DOCUMENTING TO PERIOD ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCE THROUGH THE BACK DOOR

By Isaac de Hugo (MKA/Andrew Vorder Bruegge)

Scholars have found a number of tantalizing shards of primary source evidence that allow us to document the existence of English country dance (ECD) for more than 100 years prior to the publication of Playford's The English Dancing Master in 1651. Moreover, just because we cannot positively date the tunes and dance titles any earlier in print, we can reasonably assume that they existed in the fabric of society even earlier. We cannot know, though, if the tunes and titles found in the various sixteenth century sources are the same ones that Playford published in the mid-seventeenth century. Without concrete facts, the Brainerdesque skeptics in the crowd will not allow us to assume that any of them were the same. Let us infer that skeptical line of reasoning from well-documented contemporary trends. During that same period, dramatic literature-another form of popular entertainment for the same middle-class audience—existed in a constant state of flux. Dramatists revised their plays. Producers hired script doctors to revise older plays. Star actors cut and pasted scripts to suit their own talents. The scripts changed for a variety of reasons: in order to appeal to new audiences, to replace old jokes, or to conform to the politics, religion and tastes of the royal court. We can easily imagine that social dance of the period felt similar pressures. Furthermore, consider the contamination that Cecil Sharpe imposed early in the twentieth century on the scholarship of country dance and song literature. Scholars are still correcting his errors, misjudgments, "improvements," and outright biases. His interpretation of "siding," for example, represents one of his more egregious errors. In period, musicians and printers—and even Playford himself—may have injected the same kinds of changes into the tunes and dances of their day. We in the SCA—with our own living, evolving tradition of dance—would be naive to assert that country songs and dances remained unchanged for the fifty to 100 years prior to Playford's publication.

In the face of so much skepticism, we can establish that in England prior to 1600 there existed a distinctive tradition of folk/popular music and social dance. It may have emerged alongside other folk dance forms such as Morris Dancing, maypole dances or stage jigs—a bottom-up development. It may have arisen as part of the "people's" never-ending desire to imitate the dances of court—a top-down development. Chart A summarizes some of the evidence scholars have discovered. This information at least establishes that clear antecedents to the seventeenth century ECD tradition existed.

With current scholarship, our ability to document any ECD completely within period remains beyond our reach. We can, nevertheless, find the various, separate elements of ECD--tunes, steps, movements, figures, and overall choreographic structure—embedded in dance forms that preceded it. We have dance manuals from fifteenth and sixteenth century Italy, France and England that we can use as period sources to document each component of ECD. If a gentle wished to create an ECD style of dance as if to enter it in the "original choreography" category of the Kingdom Arts and Science Faire, she or he could document every individual element of it and almost every aspect of its overall shape. Consider Chart B, showing ECD steps, movements and

figures on the left side and the fifteenth and/or sixteenth century documentation sources for them on the right.

Dancers who create their own BCD "original choreography "--or even those who love to dance the out-of-period ECD’s just because they are "so much fun"-can take a few easy steps (pun intended) to give their moves a period flavor. Just substitute some of the documentably period steps/moves on the right-hand side of the above chart for the ECD steps/moves on the left-hand side of the chart. Consider as an example, the old SCA favorite, "Jenny Pluck Pears" transformed into the sixteenth century Italian type court ballo, "Gianetta Plumi Poiri."

VERSE ONE

Four reprisa around to the left.

Trabuchetto left and right, then turn single over the left shoulder with anordinario

Repeat all that back to the right.

CHORUS

One at a time, Each lady steps into the center of the set and faces her partner

All reverenza to your partner

The gentlemen spezzati around the outside of the circle, then spezzati back to places

One at a time, each lady steps out beside her partner in the outer circle

All reverenza to your partner

VERSE TWO

Partners take one ordinario forward so that right shoulders are touching.

Return to place with one ordinario

Trabuchetto left and right, then turn single over the left shoulder with an ordinario

Repeat with the left shoulder, etc.

And so forth. If dancers wish to make the above dance even more periodesque, they could replace the undocumentable-to-period tune to "Jenny Pluck Pears" with a period tune. For example, the music to Caroso's dance "Chiaranzana" would work perfectly, because it contains twelve-beat phrases.

Within our organization, we encourage gentles to advance steadily forward on the path to authentic recreation of the past. The above research, commentary and list of specific suggestions can help any true pilgrim who aspires to live the Dream.

