historical dance

The tradition & historical record

Historical dance (or early dance) is a term covering a wide variety of Western European-based dance types from the past as they are danced in the present. Today historical dances are danced as performance, for pleasure at themed balls or dance clubs, as historical reenactment, or for musicological or historical research. Dances from the early 20th century can be recreated precisely, being within living memory and after the advent of film and video recording. Earlier dance types, however, must be reconstructed from less reliable evidence such as surviving notations and instruction manuals. For performance dancing, see History of dance. ¹

Very little evidence survives about medieval dance except what can be gleaned from paintings and works of literature from this time period. Some names of the dances which we know existed during the Middle Ages include Carole, Ductia, Estampie (Istampitta), Saltarello, and the Trotto. The farandole is also frequently presented as a medieval dance, based on surviving iconography. ¹

The earliest surviving dance manuals come from the Renaissance period, including examples by Italian dance master and composer Fabritio Caroso and French cleric Thoinot Arbeau. Thus we are able to reconstruct the dances with a greater degree of certainty. The large number of dances with Spanish origin reflect the cultural influence of the dominating power of the age. Dance types: ¹

Allemande (Almain) Basse danse (Bassadance) Branle (Bransle) Canario Coranto Dompe Galliard La volta, variation on the Galliard Pavane Sarabande Spagnoletta Tourdion, a fast Galliard ¹

It was during the baroque era that Londoner John Playford published The Dancing Master, which, along with similar publications, provides us with a large repertoire of baroque English country dances. Apart from country dances, the most well-documented baroque dance style was that which was developed at the French court during the 17th century. The term "baroque dance" is often used to refer specifically to this style, reflecting the dominating power of the era. Dance types include: ¹

Bourrée Canary Chaconne (French) Courante Entrée grave Forlana Gavotte Gigue Loure Menuet (minuet) Musette Passacaille (passacaglia) Passepied Rigaudon Sarabande Tambourin The French style was also danced in England where they introduced their own dance type: ¹

Hornpipe ¹

An era of uncertainty in England, with the Napoleonic Wars, periodic riots, and the French Revolution across the Channel. Clothing tended to be light and unrestrictive, encouraging dances with lots of skipping and jumping, such as the English Country Dance, Polonaise, Quadrille, and Scotch Reel. ¹

Starting with the great international polka craze of 1844 anyone who was anyone was dancing. Women were in hoop skirts, and turning dances helped to keep them out of the way. Dances popular during this period included the polka, schottische, two-step, and the waltz. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Historical dance”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

historical dance is type of dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 9 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²