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Historical dance (or early dance) in a collective term covering a wide variety of dance types from the past as they are danced in the present.

Dances from the early 20th century
20th century

The twentieth century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar. The century saw a remarkable shift in the way that vast numbers of people lived, as a result of technological, medical, social, ideological, and political innovation....
 can be recreated precisely, being within living memory and from the age of film and video recording.






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Gaskellball02282006
Historical dance (or early dance) in a collective term covering a wide variety of dance types from the past as they are danced in the present.

Dances from the early 20th century
20th century

The twentieth century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1901 and ended on December 31, 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar. The century saw a remarkable shift in the way that vast numbers of people lived, as a result of technological, medical, social, ideological, and political innovation....
 can be recreated precisely, being within living memory and from the age of film and video recording. However, earlier dance types must be reconstructed from evidence such as surviving notations and instruction manuals.

Historical dances may be danced as performance
Performance

A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which one group of people behave in a particular way for another group of people ....
, for pleasure at themed balls or dance clubs, as historical reenactment
Historical reenactment

Historical reenactment is a type of roleplay in which participants attempt to recreate some aspects of a historical event or period. This may be as narrow as a specific moment from a battle, such as the reenactment of Pickett's Charge at the Great Reunion of 1913, or as broad as an entire period....
, or for musicological
Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture....
 or historical research.

The article below mostly discusses Western European social dances. For performance dancing, see the History of dance
History of dance

File:Veiled dancer Louvre Myr660.jpgThis is Dance History.Dance does not often leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts that last over millennia, such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings....
 article.

Categories of Historical dance


Medieval dance
Medieval dance

Sources for an understanding of dance in Europe in the Middle Ages are limited and fragmentary, being composed of some depictions in paintings and illumination s, a few musical examples of what may be dances, and scattered allusions in literary texts....

Very little evidence survives about medieval
Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
 dance. However we do know the names of some of the dances from surviving music and literature.

Dance types:
  • Carole
    Carol (music)

    A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character....
  • Ductia
  • Estampie
    Estampie

    The medieval dance and Music genre called the estampie in French language, the estampida in Occitan, and istampitta in Italian language was a popular instrumental style of the 13th and 14th centuries....
     (Istampitta
    Estampie

    The medieval dance and Music genre called the estampie in French language, the estampida in Occitan, and istampitta in Italian language was a popular instrumental style of the 13th and 14th centuries....
    )
  • Saltarello
    Saltarello

    The saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known....
  • Trotto
  • ballroom(darice)


The farandole
Farandole

The farandole is an open-chain community dance popular in the County of Nice, France. The farandole bears similarities to the gavotte, jig, and tarantella....
 is also frequently presented as a medieval dance, based on surviving iconography.

Renaissance dance
Renaissance dance

Renaissance dances belong to the broad group of historical dances.The dances in these manuals are extremely varied in nature. They range from slow, stately dances to fast, lively dances ....

The earliest surviving dance manuals come from the Renaissance
Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
, including examples by Fabritio Caroso
Fabritio Caroso

Fabritio Caroso da Sermoneta was an Italian Renaissance dance choreographer.His dance manual Il Ballarino was published in 1581, with a subsequent edition, significantly different, Nobilt? di Dame, printed in 1600 and again after his death in 1630....
 and Thoinot Arbeau
Thoinot Arbeau

Thoinot Arbeau is the anagrammatic pen name of French cleric Jehan Tabourot . Tabourot is most famous for his Orch?sographie, a study of late sixteenth-century French Renaissance social dance....
. These allow us to reconstruct the dances with a greater degree of certainty. Note the large number of dances with Spanish origin, reflecting the cultural influence of the dominating power of the age.

Dance types:
  • Allemande
    Allemande

    An allemande is one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite. Originally, the allemande formed the first movement of the suite, before the courante, but, later, it was often preceded by an introductory movement, such as a Prelude ....
     (Almain)
  • Basse danse
    Basse danse

    The basse danse, or "low dance", was the most popular court dance in the Fifteenth Century and early Sixteenth century centuries, especially at the Duchy of Burgundy, often in a combination of 6/4 and 3/2 time allowing for use of hemiola....
     (Bassadance)
  • Branle
    Branle

    A branle is a 16th century France dance style which moves mainly from side to side, and is performed by couples in either a line or a circle....
     (Bransle
    Branle

    A branle is a 16th century France dance style which moves mainly from side to side, and is performed by couples in either a line or a circle....
    )
  • Canario
  • Coranto
    Courante

    The courante, corrente, coranto and corant are just some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque....
  • Dompe
  • Galliard
    Galliard

    The galliard was a form of Renaissance dance and music popular all over Europe in the 16th century. It is mentioned in dance manuals from England, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy, among others....
  • La volta
    Lavolta

    The volta is an anglicize name for a Renaissance dance for Partner dance from the later Renaissance. This dance was associated with the galliard and done to the same kind of music....
    , variation on the Galliard
  • Morris dance
    Morris dance

    A morris dance is a form of England folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers....
  • Pavan
    Pavane

    The pavane, pavan, paven, pavin, pavian, pavine, or pavyn is a slow processional dance common in Europe during the 16th century ....
  • Sarabanda
  • Spagnoletta
  • Tourdion
    Tourdion

    The Magdalena y le Tourdion is a lively dance, similar in nature to the Galliard, and popular in the Fifteenth Century and early Sixteenth century centuries in the Burgundy....
    , a fast Galliard


See also: Shakespearean dance
Shakespearean dance

Shakespearean Dance refers to dancing in the time and plays of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries....


