[SCA-Dance] English dance before Playford?

[Aaron Macks]

I don't have the book handy, but in Cunningham's  _Dancing in the Inns
of Court_, it talks about the "Old Measures" (what we think of) and
then, once those were complete, the "New Measures", including country
dances and Gaillardes (at least).  I'll double check the scans when I
get home

GunDormr

On 1/23/12 11:43 AM, Tim McDaniel wrote:
> I want to find out if I understand correctly what we know of English
> dance before Playford.  Would someone please check my understanding?
> 
> There are references to dances being done: an ambassador saw Queen
> Elizabeth dancing the Spanish Panic, and I read a reference to a
> payment to the three people dancing Trenchmore before the Queen, and
> doubless many others.
> 
> Italian dances made it to England.  The Gresley intro (q.v.) mentions
> "A collection of Basse Danses in the Salisbury manuscript date from
> the 1400s, and was published by Robert Copelaunde in the 1500s. While
> the Basse Dances are considered French, it is believed they had been
> performed in England ..."  How about bransles?
> 
> The Pattricke|Lovelace Manuscript.  It's not clear about the date, but
> it's apparently not from before 1649, two years before Playford.
> 
> The Old Measures|Inns of Court dances are in multiple manuscripts and
> I think are pretty clear, but that's 8 dances.
> 
> Gresley is circa 1500, and has "choreography for 26 dances and the
> music for 13, with an overlap of 8 dances having both music and
> choreography" <http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/lod/vol5/gresley.html>.
> But it's just one man's memory aid: it doesn't explain the steps, and
> only some can have inferences drawn from steps with similar names in
> other dances.
> 
> Danihel Lindicolinum

-- 
_______________________________________________________
Aaron Macks(aaronm at wiglaf.org) [http://www.wiglaf.org/~aaronm ]
My sheep has seven gall bladders, that makes me the King of the Universe!