Historical dance

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Renaissance dance " Gaillarde ", detail from " Antiochus and Stratonice " by the so-called Master of Stratonice, Siena, 15th century (today in the Huntington Library , San Marino (California) )

The term historical dance emerged parallel to that of early music . Just as early music was started to be performed again on replicated instruments at the beginning of the 20th century, almost at the same time people began to re-dance old dances based on written evidence. A large part of the traditional dances are the dances of the higher social classes. For this reason, historical dance is often equated with court dance . However, there are also numerous sources in which the dances of the bourgeoisie are recorded ( Branles , Contra Dances , Ecossaise , Quadrille etc.). The term historical dance has become firmly established as a generic term for the European dance art of the 15th to 19th centuries , in contrast to folk dance , contemporary dance and classical ballet .

Sources and notation

During the Middle Ages, dances were passed down solely through practical transmission from dancer to dancer. The earliest dance notations date from the first half of the 15th century. Many of the older dances are often only known by name. Before the written record, the dance forms are often only known from iconographic sources such as frescoes, paintings, drawings, book illustrations , reliefs, and possibly statues and figurines. In the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance , dances were increasingly recorded by dance masters , sometimes in specially designed notations. From the beginning of the first written records until today, no generally understandable dance notation that was used equally by theorists (dance scholars, choreographers) and practitioners (dancers) has been able to establish itself. For this reason you have to familiarize yourself with the corresponding notation for every epoch, sometimes also for every dance master or choreographer. The incorporation into the respective dance notation makes the reconstruction of the dances much more difficult, but for most sources, v. a. if the notation was used internationally, such as the word abbreviation notation of the 15th century or the feature notation at the beginning of the 18th century, it is not an insurmountable hurdle. Rather, it must be said that the respective notation is also the decisive one in the epoch Emphasis is placed on the focus, and therefore conclusions can be drawn about the importance of individual parameters such as space, step material or arm guidance. In the case of the feuillet notation, after decades of employment, it has been shown that it can be used extremely well in dance practice. Even newly created choreographies in the style of the 18th century are now recorded by the choreographers or their assistants.

Renaissance

Although it has become common to speak of 'Renaissance dance', the term is imprecise. The sources from around 1450–1530, namely the dance books in the wake of the Italian dance master Domenico da Piacenza , must certainly be distinguished from a second group of sources, the earliest of which is dated 1559 (La caccia) and around 1630 (reprinted by F. Carosos Nobiltà di Dame ) lasts. For the latter epoch, the term Caroso / Negri style has started to be introduced. In the first epoch, the Italian sources are to be distinguished from the French / Burgundian sources.

In 1588 a book was published in the French town of Langres with the title Orchésographie ("The teaching of dance description". The printing privilege is dated November 22, 1588). In it, the canon of Langres Jehan Tabourot (under the pseudonym Thoinot Arbeau ) described 35 French couple dances of his time. He gave a music example for each description, mostly unanimous and not always complete. He began with the oldest dance known to him, the “Basse danse”, followed by a description of other ballroom dances such as the “ Gaillarde ” and the “ Branle ”, and then at the end he tackled a few more show dances , such as the sword dance “Les Bouffons” ”, The costume dance“ La danse des Canaries ”and the lively solo dance“ Morisque ”.

At almost the same time, extensive dance treatises appeared in Italy, such as by Fabritio Caroso (1525 / 35–1605 / 20) and Cesare Negri .

Caroso / Negri style

  • 1559 La Caccia (description of the dance in a letter to Francesco I Medici)
  • 1560 Lutio Compasso : Ballo della Gagliarda , 1560
  • 1581 Fabritio Caroso : Il Ballarino , Venice 1581.
  • 1588 Thoinot Arbeau : Orchésographie , Lengres 1588.
  • 1600 Fabritio Caroso: Nobiltà di Dame , Venice 1600, ( 2 1605); (= Raccolta di varij Balli , Rome 1630).
  • 1602 Cesare Negri : Le Gratie d'Amore , Milan: G. Bordone, 1602 (new edition with a different title: Nuove Inventioni di Balli , Milan 1604).
  • 1614 Ercole Santucci : Maestro da Ballo (name of the scribe and author?); Stockholm, Carina Ari Library
Title page of the dance book by John Playford (1651)

Baroque and Rococo

A more general notation was not developed until the time of Louis XIV at the Academie Royale du Danse. The basics of the steps laid down there can still be found in the repertoire of classical ballet today .

