{"id":40,"date":"2015-11-16T22:53:24","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T22:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/?page_id=40"},"modified":"2015-11-16T22:53:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T22:53:24","slug":"a-creative-well-researched-thought-provoking-book","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/a-creative-well-researched-thought-provoking-book\/","title":{"rendered":"“A creative, well-researched, thought-provoking book”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u2014quote from review by\u00a0Jane Calvin, Executive Director, Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust<\/em><\/p>\n

Lowell, Massachusetts\u2014<\/b>Twirling Jennies: A History of Social Dance (and other mischief) in the City of Spindles 1820\u20131920\u00a0<\/i>is now available online and in select stores. Written by local dancer and author Ruth Evans, and co-researched with her husband, Charles Worsley, this handsomely illustrated volume draws on a wide variety of sources to weave together a hundred years of dance history with the story of America\u2019s Industrial Revolution.<\/p>\n

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Much has been written about the early days of Lowell, and about the mill girls who once filled the city, but very little has been said about the dance world of these young women. Controversial and pervasive, was partnered dance a harmless entertainment or the road to the brothel? In chronicling\u00a0Lowell\u2019s nineteenth-century dance scene,\u00a0Twirling Jennies<\/i>\u00a0touches on social mores,\u00a0sexual harassment, labor, technology, architecture, immigration, pastimes, laws, language, and more.<\/p>\n

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For the dancer, there are detailed discussions of specific dances and steps, from the balletic roots of square dancing to a reprint of Vernon and Irene Castle\u2019s 1914 Fox Trot magazine article. For the Lowell buff, there are accounts of people, places and events, including an illustrated tour of Lowell\u2019s Victorian dance halls and the buildings that housed them. And for those with more general interests, there are fascinating tidbits such as Lowell\u2019s sensational Tango Trial or the rise and fall of New England\u2019s trolley parks.<\/p>\n

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Ruth Evans has been involved with dancing and with textile-related fields for over forty years and made her first foray into writing professionally in 1998. She also has computer graphics certification from UMass Lowell, training that allowed her to repair, restore, and arrange the 300-plus illustrations in\u00a0Twirling Jennies<\/i>\u00a0to great effect. Her husband, Charles Worsley, has been researching and performing period-style dancing for over thirty years. Married in 1999, and Lowell residents since 2009, the couple are a familiar sight on the dance floor at Lowell\u2019s Annual Folk Festival.<\/p>\n

Twirling Jennies<\/i>\u00a0is published by Misenchanted Press and is available as an oversized trade paperback.\u00a0More information can be found at\u00a0https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u2014quote from review by\u00a0Jane Calvin, Executive Director, Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust Lowell, Massachusetts\u2014Twirling Jennies: A History of Social Dance (and other mischief) in the City of Spindles 1820\u20131920\u00a0is now available online and in select stores. Written by local dancer and author Ruth Evans, and co-researched with her husband, Charles Worsley, this handsomely illustrated volume … Continue reading “A creative, well-researched, thought-provoking book”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-40","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twirlingjennies.com\/authorsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}