Adrian's Ball

What are historical dances?

Historical dances are dances that have been danced in the past, which for a period of time were not danced, and have since been rediscovered. They have then had to be "recreated", reconstructed, based on the literary sources of their era.*

In terms of years, these dances range approximately from 1450 to 1800. The period is usually divided into two sections: "Renaissance dances 1450-1650" and "Baroque dances 1680-1800". The two have a great deal in common, but in the third quarter of the 17th century there were some clear changes in dance style and practice.

In addition to these, there is the era 1970-2019, when new "deliberately historical" dances have also been written. Most or sometimes all of the features of these dances clearly represent the genre of historical dances, but their music, for example, can be anything from real historical songs to techno and heavy metal.

*We use this "rediscovery-based" definition of historical dance. There are other definitions as well, mostly based on age.

WHO USED TO DANCE SUCH DANCES AND WHERE?

When talking about historical dances, the word refers almost solely to dances of the nobility and upper classes (i.e. courtly dances). Of course, the "common folk" had its own dances, but there is very little information about what they might have been up until the 19th century.

Most historical dances are referred to as "Italian", "English", etc. However, these dances were part of the pan-European court culture in the sense that most dances, or at least the dance styles, were known in most European courts. Queen Elizabeth I of England, for example, is known to have enjoyed dancing, skilfully no less, Italian dances of her era. The so-called "nationalities" of dances primarily refer to the country or language of the source they are now known from.

Pietro Longhi: Ballando Lesson, 1741 (detail)

Music and choreography

Historical dances are fundamentally different from modern dances in that a piece of music is practically always matched by a specific choreography, and vice versa. So, for example, musicians do not play a waltz, where the dancers can take any waltz steps they want, but instead they play a specific dance tune that always has exactly the same steps and figures done to it. This has enabled the dances to remain largely unchanged for hundreds of years, over thousands of kilometers. An English dance may have been danced rather "intact" 100 years later in France, or four hundred years later in Finland.

Partners and dance formations

Historically, dancers always arrive on the dance floor and form formations in pairs, unless explicitly stated otherwise in the instructions for a particular dance, and the couple is always composed of a man and a woman.

On the other hand, even though the couple on the dance floor is always assumed to be male & female, it is not uncommon in historical dances that some figures are written so that men do things with each other, and women with each other.

Your own dancing partner hardly ever changes in historical dances. The dance ends with, and next to, the person with whom it started. Nevertheless, some choreographies call for a lot of dancing with other dancers within the formations.

Both men and women could ask each other to dance. In the era of historical dancing, the gender of the person inviting the other to dance typically did not matter, as long as a man asked a woman and a woman asked a man. There were other strict rules and practices concerning who could dance with whom - these were determined primarily by the mutual status of the dancers and other relevant social contexts.

The formation is ready, who leads?

In historical dance, there is no leader or follower in the present-day sense. The choreographies are pre-written and bound to music, and the dancers, at least in theory, know them in advance. In most cases, men and women have the same steps, starting with the same foot, and at the same time.

HOW DO WE KNOW HOW THEY USED TO DANCE?

There are essentially two types of source material for historical dances: dance manuals written for teaching purposes and people’s personal notes on dances. They explain the choreographies with varying degrees of accuracy. The manuals are, obviously, more accurate, but even they are not shining examples of clarity, especially for us nowadays. However, similar steps, figures and sections have been used in different dances, so exploring multiple sources can help you better understand what patterns and steps each text has attempted to describe, and ultimately end up with a functional and danceable reconstruction.

In the Renaissance sources, floor patterns are always described verbally only. At the mid-17th century "break point", the idea of presenting a choreography as a graphical diagram was invented. Consequently, the sources of Baroque dance are, as a rule, graphic illustrations. These are often more accurate and less ambiguous, but for the uninitiated, also more laborious to interpret and understand.

HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT SONG TO DANCE TO?

In addition to the choreography descriptions, the preserved dance manuals always include at least the melody of the song to which the choreography is written. As for people’s personal notes, they occassionally include some musical notes or mention by name the song used. If neither musical notes nor the name of the song are mentioned, we can still use the name of the choreography to do some detective work: Since choreographies are usually named directly after the song (or vice versa), useful music can sometimes be found by searching for songs of the same name in published music books and the like.

Jan Steen: Dancing Couple, 1663 (detail)

Historical dance