English

Renaissance Dances

Dancing was one of the most favorite pastimes in the Renaissance period, it was a elegant form of exercise that was an ecpected social skill for the nobles. There were two simple types of dancing during the renaissance period, the first was the dances that were performed by millions of people, these dances were usually performed in circles or lines. The second type was more complicated and required a dancing master and apprentice, these dances were usually performed for the audience, rather than by them. The most important part of dancing during the period was the footwork, due to layers of clothing during the time, the upper body was both limited in men and women.

The three most important founders of dance of the renaissance were Thoinot Arbeau, Cesare Negri, and Fabritio Caroso, these are the men who wrote the book on dancing. They had all written about different but similiar dances and steps . Dancing in the renaissance brought about new instrumental compositions written for dancing, the music of the time was written for such instruments like the sackbutt, lute, viol, pipe and the tabor, some of the music was improvied but much of it were published in collections by Pierre Attaingnant.

The volta, also known as the renaissance dance, came from italy and some provinces in france, and was originally a peasent dance in the early 16th century, passed on through france, switzerland and germany. The name itself means turning. The italian volta was introduced by Count Sailt to the paris court in 1556. Later on in the years to come, Catherine De Medic reintrocued it to the french courts of versailles.

The Tordion or Galliarde was the first measures used to start the volta dance, during the volta the man faces his partner instead of standing alongisde or opposite of each other, and held her very close. The leader turns his partner around several times and then helps her take a high leap into the air, where the leader would jump after her. The volta was taken usually with two single steps and a double step with a hop on the fifth step. With the right foot in the air, the dancers would hop on the left and turn at a angle and take stride and then turn a quarter and sprung into the air making a quarter turn, repeating the pattern with three more quarter turns.

The volta, at the time was considered a form of dirty dancing, similiar to our society's, "freak dancing" today. It was claimed to have brought forth many murders and miscarriages, and should be heavily looked into by the police. Of course however, these claims are untrue, dancing at the time of the renaissance was a good way to pass the time and was also a good exercise. It provided cheap entertainment and was even considered a needed skill for those who were born of nobility.