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Shakespearean Dance
Shakespearean dance refers to dancing in the time and plays of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Overview There are references to dances such as the galliard or sinkapace, volta, coranto, pavane, and canario, and stage directions indicate dancing in many plays including ''Romeo and Juliet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', ''Twelfth Night, or What You Will'', ''Macbeth'', and ''As You Like It''. Terms like 'measure' and 'foot it' can also refer to dancing, and dance is often woven into the plot as part of a masque or masquerade ball, especially in plays by John Marston. Primary sources There is no known dancing instruction manual for English dances of Shakespeare's time, but there are descriptions of almains and the measures in the Inns of Court manuscripts (see Payne), mentions of Morris dance in church court and civic records (see Forrest), and large sections of dancing in court masques (see Ravelhofer and Welsford). Other dances referred to in English Renaissance plays ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dancing
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period or place of origin. An important distinction is to be drawn between the contexts of theatrical and participatory dance, although these two categories are not always completely separate; both may have special functions, whether social, ceremonial, competitive, erotic, martial, or sacred/liturgical. Other forms of human movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, cheerleading, figure skating, synchronized swimming, marching bands, and many other forms of athletics. There are many professional athletes like, professional football players and soccer players, who take dance classes to help with their skills. To be more specific professional athletes t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thoinot Arbeau
Thoinot Arbeau is the anagrammatic pen name of French cleric Jehan Tabourot (March 17, 1520 – July 23, 1595). Tabourot is most famous for his ''Orchésographie'', a study of late sixteenth-century French Renaissance social dance. He was born in Dijon and died in Langres. ''Orchésographie'' and other work ''Orchésographie'', first published in Langres, 1589,The title page's "Extraict du priuilege" is dated "Novembre 1588". provides information on social ballroom behaviour and on the interaction of musicians and dancers. It is available online in facsimile and in plain text. There is an English translation by Mary Stewart Evans, edited by Julia Sutton, in print with Dover Publications. It contains numerous woodcuts of dancers and musicians and includes many dance tabulations in which extensive instructions for the steps are lined up next to the musical notes, a significant innovation in dance notation at that time. He also published on astronomy: ''Compot et Manuel Kalend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Dance
The history of dance is difficult to access because dance does not often leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts that last over millennia, such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings. It is not possible to identify with exact precision when dance became part of human culture. Early dance The natural impulse to dance may have existed in early primates before they evolved into humans. Dance has been an important part of ceremony, rituals, celebrations and entertainment since before the birth of the earliest human civilizations. Archaeology delivers traces of dance from prehistoric times such as the 10,000-year-old Bhimbetka rock shelters paintings in India and Egyptian tomb paintings depicting dancing figures from c. 3300 BC. Many contemporary dance forms can be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial and ethnic dances of the ancient period. Means of social communication and bonding Dance may have been used as a tool of social interactio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Historical Dance
Historical dance (or early dance) is a term covering a wide variety of Western European-based dance types from the past as they are danced in the present. Today historical dances are danced as performance, for pleasure at themed balls or dance clubs, as historical reenactment, or for musicological or historical research. Dances from the early 20th century can be recreated precisely, being within living memory and after the advent of film and video recording. Earlier dance types, however, must be reconstructed from less reliable evidence such as surviving notations and instruction manuals. For performance dancing, see History of dance. Categories Medieval dance Very little evidence survives about medieval dance except what can be gleaned from paintings and works of literature from this time period. Some names of the dances which we know existed during the Middle Ages include Carole, Ductia, Estampie ( Istampitta), Saltarello, and the Trotto. The farandole is also frequently pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Renaissance
The English Renaissance was a Cultural movement, cultural and Art movement, artistic movement in England from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century. As in most of the rest of northern Europe, England saw little of these developments until more than a century later. Renaissance style and ideas, however, were slow to penetrate England, and the Elizabethan era in the second half of the 16th century is usually regarded as the height of the English Renaissance. However, many scholars see its beginnings in the early 16th century, during the reign of Henry VIII. The English Renaissance is different from the Italian Renaissance in several ways. The dominant art forms of the English Renaissance were literature and music. Visual arts in the English Renaissance were much less significant than in the Italian Renaissance. The English period began far later than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elizabethan Theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Background The term ''English Renaissance theatre'' encompasses the period between 1562—following a performance of ''Gorboduc'', the first English play using blank verse, at the Inner Temple during the Christmas season of 1561—and the ban on theatrical plays enacted by the English Parliament in 1642. In a strict sense "Elizabethan" only refers to the period of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558–1603). ''English Renaissance theatre'' may be said to encompass ''Elizabethan theatre'' from 1562 to 1603, '' Jacobean theatre'' from 1603 to 1625, and '' Caroline theatre'' from 1625 to 1642. Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed towards the end of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Early Dance
