The New York Baroque Dance Co.

Dancing in the era of Ignatius Sancho (1729-1789): An Interdisciplinary Educational Project

Who is Ignatius Sancho? Born into slavery, Ignatius Sancho (c.1729–1780) became a butler, shopkeeper, and musician, as well as a published writer and composer. He used the arts to disrupt bias, promote antiracism as well as to provide enjoyment to his family, patrons, and friends. 

Project Description

“The Arts as Black Resistance in Eighteenth-Century London: The Life and World of Ignatius Sancho,” is an interdisciplinary research group, led by historical keyboardist and musicologist, Rebecca Cypess, and affiliated with the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University.  In summer of 2023, the research group plans to launch a website, which will include resources for the general public to learn about the arts in Sancho’s worldview and practice, as well as materials for middle- and high-school teachers to use as a means of exploring antiracism in the arts with their students.

Caroline Copeland has been reaching out to fellow dancers and musicians, taking a deep dive into Sancho’s dance and music compositions: reels, hornpipes, cotillions, minuets, and country dances, to uncover how they may have been danced and played by Europeans as well as free and enslaved Africans in England, the Caribbean and North America. Currently, she is collaborating with Kieran Sargeant, a choreographer and instrumentalist from Trinidad, Leah Nelson, a baroque violinist, David Roberts, an American fiddle player as well as members of the NYBDC to workshop ideas and dances. 

Their contributions to the website aim to rethink and re-frame historical dance forms from the perspective of a cross-cultural and interracial artistic fusion and will take the form of blog articles and videos. They hope that by re-imagining Sancho’s 18th century dance figures through the lens of early and contemporary dance practices of Europe and the African diaspora, they will reveal that county dancing is a fluid and flexible form used for many purposes by many peoples; as satire, invention, joy, and entertainment.

The Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice at Rutgers University is making a financial contribution to help cover costs for their first video shoot on April 29th. We are looking for additional funds to cover rehearsal space, rehearsal pay for artists, travel costs for the instrumentalists and performers, and Kieron’s housing when he visits from Iowa to rehearse and film the dances in April.  We need your support to continue to advance.  Donation

  Link to Project