NOW FOOT IT! Renaissance Dance E-Book

NOW FOOT IT!

Preface

Welcome to Now Foot It!

Dancing was an essential part of life in pre-television times, considered to be an essential part of the education of every well-bred young man. Folk in cities, towns and the country danced at weddings, Maydays and other festivities. Queen Elizabeth I wrote that she danced seven galliards in the morning to keep fit, and dancing was central to the extravagant masques which so delighted King James. Puritans furiously denounced dancing, but it was part of the ceremonial of the Inns of Court and a necessary accomplishment for a gentleman. And Shakespeare used it to express one of his major themes: the attempt to achieve order in a discordant world.

At that time, there was no distinction between ballroom and theatrical dancing, and exceptional dancers were admired for the variety of their steps as well as their agility in dancing them. It was not until after the Renaissance period that the best amateur dancers gave way to the professional dancer.

I believe that people will always dance because it satisfies something human in us. I wrote this book so that young people would have a resource for understanding the pre-classic dances in a more immediate way. It is certainly possible to translate the texts and reconstruct the dances yourself, but that requires much time, energy and commitment to scholarship; more than one desires for an introduction to a subject. This e-book will introduce you to some of the dances and music of the Renaissance and allow you to learn and teach the dances. It includes notations of the dances in both text, and in rhythmic notation, printable sheet music, audio files of the music played on authentic instruments by Musica Antiqua, and video that will show the dance vocabulary as well as the dances. You can read the book page by page, or just look at the dances or listen to the music. There are many hyperlinks to materials available through the Internet. Now Foot It! will be maintained on a website and buyers will be able to update to the latest version.

John Playford writes: "The Art of Dancing, called by the Ancient Greeks Orchestice, and Orchestis, is a commendable and rare Quality fit for yong Gentlemen, if opportunely and civilly used. And Plato, that Famous Philosopher thought it meet, that yong Ingenious Children be taught to Dance. It is a Quality that has been formerly honoured in the Courts of Princes, when performed by the most Noble Heroes of the Times! The Gentlemen of the Innes of Court, whose sweet and ayry Activity has crowned their Grand Solemnities with admiration to all Spectators. This Art has been anciently handled by Athenæus, Julius Pollux, Cælius Rhodiginus, and others, and much commend it to be Excellent for Recreation, after more serious Studies, making the body active and strong, gracefull in deportment, and a quality very much beseeming a Gentleman."

Check the Teacher's Resource page to become familiar with the marvelous online resource, An American Ballroom Companion, supported by the Library of Congress. It includes links and questions to ask your students.

And there is more to it than this, for dancing is practised to reveal whether lovers are in good health and sound of limb, after which they are permitted to kiss their mistresses in order that they may touch and savour one another, thus to ascertain if they are shapely or emit an unpleasant odour as of bad meat. Therefore, from this standpoint, quite apart from the many other advantages to be derived from dancing, it becomes an essential in a well ordered society.
Thoinot Arbeau, Orchesography (1589), trans. Mary Stewart Evans