Historical dance
Encyclopedia
Dances from the early 20th century can be recreated precisely, being within living memory and from the age of film and video recording. However, earlier dance types must be reconstructed from evidence such as surviving notations and instruction manuals.
Historical dances may be danced as performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
, for pleasure at themed balls or dance clubs, as historical reenactment
Historical reenactment
Historical reenactment is an educational activity in which participants attempt torecreate some aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire...
, or for musicological
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
or historical research.
The article below mostly discusses Western European social dances. For performance dancing, see the History of dance
History of dance
Dance does not often leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts that last over millennia, such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings...
article.
Medieval dance
Very little evidence survives about medievalMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
dance. What we do know comes mostly from paintings and works of literature from this time period. Here are some names of the dances which we know existed during the Middle Ages.
Dance types:
- CaroleCarol (music)A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character....
- Ductia
- EstampieEstampieThe Estampie is a medieval dance and musical form, it was a popular instrumental style of the 13th and 14th centuries.-Musical Form:The estampie consists of four to seven sections, called puncta, each of which is repeated, in the form...
(IstampittaEstampieThe Estampie is a medieval dance and musical form, it was a popular instrumental style of the 13th and 14th centuries.-Musical Form:The estampie consists of four to seven sections, called puncta, each of which is repeated, in the form...
) - SaltarelloSaltarelloThe saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known. It was played in a fast triple meter and is named for its peculiar leaping step, after the Italian verb saltare .-History:The...
- Trotto
The farandole
Farandole
The farandole is an open-chain community dance popular in the County of Nice, France. The farandole bears similarities to the gavotte, jig, and tarantella...
is also frequently presented as a medieval dance, based on surviving iconography.
Renaissance dance
The earliest surviving dance manuals come from the RenaissanceRenaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
, including examples by Fabritio Caroso
Fabritio Caroso
Fabritio Caroso da Sermoneta was an Italian Renaissance dancing master and a composer or transcriber of dance music.His dance manual Il Ballarino was published in 1581, with a subsequent edition, significantly different, Nobiltà di Dame, printed in 1600 and again after his death in 1630...
and Thoinot Arbeau
Thoinot Arbeau
Thoinot Arbeau is the anagrammatic pen name of French cleric Jehan Tabourot . Tabourot is most famous for his Orchésographie, a study of late sixteenth-century French Renaissance social dance...
. These allow us to reconstruct the dances with a greater degree of certainty. Note the large number of dances with Spanish origin, reflecting the cultural influence of the dominating power of the age.
Dance types:
- AllemandeAllemandeAn allemande is one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite...
(Almain) - Basse danseBasse danseThe basse danse, or "low dance", was the most popular court dance in the 15th and early 16th centuries, especially at the Burgundian court, often in a combination of 6/4 and 3/2 time allowing for use of hemiola...
(Bassadance) - BranleBranleA branle l)—also bransle, brangle, brawl, brawle, brall, braul, or brantle —or brainle—is a 16th-century French dance style which moves mainly from side to side, and is performed by couples in either a line or a circle.The word is derived from the French verb branler , possibly related to brander...
(BransleBranleA branle l)—also bransle, brangle, brawl, brawle, brall, braul, or brantle —or brainle—is a 16th-century French dance style which moves mainly from side to side, and is performed by couples in either a line or a circle.The word is derived from the French verb branler , possibly related to brander...
) - Canario
- CorantoCouranteThe courante, corrente, coranto and corant are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era....
- Dompe
- GalliardGalliardThe galliard was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, France, Spain, Germany and Italy, among others....
- La voltaLavoltaThe volta is an anglicised name for a Renaissance dance for couples from the later Renaissance. This dance was associated with the galliard and done to the same kind of music. Its main figure consisted of a turn and lift in a sort of closed position, which could be done either to the right or to...
, variation on the Galliard - Sarabanda
- Spagnoletta
- TourdionTourdionTourdion is a lively dance, similar in nature to the Galliard, and popular from the mid 15th to the late 16th centuries, first in the Burgundian court and then all over the French Kingdom...
, a fast Galliard
Baroque dance
It was during the baroqueBaroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
era that John Playford
John Playford
John Playford was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer, and member of the Stationers' Company, who published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments, and psalters with tunes for singing in churches...
published The Dancing Master
The Dancing Master
The Dancing Master is a dancing manual containing the music and instructions for English Country Dances. It was published in several editions by John Playford and his successors from 1651 until c1728...
