Annotated Bibliography of Renaissance Dance - Shadow Island ...

Annotated Bibliography of Renaissance Dance 5Matt Larsen: This manual, in the Evans translation edited by Sutton, isthe best known original source within the SCA, because of its wideavailability. It contains a wide variety of dances, many fairly simple indescription and therefore easy to reconstruct. As with most manuals of thetime, the more complicated instructions are open to multipleinterpretations, and are often very confusing. Attempts to reconstructthese dances are best done with reference to the original French, sincethere are many nuances lost in translation. This is a work worthy of beingre-examined from time to time, as one will often rediscover some detailwhich had been forgotten. Persons interested in learning aboutreconstructions may want to start with this work, since it offers theopportunity to examine descriptions of dances which one already knows,and see how other people have reconstructed dances.Arbeau, ThoinotArbeau, Thoinot, and Evans, Mary Stewart. Orchesography. Kamin DancePub., 1948.Reprint of Orchesographie, 1589.See entry of original for comments.Arbeau, ThoinotArbeau, Thoinot, and Beaumont, Cyril W. Orchesography. New York:Dance Horizons, 1925.Reprint of Orchesographie, 1589.See entry of original for comments.Arena, Antonius de Arena, Antonius de. Ad Suos Compagniones Studiantes. Avignon: c. 1520.Nathan Kronenfeld: According to Pierre Chartrand, this is currentlyavailable and in print as "A ses compagnons etudiant"... Antonius Arena,ed. L'Atelier de danse populaire, 4 rue Laterale, 94000 Creteil, France(ISBN: 2-907567-02-0)Matt Larsen: This is a treatise on the basse dance and dance etiquette,written in Latin. It was apparently intended for law students at theUniversity of Avignon, who were familiar with some dances but not bassedances. Included are 19 basse dances, but no music. A large part of thetext is devoted to telling "middle class" law students what was and was notproper on the dance floor. The instructions which are given for steps areminimal and, as usual, far from clear. They are also difficult to resolvewith instructions from other manuals and therefore pose an interestingproblem to dance historians. It has been noted that the choreographieswhich Arbeau gives for bassedances are included in Arena, which has leadto speculation that Arbeau may have used Arena as a source for a dancewhich he himself was not completely familiar with. He would certainlyhave had access to Arena, since it was reprinted in many editions over aspan of more than two centuries, with the last reprint being about 1758.