I am researching dance teachers from northern Germany, in particular the family Knoll of ballet masters in Hamburg, – a forgotten but fascinating chapter both of local and dance history – and August von Wobeser-Rosenhain, dancing master at the university of Kiel.
Visit:
Ballet master family Knoll
Article in German: „Das Velociped erobert Hamburger Ballsäle„
Extended version as a video in English
Lecture Pride and Prejudice: Truth about Thomas Mann’s ballet master, Rudolph Knoll
Lecture, held 18 May 2021, for the Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte
- as video: Rudolph Knoll – Tanzlehrer der Hanseaten
- as script (in German)
The international Historical Dance Symposium
Burg Rothenfels am Main 15 – 19 June 2022
See my article in the symposium’s proceedings:
Der Ball. Geselligkeit – Macht – Politik. 1600 – 1900
5. Symposion für Historischen Tanz Burg Rothenfels am Main, 15. – 19. Juni 2022.
Tagungsband
herausgegeben von Uwe Schlottermüller, Howard Weiner und Maria Richter, 289 S., ISBN 978 3 931344 12 2; € 30.-
August von Wobeser-Rosenhain
Lecture, held for Dance & History Online 2022
Article about dance lessons in Wismar 1800 – 1860 in Wismarer Beiträge, Heft 28 (2022), see
https://zeitreise-wismar.de/wismarer-beitraege/
Short article about August von Rosenhain published both in Heft 1/2003 of „tanzen“, LAG Tanz Schleswig-Holstein , and in Heft 1/2023 of „Volkstanz“, Deutschen Gesellschaft für Volkstanz e.V.
Friedrich Gottlieb Nagel
In cooperation with Iris-Michaela Schmidtmann I research university dancing master Nagel from Halle.
TV program about that:
https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/hallo-niedersachsen/oldenburg-tanzen-wie-in-bridgerton/ndr/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS9lZjY1ODNhYy05ZmY0LTQ4N2UtYjFhMy04MGM3YzA2OTI0ZWU
On 8 November 2025 I will give short talk about Nagel at one of the Dialogkonzerte of the Universität Oldenburg https://uol.de/dialogkonzerte. The Schlosstanzerey Oldenburg under the direction of Iris-Michaela Schmidtmann and myself will also perform some of Nagel’s dances.
other topics
21-22 January 2023 Lecture Die „Quadrille Française“ im deutschen Sprachraum 1820 – 1920 for Dance & History online
Birte Hoffmann-Cabenda - period.dance 