Numerous country dances can be found e.g. B. in the collection of John Playford " The English Dancing Master " , which was published and expanded many times between 1651 and 1728.

The collection can be viewed online here:

The French dance master Louis Lorin visited the English court at the end of the 17th century and thereupon published his descriptions, which have only survived as manuscripts, in 1685 and dedicated them to the French King Louis XIV. In 1700 Raoul-Auger Feuillet published the epoch-making choreographic work ( from which the term 'choreography' is derived: gr. choreos = dance and graphein = write). In 1706 a simplified notation for so-called Contre-Danses , a French. Variant of English Country Dances. Both volumes were translated into English several times in 1706.

The orchesography is online here:

In Germany, the counter dances according to John Playford received special attention through the work of Georg Götsch in the Musikheim in Frankfurt an der Oder (1927–1942) and at Fürsteneck Castle (1952–1956). Georg Götsch provided 64 dances by Playford with an easily understandable dance script and published them with German names in the booklet “Alte Kontra-Tänze” (Möseler-Verlag, 1950 with Rolf Gardiner). A second volume, “Neue Kontratänze”, contained dances from various English sources (Möseler-Verlag, 1956 with Rudolf Christl). The Musische Gesellschaft initiated by Georg Götsch and others continue this tradition at Fürsteneck Castle, among others.

Court dance and folk dance

Mainly composed court dances were noted. These are often based on folk dances that have been refined compositionally. Hence, one can draw conclusions about the dances of the common people. Folk dances were only systematically collected and recorded at the instigation of Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), who also coined the term “folk dance”.

Stage dance

The young Louis XIV. In the leading role of Apollo in the “Ballet royal de la nuit” 1653

On the opulent baroque stages, dance initially only played a decorative role, while the richness of content and the diversity of expression were more likely to be staged by the stage machinery, music and singing. Dance performances formed a garland around the various acts, at the beginning and at the end of a piece, without referring directly to its content.

However, since theater and music can be combined into a unit in dance, stage dance (ballet) developed at the court of the Sun King Louis XIV, which increasingly framed the other events on the stage. The dancers embodied collective types such as shepherds, gods, nymphs, etc.

The stage dance was based on the dance forms and step sequences designed for the ballroom, but was enriched by virtuoso ornaments and was thus able to achieve a gestural and facial expression that hardly resembled the more functional ballroom dance in the ballroom.

Dance education has always been on the aristocratic curriculum alongside other arts and martial skills. Therefore, in the beginning, talented nobles were usually on stage alongside professional dancers.

Ballet masters like Pierre Beauchamp , Jean Favier d. Ä. and Jean-Baptiste Lully , appointed compositeur de la musique instrumentale de Roi in 1653 , achieved great fame with their choreographies, performed by increasingly professional dancers. As with the three named, it still generally meant at that time that professionalism in dancing went hand in hand with a position as an instrumentalist in royal music.

Countries of origin

Like the music, the dances in the various courts differed considerably in style. However, the dances were also spread internationally and varied and adapted to the local style. Thus the English find country dances as Contredance or contra dance (quadrille) in France and Germany.

Dance forms

Historical dances are often based on circular shapes ( Reigen ), the alley (Longway) or follow their own choreographies. Many dances are group dances, be it as a couple in a group or with a constant change of partner, there are solo dances, couple dances and mixed forms.

Balls

Balls were held regularly in the courtyards and were used for representation, entertainment and communication between the dancers.

reconstruction

Most of the historical dances had been forgotten and were reconstructed and "revived" by dance researchers in the 20th century.

Dances from different eras

Renaissance dances

Baroque and Rococo dances

(Dances in the suites of baroque composers such as Lully, Campra , Rameau, Telemann , Bach and Handel and others)

English Country Dances (counter dance, counter dance, contredanse) (17th / 18th century)

  • Jenny Pluck Pears, The Indian Queen, Jamaica, Hunt the Squirrel, The Morning Route, Nonesuch

19th century dances

literature

  • Renaissance dances of the orchésography after Thoinot Arbeau - edited and re-edited for dance use by Hinrich Langeloh, Verlag der Spielfahrer , ISBN 3-927240-20-6 (with CD of the 'Katharco Early Music Consort')

See also

Portal: Dance  - Overview of Wikipedia content on dance

Web links