[SCA-Dance] Dit de Bourgignon

[Jane & Mark Waks]

Huette von Ahrens wrote:
> Many years ago, I was taught the dance "Dit de
> Bourgignon" by Duchess Diana Alene.  I still have the
> music and the choreography, but I can't find where
> this dance came from.  Is it a period dance, or is it
> a
> modern choreography?  Could anyone give me information
> about this?  Thanks.

Let's see -- this ought to be in the old East Kingdom Dance Book, since 
it's of that period. Yep, here it is.

Okay -- modern choreography, albeit more reputable in origin than some. 
The introductory paragraph:

"This dance is a re-creation of a "choral", or round dance using dance 
steps of the period of the music, "Dit de Bourgignon", as choreographed 
by Dr. Ingrid Brainard."

So it's more or less in the same genre as Quen Quer Que -- a reasonably 
well-informed guess at what a chorale might look like.

Note that Ingrid was *very* strict in her later days that SCA accounts 
should be listed as "based on the work of Dr. Ingrid Brainard" -- I get 
the impression that she'd been feeling a bit burned by SCA 
mistransmissions of her work in the past, and didn't want to be blamed 
for our mistakes any more. So it probably shouldn't be taken for granted 
that it's a faithful communication of her choregraphy...

				-- Justin