Last updated on February 9, 2001
Renaissance Dance - a brief overview
Our knowledge of Renaissance dance is limited by the small number of manuscripts that actually describe the figures and (minimally and often confusingly) the steps. The earliest of these are Italian and date from the mid-1400's. Manuals by dance masters Domenico, Cornazano, and Ebreo (Ambrosio) document bassa danze and balli, dances performed by couples or small groups for a court audience. Late 15th-century manuscripts also document the existence of bassa danze (basse dance, basse danse) in Burgundy, Spain, and France.
In England and France, the early 1500's brought the rise of the pavane. In the 1580's, Arbeau's Orchesographie cites the decline of the basse dance and pavane and describes those dances as well as the alman (almain, allemande), the branle (in many variations), the galliard and tordion, the canarie (the Spanish Canario), and the lavolta. A number of Arbeau's branles are dances from masques which evolved into social dances; others which remain more performance than social include the morisque (Morris) and bouffons.
Also beginning in the late 16th century and continuing into the late 17th century, several English manuscripts often associated with the Inns of Court describe a number of pavanes and almans as part of the sequence of eight dances collectively known as the "Old Measures", as well as galliards and a number of other dances.
Caroso's late 16th-century Il Ballarino, along with its early 17th-century reprint and expansion, Nobilta di Dame, describes the more complex balli developed in Italy, with complex step sequences including segments of galliard, tordion, pavane, and canarie. Negri's Le Gratia d'Amore provides similar complex balli.
Country dances, mentioned in literary sources in England from the mid-16th century on, are given a detailed description in The English Dancing Master, published in 1651, which continued to be reprinted and expanded for almost a century. From a mix of dances for rounds, squares, and sets of various specific numbers of couples, the country dance became almost entirely for "longways, as many as will" sets by the mid-18th century.
While it is impossible to pick an exact date, by the end of the 17th
century, Italian and French dance had become the recognizable ancestor
of modern ballet, elaborate steps had begun to change the English
country dance into the French contredanse, and the era of Baroque
dance had begun.
Timeline: