independent scholar in historical social dance known internationally for her scholarship and teaching of dance and dance history. Susan has presented her academic research at conferences including the Oxford Dance Symposium, the International Congress for Medieval Studies, the Historical Dance Symposium at Rothenfels, and annual conferences of the European Association for Dance History, the Historical Dance Society (UK), the Historical Dance Association (Russia), and the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. She conducts her research at a variety of institutions including the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Newberry Library (Chicago) and Harvard University, and has been the recipient of a New England Regional Fellowship for research in dance history. Her teaching has taken her across the United States as well as to England, Scotland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ukraine.
She lived and taught in Russia for several years, based in Moscow but traveling as far as Siberia to teach in different cities. In the USA she has taught at the Dance Flurry (Saratoga, NY), the New England Folk Festival (MA), the Historical Tea & Dance Society (Los Angeles, CA), Newport Vintage Dance Week (RI), and for many other social dance groups and festivals, as well as at historical commemorations including the bicentennials of the Louisiana Purchase (2003), Lafayette’s visit to the USA (2024-2025), and the founding of Tallahassee (2024). She has choreographed for the stage (Pride & Prejudice) and performed in and served as a consultant for A&E’s biography of Jane Austen. She collects dance instruction manuals and other dance material from the 18th century to the present.