Dancing through the Ages Book 1: Orientation and Overview
Dancing through the Ages (October 2020) is a massive work consisting of 31 books. Each book consists of between 300 and 460 (average 350) double-sided A4 pages. The 10,800 pages of the work offer background on, reconstruction of, and chorded music for nearly 1,000 dances from between from 1400 to 1900, as well as extensive notes analysing links between these dances, the evolution of dance forms, movement ideas and notation systems through this 500 period, and the changing nature of ball culture and dance sources in countries across the old and new word. The whole is supported by thousands of quotations, diagrams and illustrations from original sources.
Here below is the front cover and contents to the first of the 31 books in the series—Book 1: Orientation and Overview. It is recommended that no matter what other books in the series you purchase, you also make sure you get this book. It includes full acknowledgments, a consolidated contents, a bibliography of secondary scholarship, a history of dance leading up to 1400, and sections on the purpose of dance and scope of this work, on story-lines and ideas that have persisted through 500 years of dance, and on continuities and changes in the nature of balls and dance forms. By way of stimulating analysis and many comparative tables, it offers evolutionary context for the thousand dances considered in the other 30 books in this series.
For the covers and contents of the next 30 volumes see the subpages that follow under this menu.
To order this, any or all of the books in this 31-book series go to LULU. The cost per book will be AUD$36 (about USD$27) - plus postage, which will diminish with the more books in your order. As your books will be sent from the nearest Lulu printer on your continent, you will not be paying for overseas shipping and will not be waiting long for the books to arrive. Orders are normally filled at local postage rates within a week.
When on the LULU Spotlight page, in order to view the books in the order in which they appear in the series select 'Sort by Publication Date Ascending'.
PART A: Introduction to the series 10
Plea and acknowledgements ~ 11
Plea ~ 11
Acknowledgements ~ 12
Notes on need ~ 14
The need to compensate for relative neglect ~ 14
The need to bridge the scholarly/practical divide ~ 15
The need to better understand and preserve our dance heritage ~ 15
The need to better value source material ~ 16
The need to better involve young people ~ 17
Approaches and limitations ~ 19
A ‘Natural History’ of dance ~ 19
Approach to the subject ~ 19
Approach to sources ~ 19
Approach to presentation ~ 20
Note on limitations ~ 20
Structure, formatting and language ~ 22
Structure ~ 22
Formating ~ 23
Transcriptions ~ 23
Translations ~ 24
Abbreviations ~ 24
Orientations ~ 25
On reconstructing dances ~ 27
Understanding our purpose ~ 27
Understanding the written and notated source ~ 29
Understanding the pictorial sources ~ 31
Understanding the music ~ 34
Understanding persistent dance traditions ~ 35
Understanding wider historic and artistic influences ~ 35
PART B: The path to the ballroom 37
Earliest Times ~ 39
Origins ~ 39
Egyptian dance ~ 40
Phoenician dance ~ 40
Minoan dance ~ 43
Mycenaean dance ~ 46
Classical Greek times ~ 49
Dance in Greek mythology and the development of Greek poetry ~ 49
Pythagorean concept of celestial harmony ~ 50
The dance according to Plato ~ 51
The dance according to Aristotle ~ 53
Ritual and ceremonial dance ~ 55
The dance of the maidens ~ 55
The maenads ~ 57
The Pyrrhic ~ 59
Theatrical dance—the high-brow Emmeleia, and low-brow Kordax and Sikinnis ~ 61
Private dance ~ 64
Competitive dance ~ 67
Processional dance and song dance ~ 68
Partnered dance ~ 69
The Hormos / Geranos dance ~ 71
Etruscan times ~ 77
Roman times ~ 81
A mixed heritage ~ 81
Combat-related dance— echoes of the Pyrrhic ~ 82
Ribald dance—echoes of the Sicinnis ~ 85
The Pantomime ~ 86
The remembering of Homer’s Hormos ~ 88
Dancing at private parties ~ 89
Plutarch’s Ammonius on dance theory ~ 91
Lucian’s Lykinos on dance history93
Plotinus on God and celestial dance ~ 96
Victorinus on Theseus imitating both the labyrinth and celestial dance ~ 99
