Historical Dance via Europeana

The Early Dance Circle (EDC) is a UK charity that aims to promote the enjoyment, performance and study of historical dance in the UK and beyond. Formed in 1984 as an umbrella organisation, it counts individuals and groups, both amateur and professional, among its members. We believe that knowledge of earlier forms of dance helps enrich the cultural life of the UK, by accessing a heritage of international importance that belongs to us all, but has been until recently largely forgotten.

Baroque dance is the conventional name given to the style of dancing that had its origins during the seventeenth century and dominated the eighteenth century until the French Revolution. Louis XIV was a major influence in its development and promotion. Even at the age of fourteen, Louis was an accomplished dancer: as the sun god Apollo in the ‘Ballet de la Nuit’ (1653), he became Le Roi Soleil, an image that he was to cultivate throughout his life.  His courtiers were expected to  dance in the his new style at the formal balls, and they performed in court ballets, in rather a similar fashion to what was considered appropriate to Stuart court masques.  During 17th century dancing had not only a great social importance, but could also carry political importance. (Text from EDC)

It became customary to publish each season’s new dances in this notation, in readiness for performance at court balls and other grand occasions. While the French style of dancing had prominence throughout most of Europe (including Britain, Germany and Russia), contemporary Italy saw the parallel development of a distinct Italian style continuing Renaissance traditions of dance. This area remains to be thoroughly researched, but in 2004 Barbara Sparti edited the manuscript of Ercole Santucci’s manual of 1614. Dancing masters in Italy were described as either ‘French’ or ‘Italian’ in accordance with the style they specialised in.

The same step vocabulary was used in social and theatrical dance, but it was in the theatre that the most demanding and complicated steps were seen. Professional male dancers could execute aerial beaten steps such as entrechats six and cabrioles. La Camargue or Camargo shortened her skirt to show off her footwork. Such dancing was the immediate precursor of classical ballet, which inherited the range of step-names while developing the actual steps, sometimes beyond recognition.

The standard notation outlined the floor pattern as a continuous line divided into musical bars. Alongside are placed the symbols for the required steps. This system could become immensely complex for specific dances. To learn how to do the actual steps, we have to consult the dancing manuals of the period (see below). The placing of the arms was not generally notated, but certain rules applied which were described in the manuals, and the dancers could choose the most appropriate ones to follow for each dance or devise their own system. Floor patterns were generally made up of flowing symmetrically curving lines, “the line of beauty”, with dancers relating closely together, coordinating both steps and hand movements.   A wealth of information enables researchers and dancers to reconstruct dances from this period with a fair amount of accuracy, although interpretative differences are legion.

Barbara Segal is a specialist in Baroque Dance, the fashionable dance of Europe from about 1650 to 1750 and what is sometimes considered the forerunner of classical ballet. It originated at the court of Louis XIV and became known as the French noble style, a highly stylised form of baroque dance. This elegant, graceful form of baroque dance rapidly spread throughout Europe.
Not content solely with baroque dance, Barbara has extended her studies and her repertoire to cover the known choreographies in European sources from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. These range from the court dances of Italian Renaissance dance masters such as Domenico, Caroso and Negri to Regency dances, including dances of Jane Austen’s time, and dances of  the Victorians.

What follows in this collection is more content found on Europeana with a short framing note on the image.  

The joyful, healthy face of this naturally beautiful young girl reaches out to us. It makes a counterpoint to the heavily painted and artificially coiffed women of upper-class families. However, it is an idealised image that glosses over the dirt, hunger and ill-treatment so often the daily experience of such street hawkers in London.

This caricature shows another high wig, protected from the elements, by a hood (a common enough accessory). However, here the two women are dwarfed by their coiffeurs, in a lack of decorum designed to seem ridiculous.

Extreme delicacy and femininity are expressed by these accoutrements of the female toilette, belonging to an upper class woman of the baroque period. The enamels and fan painting are examples of the ultimate in craftsmanship of the day and came at a huge cost. 

Upper class and aspiring men of the 18th century sported enormously expensive shoe buckles, to complement their finely embroidered silk and satin waistcoats. Of course, a similar effect could be achieved lower down the social scale with “paste”, or glass, adornments.

This naturally unevenly shaped pearl is an example of the kind of jewel that gave the baroque period its name. It defies the emphasis on control and classical symmetry that characterised much of the Renaissance. Its value and rarity also embodies the lavish expenditure that underpinned the ruling elites of Europe at the time.

For more information on Baroque dance visit the EdX platform to enroll in the CM MOOC. The EDC is also a resource for all things Baroque and Historical Early dance.