[SCA-Dance] Arbeau's pavane?

[Alexander Clark]

On 3/24/11, Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com> wrote:
> While looking for something, I ran across
> <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/dihowto.html>, which is, of all
> things, "How to Read a Dance Manual".  It's an introduction to a scan
> of Arbeau's Orch{e'}sographie.  I was astonished that the Library of
> Congress would put up the article, and charmed at the lovely bits from
> Arbeau on the pavane.
>
> I don't have Orchesography.  Should I gather from the Web page, and
> from a few other tidbits on the Web, that Arbeau's pavane was just
> improvised strolling around the floor with single-single-double. with
> conversions occasionally thrown in when approaching a wall or
> whatever?

That's about it. And I don't get the impression from Arbeau that there
was much improvisation involved. As I see it, the most important part
of doing his pavane well (and why it's not one of my better dances) is
wearing an impressive period costume.

-- 
Henry/Alex