Dance at the beginnings of Christianity ~ 100
The Dark Ages ~ 102
Dance under the early church ~ 102
The dance of northern Europe ~ 103
The dance of Carolingians ~ 105
Early Medieval times ~ 106
11th-12th centuries ~ 106
13th century ~ 107
Late Medieval times ~ 110
Changing words for dance ~ 110
The solo woman’s dance ~ 111
Women’s group dance ~ 112
Mixed group dancing ~ 113
Dance in Dante’s Divine comedy ~ 114
Dance in literary works such as those by Boccaccio and Chaucer ~ 116
Dance and Romance ~ 119
Dance in illustrations ~ 120
Dance as allegory ~ 125
Mummery ~ 126
Dance and music ~ 129
PART C: The persistence of forms 132
Persistence of imperatives ~ 134
1&2—The man having the woman on the right and sense of leading her ~ 134
3&4—Fitting the space and accommodating the numbers ~ 134
5&6—Courteous behaviour within politic parameters ~ 135
7&8—Enjoyment of the other and of the new ~ 136
9&10—Partnering and the enjoyment of life ~ 137
Change and continuity ~ 139
Ways dance forms change ~ 139
Dances not tabulated in the sections that follow ~ 141
1) The follow-the-leader or circle dance ~ 142
From carol to branle to gavotte and farandole ~ 142
Sections relevant to follow-the-leader / circle dances ~ 144
2) The processional couple’s (& trio) dance ~ 146
From basse dance to pavan to Almain, late courante and Polonaise ~ 146
Sections relevant to the processional dance ~ 149
3) The facing couple’s dance ~ 151
From balli and cascarde to minuet to cut-in jig ~ 151
Sections relevant to the facing couple’s (or trio) dance ~ 153
Galliard sequences in balli ~ 154
4) The playful dance ~ 159
From competition dances, early courante, relay mixer to cotillon dance games ~ 159
Sections relevant to the playful dances 160
The new cotillon ~ 162
Cotillon medley (1)—early 1820s ~ 163
Cotillon medley (2)—late 1820s-1840s ~ 164
Cotillon medley (3)—late 1840s ~ 165
Cotillon medley (4)—late 19th century ~ 166
5) The whole-set longways finishing dance ~ 168
The whole-set longways finishing dance ~ 168
Sections relevant to the whole-set longways finishing dance ~ 169
The whole-set longways finishing dance by ideas ~ 171
The whole-set longways finishing dance by Volume, entry and changes ~ 172
6) Progressive or fancy longways dance ~ 174
From country dance to contredanse Anglaise and Écossaise ~ 174
Sections relevant to the longways dance ~ 177
Corner stealing / La Triumph ~ 182
7) The square set dance ~ 183
Origins and early small squares ~ 183
From cotillon/contredanse française to potpourri, douze, quadrille and early cancan ~ 183
Sections relevant to the square set dance ~ 186
The Quadrille Français ~ 188
The Lancers ~ 189
Mazurka Quadrilles ~ 190
8) The turning dances 192
Origins ~ 192
The Allemande ~ 192
The waltz ~ 193
The mazurka ~ 193
The galop and polka ~ 194
The hybridising of couple’s dances ~ 195
Sections relevant to the turning couple’s dances ~ 196
Mazurka couples dance ~ 198
9) The hybrid sets ~ 200
Hybrids of longways dances with quadrilles and couples dances ~ 200
Sections relevant to post-1750 hybrid sets ~ 202
La Tempête / The Tempest ~ 203
The Waltz Country Dance and Spanish Waltz ~ 203
The Galopade Country Dance ~ 205
The persistence of ball format ~ 207
The persistence of dance order within balls ~ 207
Persistence of particular types of balls ~ 210
The most popular dances ~ 211
When might a dance be judged to have been popular ~ 211
Some early often-described country dances ~ 216
PART D: The persistence of ideas 222
Persistence of literary topoi ~ 224
Persistence of propensities ~ 228
Appreciating the curve and counter curve ~ 228
Providing an opportunity for one sex to regard the other ~ 229
Taking figures from one formation or ‘genre’ or rhythm to another ~ 229
Having some figures overlapped or ‘canonised’ ~ 229
Transforming the shape of the set ~ 230
Reusing patterns for larger formats ~ 230
Reusing patterns in different formats ~ 231
Reusing patterns in different formats ~ 231
Taking dances from one milieu into another ~ 232
Expecting improvisation ~ 232
Making long sequences ~ 233
Reusing common step patterns ~ 233
Persistence of devices ~ 235
Promenading up and back, or in an oval ~ 235
Codifying then repeating figures ~ 235
