Dancing on the Table-top: Steve Player on Vitality in Performance – Then & Now

Q. You are in demand as a guitarist and a baroque dancer.  How do you balance those two careers – finding time to practice both, etc?

A. I don't see them as two careers or even as careers. In fact I regard myself as a performer not as a "musician" or a "dancer". Although I have to try to remain supple I don't have any training schedules but try to use everyday activities such as walking to keep me mobile with a bit more concentration on dance movement close to a show.

Q. Did you grow up as a musician or a dancer, or both?  How did you find your way into the early music specialty?

A. I grew up as neither. I was an ordinary kid from a "working class" family playing in the street. We had no musical instruments in the house and dancing was never seen or experienced. It was not until I was 16 that I saw a classical guitar and decided to learn that.

I found, though, that I enjoyed the music of the 16th century vihuelistas arranged for guitar far more satisfying than the romantic transcriptions, and eventually discovered Dowland, De Visee and eventually Bach (too technically demanding).

I didn't discover dance until I went to study Fine Art at art school, finding myself dancing with young women at parties.

How did I end up doing what I do now? Well that's a long story… but it has to do with forgetting inhibitions and becoming excited with the possibility of discovery.    

Q. Most baroque dancers are very particular about having lots of space and a certain kind of floor, etc.  You are famous (or infamous) for dancing on anything available, including a tabletop.  What enables you to be so flexible?

A. I have been lucky to perform on stages and in rooms that were built for that purpose in their own time. The great revelation is that these are not huge formal spaces. The majority of spaces used for dancing were smaller than most small theatre/studio spaces. Very often the stage is severely raked or sloped from the back to the front with trap doors and other necessary obstacles, or the performance may be outside or part of a church celebration. In short, dancers danced in many places for many reasons and were always told by the Master to take short steps.

There has been much energy spent on the research of authentic performance practice, which we as performers should all be aware of. However, our colleagues from the past didn’t want to recreate their past. They drew on it, reinterpereting the bits they liked. So we reinterperet the bits we like, picking and choosing that which appeals to our diverse personalities.

What remains of history is an incomplete scrapbook of information, which often represents only a certain portion of society. We can read this information in a clinically literal way, following the letter of the instruction (always ambiguous - how can you be specific about movement when you describe it in writing?) or we can glean information from between the lines.

As I think it is important to reunite the music with its dance I am prepared to dance in "unsuitable" places, for the greater understanding and entertainment of both performer and audience.

A great many teachers and observers of past performers remark on their ability to improvise. You improvise with what you have -your steps, your musical understanding, the space and your colleagues. If you understand what you are doing you can invent something to fit the moment. Better to do this than try to fit a pre-determined choreography into a space that you weren´t expecting.

Q. What do you feel is most often lacking in baroque dance performances today?  And what appeals to you the most?

A. A concert should not be a museum exhibit. Performers of the past have always tried to move their spectators.

Dance is about vitality. Music is about vitality. For me when a dancer is able to excite the onlooker with grace, wit, bravado, sensuality, understanding and vivacity whilst in some way becoming the physical expression of the music, however they do it - that I admire.