, which, along with similar publications, provides us with a large repertoire of baroque English country dance
English Country Dance
English Country Dance is a form of folk dance. It is a social dance form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England is noted to have been entertained by "Country Dancing," although the relationship of the dances she saw to the surviving dances of...
s.
Apart from country dances, the most well documented dance style of the baroque was that developed at the French court during the 17th century. The term "baroque dance" is often used to refer specifically to this French style, reflecting the dominating power of the era. Dance types include
- BourréeBourréeThe bourrée is a dance of French origin common in Auvergne and Biscay in Spain in the 17th century. It is danced in quick double time, somewhat resembling the gavotte. The main difference between the two is the anacrusis, or upbeat; a bourrée starts on the last beat of a bar, creating a...
- Canary
- ChaconneChaconneA chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
- (French) CouranteCouranteThe courante, corrente, coranto and corant are some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque era....
- Entrée grave
- Forlana
- GavotteGavotteThe gavotte originated as a French folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné, where the dance originated. It is notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo...
- GigueGigueThe gigue or giga is a lively baroque dance originating from the British jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th century and usually appears at the end of a suite...
- LoureLoureThe loure, also known as the gigue lente or slow gigue, is a French Baroque dance, probably originating in Normandy and named after the sound of the instrument of the same name ....
- MenuetMinuetA minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
(minuet) - MusetteBal-musetteBal-musette is a style of French music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1880s.Auvergnats settled in large numbers in the 5th, 11th, and 12th districts of Paris during the 19th century, opening cafés and bars where patrons danced the bourrée to the accompaniment of musette de...
- PassacaillePassacagliaThe passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre....
(passacaglia) - PassepiedPassepiedThe passepied is a 17th- and 18th-century dance that originated in Brittany. The term can also be used to describe the music to which a passepied is set...
- RigaudonRigaudonThe rigaudon is a French baroque dance with a lively duple metre. The music is similar to that of a bourrée, but the rigaudon is rhythmically simpler with regular phrases ....
- SarabandeSarabandeIn music, the sarabande is a dance in triple metre. The second and third beats of each measure are often tied, giving the dance a distinctive rhythm of quarter notes and eighth notes in alternation...
- TambourinTambourinA tambourin is a piece of music that imitates a drum, usually as a repetitive not-very-melodic figure in the bass.A tambourin itself is a small, two-headed drum of Arabic origin, mentioned as early as the 1080s . It was played together with a small flute .A tambourin, as a dance, hails from Provence...
The French style was also danced in England where they introduced their own dance type:
- HornpipeHornpipeThe term hornpipe refers to any of several dance forms played and danced in Britain and elsewhere from the late 17th century until the present day. It is said that hornpipe as a dance began around the 16th century on English sailing vessels...
Dance in the English Regency
We've only just finished the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and women's fashions enjoy a very brief period of sensibility. Clothing tends to be light and unrestrictive, encouraging dances with lots of skipping and jumping, such as
- English Country DanceEnglish Country DanceEnglish Country Dance is a form of folk dance. It is a social dance form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England is noted to have been entertained by "Country Dancing," although the relationship of the dances she saw to the surviving dances of...
- Regency danceRegency danceRegency dance is the term for historical dances of the period ranging roughly from 1790 to 1825. Some feel that the popular use of the term "Regency dance" is not technically correct, as the actual English Regency lasted only from 1811 until 1820...
- PolonaisePolonaiseThe polonaise is a slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French for "Polish."The polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin....
- QuadrilleQuadrilleQuadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. It is also a style of music...
- Scotch Reel
Dance in the mid 19th century
Starting with the great international polka craze of 1844 anyone who was anyone was dancing. Women are in hoop skirts, and turning dances help to keep the skirts out of the way.- Five Step Waltz
- PolkaPolkaThe polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
- SchottischeSchottischeThe schottische is a partnered country dance, that apparently originated in Bohemia. It was popular in Victorian era ballrooms as a part of the Bohemian folk-dance craze and left its traces in folk music of countries such as Argentina , Finland , France, Italy, Norway , Portugal and Brazil , Spain ...