CHART A

ECD title	Earliest Known Version of Tune Dance before 1600	Earliest Known Version of Title
Hey de Gie	1588	1529
Trenchmore	16^th century	1551
Hearstsease	---	1560
Sellenger’s Round	16^th century	1593
Half Hannikin	1537	1596
Up Tails All	1599	---
Millfield	1581	---
Fain I Would	1566	1577
Goddesses	16^th century	---
Woodycock	16^th century	---
All in a Garden Green	1565
Cuckold all a Row	---	16^th century

Chart B

ECD Pattern	Period Instances of that Pattern
Hay in Three	Caroso’s “Allegrzza d’Amore”, Bella G’oso” or “Leggiardria d’Amore; Negri’s “La Fedeltà Amore”
Hay in Four	Many Negri balli like “Bizzarria d’Amore”, “Bianco Fiore”, “Biscia Amorosa”, and “Il Pastor Leggadro”
Acknowledging (Quick Bow)	The reverenza minima in Negri’s or Caroso’s manual, and as seen in dances such as Caroso’s “Chiaranzana” or “Este Gonzaga.”
Arming	Many Negri balli like “Bianco Fiora” and “Bizzarrio d’Amore”; Domenico’s “Marchesana” or Ebreo’s “Genevra”
Siding	Negri uses this move in “Bizzarria d’Amore”, and “Leggiadra Gioiosa” and in a galliard variation in “Bassa Gioiosa”; Caroso uses a variation of siding in “Bella G’osa”
Setting	Let us perceive a setting move (step left and right then turn single) as a punctuation at the end of a pattern, as in the case of “Sellenger’s Round” or “Black Nag”. We see in many of Negri’s Balli counterturns, combinations of trabuchetti and candenza, and combinations of turns single with ordinarii. Or we could substitude the single spezzato and reverenza minima combination to the left and then to the right as seen in Caroso’s “Este Gonzaga.”
Circling	The last verse of many balli and cascarda like “Bella G’osa”, “Allegrezza d’Amore”, “Lo Spangnoletto” and “Leggiardria d’Amore” move the dancers around the circumference of the set (and usually back to place).
Arches	Caroso’a “Chiaranzana” uses this move.
Casting	Negri uses ths attern in the variations of his “Canary.” Also, “Queen’s Almain” (from the Inns of Court Manuscript) uses this move.
Partner/Corner	In most two-couple balli this pattern occurs – dancers complete a pattern with their partners. Patter then they do the same with their corners.
Verse/Chorus	Most Negri and Caroso balli and cascarda follow the Pattern structure.
Bow	The bow existed as a reverenza in earlier centuries.
Slide Step	The reprisa sotto pied or continenza each could serve as a step to move dancers sideways. More complicated sideways steps include: “Sapphic step”, the Corinthian step”, and even an ordinario done “flanking.” These latter steps all are compound steps, that is, they combine two or more very simple steps into a specific, repeatable sequence.
Double Step	The sequito ordinario in either Caroso’s or Negri’s manuals resemble the ECD double step. They combine a series of single steps (walking) with some sort of flourish at the conclusion of the step. Also, they consume the same amount of musical time as an ECD double step.
Fall Back a Double	In many Negri balli (such as “Bizzarria d’Amore”) dancers back (and return to place) away from the center of the set, using two spezzati. They then return to place using a seguito ordinario forward.
Forward and Back	Most every Inns of Court Manuscript pavans and almains begin a Double with this pattern. Many of the dances in the Gresley Manuscript like “Princitore” or “Lubens Discuneus” use this pattern.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arbeau, Thoinot. Orchesography, trans. by Mary S. Evans, ed. by Julia Sutton. New York: Dover, 1967.

Bianchi, Dante. "Un Trattato Inedito di Domenico da Piacenza." La Bibliofilia 65(1963): 109-49.

Caroso, Fabritio. Nobilita di dame, trans. and ed. by Julia Sutton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.

Cunningham, James P. Dancing in the Inns of Court. London: Jordan and Sons, 1965.

Ebreo, Guglielmo. On the Practice or Art of Dancing, trans. by Barbara Sparti. London: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Fallows, David. "The Gresley Dance Collection, c. 1500," RMA Research Chronicle XXIX(1996): 1-20.

Negri, Cesare. Le Gratie d'Amore, trans. by Gustavia Y. Kendall. Ph.D. Dissertation: Stanford University, 1985.

Playford, John. The English Dancing Master, ed. by Hugh Mellor and Leslie Bridgewater. London: Dance Books, Ltd., 1984.

Thomas, Bernard and Gingell, Jane. The Renaissance Dance Book. London: London Pro Musica, 1987.

Van Winkle Keller, Kate and Shimer, Genevieve. The Playford Ball, 2nd ed. Northampton, MA: Country Song and Dance Society, 1994.