Medieval Dance

Medieval Dance Percussion

Types of Dances

Overview of Dance

A Simple Dance To Do

Easy Steps

Medieval Dance Percussion

-bells
-jingles
-long drums
-nakers
-side drums
-tabors
-tambourines
-timpani/kettle drum

Types of Dances

Overview of Dance

Discouraged by church, because they considered moving the body to be one of the seven deadly sins: pride.
Done at parties only.
Some Christians tolerated and participated in it.
Done in groups With drums and occasionally lute in the backround.
Eventually the Church accepted it and used it in their sermons.
There are no dance manuals from this period. Some dance music survives, but the performance of the dances has to be guessed at, using information gleaned from references to dancing, pictures, and knowledge of later dances. Because of this, the dances taught from this period are extremely speculative. Dances mentioned in this period include ductia and carole, estampie, trotto, and saltarello.
Pictures indicate that some dancing was done by couples in a processional formation, others were done by a long line of dancers holding hands in a line, and some seem to have been done by couples moving freely around the floor and to have included spins and jumps.

A simple Dance You Can Try

Setting: Circle of couples.

Double left, double right
Double left, double right
Left, right, left into center, with hands raised, clap 3 times
Left, right, left out to place, clap 3 times

The dance speeds up as time goes on. Sometimes 3 kicks instead of the second 3 claps. SCA folklore will tell you that this dance was done after the Crusades in imitation of what the Crusaders saw in the Middle East.

Easy Steps

Here's how the steps are done by the modern Era:

A single takes 2 beats, and is one step forward and a second step to bring the feet together. A double is three steps forward and a fourth step to bring the feet together.

A slipping circle, which is not mentioned in Playford but is sometimes used in modern English Country Dancing (e.g. in Sellenger's Round), is done in a circle with the dancers all facing inwards and holding hands: the dancers step sideways to the left or the right without turning their hips. Playford generally specifies doubles where modern ECD uses slipping circles.

A sashay involves a couple facing each other holding both hands, and moving sideways with a step identical to that used in a slipping circle. Playford calls this slipping (e.g. Picking Up Sticks). This step is also called "slipping'' in the Inns of Court manuscripts.

When arming, the dancing couple grips each other's elbows with one hand, and uses two doubles to walk in a circle. Arming always appears in pairs in Playford; we adopt the convention of calling for arming left and then right, but Playford never specifies a direction.

When siding, the dancing couple advances with a double until they are next to each other with their shoulders parallel, and then use a double to return to place. There is a variant called Sharp Siding which is not commonly seen today (even at Cecil Sharp House in London); this is discussed in The Playford Ball.

The set and turn single step involves a single to one side, a single to return to place, and then a turn in place using a double. As usual, Playford gives no directional hints. The modern ECD community always starts right. I've seen it taught in the SCA always starting left, and I've also seen it taught starting left the first time and starting right the second time, when they appear in pairs.

Medieval Dance Instruction Video: to learn the Pavane, go here.

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