Historical dance (or early dance) is a term covering a wide variety of Western European-based dance types from the past as they are danced in the present. Today historical dances are danced as performance, for pleasure at themed balls or dance clubs, as historical reenactment, or for musicological or historical research. Dances from the early 20th century can be recreated precisely, being within living memory and after the advent of film and video recording. Earlier dance types, however, must be reconstructed from less reliable evidence such as surviving notations and instruction manuals. For performance dancing, see History of dance. Categories Medieval dance Very little evidence survives about medieval dance except what can be gleaned from paintings and works of literature from this time period. Some names of the dances which we know existed during the Middle Ages include Carole, Ductia, Estampie ( Istampitta), Saltarello, and the Trotto. The farandole is also frequently ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Country Footing
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the country of Wales is a component of a multi-part sovereign state, the United Kingdom. A country may be a historically sovereign area (such as Korea), a currently sovereign territory with a unified government (such as Senegal), or a non-sovereign geographic region associated with certain distinct political, ethnic, or cultural characteristics (such as the Basque Country). The definition and usage of the word "country" is flexible and has changed over time. ''The Economist'' wrote in 2010 that "any attempt to find a clear definition of a country soon runs into a thicket of exceptions and anomalies." Most sovereign states, but not all countries, are members of the United Nations. The largest country by area is Russia, while the smallest is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Measures
{{short description, Dances made for festivals Old measures, or simply measures, were a group of dances performed at ceremonial and festive occasions in Early Modern Britain. Some of the dances included in the measures were the pavane and the almain, and dances such as the galliard and the courante are also mentioned as accompanying or following the traditional measures. The measures are associated with the Inns of Court, the English law schools, as most of the extant sources have been found among the papers of lawyers and law students at the Inns. They are also mentioned in Shakespeare plays such as ''As You Like It'' (Act V, scene 4), ''Richard II'' (Act III, scene 4), ''Richard III'' (Act I, scene 1) and '' Much Ado About Nothing'' (Act II, Scene 1). One must be wary when one encounters 16th- and 17th-century references to measure or measures, as a measure could refer to a bar, or generically to dancing, as well as to this specific group of dances. Dances While sources di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galliard
The ''galliard'' (; french: gaillarde; it, gagliarda) was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, Portugal, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy. Dance form The ''galliard'' is not an improvised dance, but rather, it consists of choreographed patterns of steps, which occupy one or more measures of music. In one measure, a galliard typically has five steps; in French such a basic step is called a ''cinq pas'' and in Italy, ''cinque passi''. This is sometimes written in English sources as ''sinkapace''. These steps are: right, left, right, left, cadence. The galliard is an athletic dance, characterised by leaps, jumps, hops and other similar figures. The main feature that defines a galliard step is a large jump, after which the dancer lands with one leg ahead of the other. This jump is called a ''cadence,'' and the final landing is called the ''posture.'' The cadence is typically preceded by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Courante
The ''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. In a Baroque dance suite an Italian or French courante is typically paired with a preceding allemande, making it the second movement of the suite or the third if there is a prelude. Types ''Courante'' literally means "running", and in the later Renaissance the courante was danced with fast running and jumping steps, as described by Thoinot Arbeau. But the courante commonly used in the baroque period was described by Johann Mattheson in ''Der vollkommene Capellmeister'' (Hamburg, 1739) as "chiefly characterized by the passion or mood of sweet expectation. For there is something heartfelt, something longing and also gratifying, in this melody: clearly music on which hopes are built."Quoted in Alfred Dürr, preface to Johann Sebastian Bach, ''Französische Suiten: die verzierte Fassung / The French Suites: Embel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lavolta
The volta (plural: voltas) (Italian: "the turn" or "turning") is an anglicised name for a dance for couples that was popular during the later Renaissance period. 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 the left. It is also called La volta, Volta, Volte. Spelling variants include la volta and levolto; its name is ''la volte'' in French and ''la volta'' in Italian. It was considered at first to be risque and controversial. Although the dance was known at the court of Elizabeth I, the popular notion (much portrayed in film and television) that Elizabeth and her favourite Lord Robert Dudley regularly performed the volta has been repudiated.Ian Pittaway Description Detailed instructions for voltas were written by Thoinot Arbeau; some brief notes appear in MS Douce 280. (about 1606) These instructions are open to some int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