- Two Step
- WaltzWaltzThe waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
Dance in the late 19th century, through 1910 or so
All the same dances that were done in the mid century were still being done in the late century, but by fewer people and with less enthusiasm. Dance masters, in a vain attempt to maintain their place in society and in the economy, invented dances of greater and greater complexity.The bustle replaces the hoop, which necessitated a few changes in dancing. At the same time, Ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
music begins its infiltration.
- CakewalkCakewalkThe Cakewalk dance was developed from a "Prize Walk" done in the days of slavery, generally at get-togethers on plantations in the Southern United States. Alternative names for the original form of the dance were "chalkline-walk", and the "walk-around"...
- KrakowiakKrakowiakThe Krakowiak, sometimes referred to as the Pecker Dance, is a fast, syncopated Polish dance in duple time from the region of Krakow and Little Poland. This dance is known to imitate horses, the steps mimic their movement, for horses were well loved in the Krakow region of Poland for their civilian...
- MazurkaMazurkaThe mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
- RacketRacketRacket may refer to:*Racket , a systematised element of organized crime*Rackets , a ball game*Racquet, a piece of equipment used to play tennis*Racket with Michele Placido, Tanya Roberts and Franco Interlenghi...
- RedowaRedowaA redowa is dance of Czech origin with turning, leaping waltz steps that was most popular in Victorian era European ballrooms.-History:Thomas Hillgrove states that the redowa was introduced to London ballrooms in 1846...
- WaltzWaltzThe waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
Dance in the Ragtime era
Vernon and Irene CastleVernon and Irene Castle
Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing. Vernon Castle was born William Vernon Blyth in Norwich, Norfolk, England...
bring an air of respectability to couple dancing, and spark what was arguably the largest U.S. dance craze ever. By the end of WWI people eshew these as old fashioned.
- FoxtrotFoxtrot (Dance)The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication...
- MaxixeMaxixe (dance)The maxixe , occasionally known as the Brazilian tango, is a dance, with its accompanying music , that originated in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in 1868, at about the same time as the tango was developing in neighbouring Argentina and Uruguay...
- One-StepOne-StepThe One-Step was a ballroom dance popular in social dancing at the beginning of the 20th century.Troy Kinney writes that One-Step originated from the Turkey Trot dance, with all mannerisms of the latter removed, so that "of the original 'trot' nothing remains but the basic step".The One-Step...
- TangoTango (dance)Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata , and spread to the rest of the world soon after....
- WaltzWaltzThe waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
Dance in the 1920s
It's the roaring twenties, and kids are spoiled. For the first time, there is a class of children who don't have to immediately go to work to support the family. This is an era of highly energetic dances done by the younger generation.- Black BottomBlack Bottom (dance)Black Bottom refers to a dance. which became popular in the 1920s, during the period known as the Flapper era.The dance originated in New Orleans in the 1900s. The theatrical show Dinah brought the Black Bottom dance to New York in 1924, and the George White's Scandals featured it at the Apollo...
- CharlestonCharleston (dance)The Charleston is a dance named for the harbor city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called "The Charleston" by composer/pianist James P. Johnson which originated in the Broadway show Runnin' Wild and became one...
- FoxtrotFoxtrot (Dance)The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication...
- Shag
- WaltzWaltzThe waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
Dance in the 1930s and 1940s
More than ever before, white society is getting its dances from black society. Swing music and swing dancing are what's happening- Big Apple (dance)Big Apple (dance)The Big Apple is both a partner dance and a circle dance that originated in the Afro-American community of the United States in the beginning of the 20th century.- Origin :...
- FoxtrotFoxtrot (Dance)The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication...
- SwingSwing (dance)"Swing dance" is a group of dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s-1950s, although the earliest of these dances predate swing jazz music. The best known of these dances is the Lindy Hop, a popular partner dance that originated in Harlem and is still danced today...
- WaltzWaltzThe waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
- TapTap danceTap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sound of one's tap shoes hitting the floor as a percussive instrument. As such, it is also commonly considered to be a form of music. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses more on the...
- Spinning Dance
See also
- History of danceHistory of danceDance does not often leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts that last over millennia, such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings...
- BalletBalletBallet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
- MasqueMasqueThe masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
- List of dances
- An American Ballroom CompanionAn American Ballroom CompanionAn American Ballroom Companion is an online collection of over two hundred social dance manuals at the Library of Congress related to the period of cca. 1490--1920...