THE CELEBRATED SOCIAL DANCES OF THE PAST
The _Pavane_ and the _Courante_; the _Allemande_ and the
_Sarabande_; the _Minuet_ and the _Gavotte_; the _Rigaudon_ and
other dances.
Since we have devoted a chapter to the folk-dances, it will be fitting
to describe a few of the most noted dances of the nobility in order
to complete our comparative treatment of such a vast subject, so
little systematized and so much ignored. While the general tone of
all the folk-dances is masculine, that of all the social dances seems
predominantly effeminate, rather soft and delicate. Their exceedingly
graceful plastic lines, shaded movements, soft forms and subtilized
gestures speak of gilded ball-rooms, silk and perfume, affected manners
and the artificial air of a Rococo style. It seems as if a woman’s mind
had worked out their embroidered figures and timid steps. They belonged
to no particular nation, but to the rich class of all the world. The
same _Allemande_ that was danced by the French nobility was copied at
the castles of the German barons, English lords, Italian and Russian
counts.
The oldest and most ceremonial of the Middle Ages’ social dances was
the _Pavane_, the celebrated peacock dance, in which kings and princes,
lords and ladies took part, the men wearing gorgeous uniforms, the
ladies flowery trains. It was distinguished by rhythmic grace, and
by slow and stately measure. The dancers attempted to enshroud their
very souls in majestic dignity, gracefully rounding their arms, while
crossing and recrossing, keeping their heads away from each other. One
big step and two small ones accompanied one bar of the music, which was
sung by a chorus of hidden singers. Beginning side by side, hand in
hand, with a curtsey and bow, the couple started with a _pas marché_
down the floor, making four steps, the cavalier taking the lady’s left
hand. After making a turn with four steps, they danced backward with
four steps. He took her right hand and turned with four steps. Thus
it went on in four different movements. The _Pavane_ was a dance for
cortèges and processions, and the lady’s trains were spread out like
the tail of a peacock.
The next most conspicuous nobility dance was the _Courante_, which
was practised for nearly three centuries at the European castles and
courts. It was a great favorite of Louis XIV, and no one else danced
it so well as he. It was danced at the court of Charles II and Queen
Elizabeth was fond of it. The ladies danced it in short soft velvet
skirt; bodice with basques and lace berthes. It had three movements
and started usually with a deep curtsey, a springing step forward and
back, both arms raised and each dancer turning outward. These movements
occupied four double bars of the music. Handel and Bach wrote many
_Courantes_, but they were too elaborate and quick, therefore they were
used only by professional dancers.
Bach and Handel have also written numerous _Chaconnes_, which were
dances in slow triple time, of a stately character, light and graceful.
In the _Chaconne_ two or three people could participate. This dance was
said to be of Spanish origin, though the Italians claim that one of
their blind musicians composed it in the sixteenth century. Cervantes
writes in ‘Don Quixote’ that it was a mulatto dance for negroes and
negresses, imported by the French. It is composed of a springing and
walking step on the toes, at the end of which the heels must be so
placed that the body is firm. The rhythm is slow and well marked. The
dance has seven different movements. The fourth and sixth movements are
in Mazurka steps, the fifth in skating steps and the last in bourrée
step. In the third movement the lady turns under her partner’s arm.
A celebrated dance of more than four centuries was the _Allemande_, in
which the head and arm movements played the foremost rôle. It had five
movements, danced by any number of couples, placing themselves behind
each other. The _Allemande_ step is three _pas marchés_ and the front
foot raised. The lady stands in front of the gentleman and he holds her
left hand with his left and her right with his right hand. For four
bars they go forward and pose, repeat this four times and turn. The
second movement has four steps around, after which the gentleman turns
the lady with arms over head, and the lady turns the gentleman. The
third movement is a polka step backward and forward and turned. In the
fourth the lady takes four steps in front of the gentleman and turns.
In the last they take four steps across the room, turn and pose; two
steps back and pose, and repeat.
A dance of pretty music and more original design was the _Sarabande_
of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which was danced as a solo
by a man or a woman, although later it was danced by couples. It had a
slow and stately step and consisted of four different figures. In the
first figure the dancer raised the right foot and took a step forward,
turned to the right and posed, and repeated to the left and the right.
The second figure was a _pas bourrée_ to the left and the right, with
some turning in between. The third figure consisted of an accentuated
hip movement, _coupé_, a pose with head movement, and a repetition to
the opposite direction. The last figure consisted of springing on the
left foot, stretching the right leg to the back, and bowing. This was
carried on in several repetitions. The most effective _Sarabande_ music
was composed by Lully. For this the ladies wore a picturesque dress of
cloth of gold, the sleeves and tunic in the form of gigantic oak leaves
of red and gold, tipped with sequins; red shoes and stockings.