Taking turn leading a figure ~ 236
Making suites that progress from simple to more flashy figures, steps or holds ~ 236
Randomly changing partners or cutting-in ~ 237
Slipping away from a set ~ 237
‘Snowballing’ a two-person dance sequence ~ 237
Visiting ~ 237
Having a leader choose those to participate ~ 237
Following a graceful step-sparse group-oriented ‘low’ processional dance with an exuberant step-busy couples-oriented ‘high’ dance ~ 238
Taking a turn leading a dance ~ 238
Starting a multi-part couples dance side-by-side, with symmetrical figures move toward presence, separate, reunite and return to starting point ~ 238
Having the man go up toward the present, woman go down 238
Having the 1s start improper in a longways set ~ 239
Claps, stamps, jumps, kisses and gestures ~ 239
Persistence of figures ~ 241
Following the leader into and out of knots ~ 241
Having a follow-the-leader line bend back on itself ~ 241
‘Stripping’ a set or ‘bootlacing’ 241
Making a reverse ‘S’ ~ 241
Chasing the opposite sex ~ 242
Partner’s backing or chasing each other ~ 243
Chaining / weaving / ‘dip&diving’ down a longways set 243
Teasing the opposite gender ~ 243
Turning back on opposite gender then facing them again ~ 244
Stealing corners ~ 244
Taking another man’s partner and advancing 3-a-breast on the one left alone ~ 245
Miming a joust ~ 245
Weaving one line through another ~ 245
The cross-over hey and contra-corners ~ 246
Going from column or square to one horizontal or vertical line ~ 247
Competing men ending in exchanged places with woman in between ~ 247
Persistence of figure orders within dances ~ 248
Starting with introductions ~ 248
Promenading, then cross then set then cross back then set ~ 248
Promenading then gypsy, single hand turns and/or two hand turns ~ 249
Promenading then reverse S then left, right and two hand turn ~ 249
Set then turn single ~ 249
Set then turn by hand250
Feigning then the full ~ 251
Finishing with weavings or heys ~ 251
Finishing with most promiscuous all-involving and quickest mixing ~ 252
Persistence of musical ideas ~ 253
The persistence of tunes ~ 253
The persistence of scores ~ 255
The persistence of arrangements ~ 257
PART E: Storyline in dance 260
The appreciation of storylines in dance ~ 261
By dancing masters ~ 261
By non-dance writers ~ 262
By visual artists ~ 262
Ways in which a storyline is suggested ~ 264
By the combination of title and figures ~ 264
By figures and/or formation without the assistance of title ~ 266
By the order of figures within dance ~ 267
By the order of dances within suites or medleys ~ 269
By music ~ 270
The allusive storyline ~ 271
Storyline themes ~ 272
The factal nature of dance and the real business of a ball ~ 272
To find a wife ~ 273
To look after a wife ~ 273
To look after someone else’s wife ~ 274
Exceptions that tend to prove the rule ~ 274
Storyline through the century ~ 275
15th century ~ 275
16th century ~ 275
Late 17th and early 18th century ~ 275
Late 18th and early 19th century ~ 276
Mid and late 19th century ~ 276
The importance of understanding storyline ~ 277
Storyline and dance reconstruction ~ 277
Storyline and dance performance ~ 277
Storyline transformation and loss ~ 278
Beyond storyline ~ 278
PART F: The ball beyond 1900 280
New developments and continuing heritages ~ 282
New developments ~ 282
Publications facilitating continuity ~ 283
Nostalgia and the persistence of ball dances into the 20th century ~ 284
The continued interest in inventing dances in 19th century forms ~ 290
New dance genres facilitating continuity ~ 290
Le Bridge ~ 293
Lulu Fado ~ 308
PART G: Consolidated contents ~ 319
Volume I: 1400-1550 ~ 320
Volume II: 1550-1600 ~ 322
Volume III: 1600-1650 ~ 324
Volume IV: 1650-1700 ~ 326
Volume V: 1700-1750 ~ 328
Volume VI: 1750-1800 ~ 331
Volume VII: 1800-1825 ~ 334
Volume VIII: 1825-1850 ~ 337
Volume IX: 1850-1875 ~ 338
Volume X: 1875-1900 ~ 340
PART H: Series bibliography 343
Primary sources ~ 344
Table showing certain primary sources in context ~ 344
Post-1900 secondary sources ~ 349
Electronic resources ~ 349
Anonymous writer, editor or translator ~ 349
Pseudonym used by author ~ 350
Personal name of author, editor or translator ~ 351