Probably the most celebrated and widespread of old social dances was
the _Minuet_, which demanded much repose and dignity on the part of
the dancers. It was performed by men and women, but was given also by
ladies only. It began with a deep reverence on the part of the lady
and a bow on the part of the man, the dancers turning towards each
other at right angles to the audience, the lady with her left hand
holding her dress, the elbow prettily rounded. They advanced, the lady
turning around and assuming the position in which they started. This
was repeated, and the dance ended with a bow and a curtsey. Then the
lady held her dress in both hands, her head being turned over her right
shoulder, while her partner’s head was turned to the left. A favorite
step was that of lifting the foot high, rising on the toes, and then
taking three little steps on tip-toes to the next bar. The _Minuet_
requires much grace and deliberation, with every movement thought out
and studied. The main rule is that in passing each other the partners
should make a deep curtsey and bow. The fingers of the hand should be
moderately open, the arms curved and graceful. The women often carried
a feather fan. Louis XV was a virtuoso in the _Minuet_. The English
kings used to take lessons in the dance. It is the one dance that
England has looked on kindly. It created a perfect sensation in France
and was in vogue until the Revolution swept it away. Many celebrated
composers have written fine _Minuet_ music, Lully’s being probably the
best. It had nine different movements. The ladies wore for the minuet
a satin petticoat, bordered with a deep flounce. The bodice had a
pleating round _à la veille_, which was carried down to the open front
of the skirt, on either side of the bodice, and round the back, which
left a plain pointed front with a rosette in the centre of the neck.
The sleeves were elbow length, the hair powdered and worn very high, a
ribbon tied across the back from which rose three large bows of white
plumes, the shoes pointed.
A dance as distinguished as the minuet was the _Gavotte_, performed
by couples in joyous, sparkling little steps. Its foundation was
three steps and an _assemblé_ in quadruple time, commencing on the
fourth beat of the bar. It starts in a line or a circle, one couple
separating themselves from the rest. It has six figures. The first
figure consists of four gavottes forward, four gavottes round, four
back, four around again, the dancers hand in hand, the figures always
accompanied by graceful head movements, the partners turning towards
each other or apart. The following three movements are nearly the same,
with slight variations. The fifth consists of four skating steps and
gavotting around the partner. The sixth figure consists of gavotting
forward three times, pirouetting back, raising the foot up to the heel,
and advancing four times. In the _Gavotte_ the partners generally
kissed each other, as they did in so many other dances. In later days
the cavalier presented a flower in the course of the figure instead.
The _Gavotte_ was a favorite dance of Louis XV, Marie Antoinette and
Napoleon. Lully, Gluck and Grétry composed pretty gavottes, and it was
frequently performed on the stage by Gardel and Vestris.
The _Rigaudon_, which enjoyed a great popularity at all the European
castles and courts till the French Revolution, was rather intricate. In
it each figure occupied eight bars and both dancers started together
without taking hands. The dance consisted of seven figures, the first
being a sliding step and four running steps, turning, posing and
repeating with the opposite foot. The second consisted of turning to
left and right alternately four times, and sliding backwards. The third
figure was danced diagonally to the right with running steps, turning,
posing and repeating. The fourth figure was a graceful hopping and
turning, repeating, running diagonally to the right and turning with
the arms out straight. The fifth was in two half turns, one turn and
repetition. The sixth was three steps left with arms over the head,
hopping around, turning to left and right, posing with right hand down
and the left hand above the head. The seventh consisted of balancing
four times on the left foot and four times on the right and posing.
Like the music of so many other old social dances, that of the Rigaudon
was of extremely gracious cadences, with sentimental pathos and sweet,
gay melodic turns. Music combined with dancing carried gladness and joy
into the soft-shaded ball-rooms, bringing smiles and laughter to the
lips of the picturesque gatherings.
Somewhat resembling the Minuet, but with quicker steps, was the
celebrated French _Passepied_, with which most of the balls began,
all the guests dancing around hand in hand. It originated many other
old-time social dances with song. It opened with the dancers joining
hands and facing each other, then setting to each other with the
_pas de Basque_, bringing the first left shoulder forward and then
the right, and changing their places with a waltz step. The partners
cross hands, placing the arms round each other’s neck and making the
pirouette with eight pony steps, pawing the ground and then turning.
The dance consists of ten figures, each of which demands some dramatic
talent.
Other celebrated old dances were the _Galliard_, consisting of five
figures, that require some pirouettes, _pas de bourrées_, _coupés_,
_dessous_ and springing. Similar to this was the _Tourdion_, which
was more of a _glissade_ movement. The _Canaries_ was a queer old
dance, very popular in England and Germany. It had seven figures and
started with a _pas jeté_, by throwing the right foot over the left,
and the left over the right. In the last movement the partners held
hands vis-à-vis, turning each other without separating hands, posing
vis-à-vis one bar and repeating four bars. History tells us how in
former times queens and princesses often fell in love with graceful
male dancers as did their husbands with the pretty women dancers. Queen
Elizabeth fell in love with young Hatton, an insignificant London
lawyer, whom she first met at a ball dancing the _Galliard_. Sir Perro
used to say that Hatton danced into the court by the _Galliard_. It is
said that the favors which the virgin monarch extended to the young
lawyer excited the jealousy of the whole court, especially that of the
Earl of Leicester, who, thinking to depreciate the accomplishment of
his rival, offered to introduce to Her Majesty a professional dancer
whose performances were considered far more wonderful than those of
Hatton. To this the royal lady exclaimed: ‘Pish! I will not see your
man; it is his trade!’
A languishing eye and a smiling mouth were considered indispensable
accessories to a fashionable society dance. Like the prevailing style
of dress and manners, the dances were too delicate and artificial to
last. The high-heeled shoes, the elaborately piled-up structures of
powdered hair and ornament, and the dresses with long trains were by no
means favorable to virility and sincerity. Like all effeminate art, the
nobility dances of the past lacked spontaneity and inspiration.
[Illustration: The Ball
_After a painting by Auguste de Saint-Aubin_]