Baroque dance
Baroque dance

Baroque dance is dance of the Baroque era in Europe , closely linked with Baroque music, theatre and opera....

It was during the baroque
Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
 era that John Playford
John Playford

John Playford was born in Norwich in 1623 and died in London in 1686. He served an apprenticeship with a publisher from 1639/40 to 1647, after which he opened a shop in the porch of Temple Church....
 published The Dancing Master
The Dancing Master

The Dancing Master is a dancing manual containing the music and instructions for English Country Dances. It was published in several editions by John Playford and his successors from 1651 until c1728....
, which, along with similar publications, provides us with a large repertoire of baroque English country dance
English Country Dance

English Country Dance is a form of folk dance. It is a social dance form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England is noted to have been entertained by "Country Dancing," although the relationship of the dances she saw to the surviving dances of the mid-17th century is disputed....
s.

Apart from country dances, the most well documented dance style of the baroque was that developed at the French
France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
 court during the 17th century
17th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th Century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700 in the Gregorian calendar.The 17th Century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the French Grand Si?cle dominated by Louis XIV, and the Scientific Revolution, includ...
. The term "baroque dance" is often used to refer specifically to this French style, reflecting the dominating power of the era. Dance types include
  • Bourrée
    Bourrée

    This article is about various types of dance and music called "bourr?e".The 'bourr?e' is a dance of French origin common in Auvergne and Biscay in Spain in the 17th century....
  • Canary
  • Chaconne
    Chaconne

    In music, a chaconne is a musical form whose primary formal feature involves Variation on a repeated short harmonic progression.Originally a quick dance-song which emerged during the late 16th century in Spain culture, possibly from the New World, the chaconne was characterized by suggestive movements and mocking texts.....
  • (French) Courante
    Courante

    The courante, corrente, coranto and corant are just some of the names given to a family of triple metre dances from the late Renaissance and the Baroque....
  • Entrée grave
  • Forlana
  • Gavotte
    Gavotte

    The gavotte originated as a France folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphin?, where the dance originated....
  • Gigue
    Gigue

    The gigue or giga is a lively baroque dance originating from the British jig. It was imported into France in the mid-17th century and usually appears at the end of a suite....
  • Loure
    Loure

    The loure, also known as the gigue lente or slow gigue, is a French Baroque dance, probably invented in Normandy and named after the sound of the instrument of the same name ....
  • Menuet
    Minuet

    A minuet, sometimes spelled menuet, is a social dance of France origin for two persons, usually in time signature. The word was adapted from Italian language minuetto and French language menuet, meaning small, pretty, delicate, a diminutive of menu, from the Latin minutus; menuetto is a word that occurs only on musi...
     (minuet)
  • Musette
    Musette

    Musette may refer to:* Musette de cour, a musical instrument in the bagpipe family* Oboe musette, a musical instrument in the woodwind family...
  • Passacaille
    Passacaglia

    A passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. Its character is usually grave and it is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple-meter....
     (passacaglia)
  • Passepied
    Passepied

    The passepied is a 17th- and 18th-century dance that originated in Brittany. The term can also used to describe the music to which a passepied is set....
  • Rigaudon
    Rigaudon

    The rigaudon is a French baroque dance with a lively duple metre. The music is similar to that of a bourr?e, but the rigaudon is rhythmically simpler with regular phrases ....
  • Sarabande
    Sarabande

    In music, the sarabande is a dance in triple metre. The second and third beats of each measure are often tied, giving the dance a distinctive rhythm of crotchets and minims in alternation....
  • Tambourin
    Tambourin

    A tambourin is a piece of music in imitation of a drum, coming from the French word "tambourin" meaning an old type of drum. They are usually in a lively duple meter and were often used as dances in the 18th-century....
The French style was also danced in England where they introduced their own dance type:
  • Hornpipe
    Hornpipe

    The term hornpipe refers to any of several dance forms played and danced in Great Britain and elsewhere from the late 17th century until the present day....



Dance in the English Regency
English Regency

The Regency period in the United Kingdom is the period between 1811 and 1820, when King George III of the United Kingdom was deemed unfit to rule and his son, later George IV of the United Kingdom, was instated to be his Regent as Prince Regent....
 


We've only just finished the French Revolution
French Revolution

The French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudalism for the aristocracy and Roman Catholic Church clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Age of Enlightenment principles of cit...
 and women's fashions enjoy a very brief period of sensibility. Clothing tends to be light and unrestrictive, encouraging dances with lots of skipping and jumping, such as
  • English Country Dance
    English Country Dance

    English Country Dance is a form of folk dance. It is a social dance form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England is noted to have been entertained by "Country Dancing," although the relationship of the dances she saw to the surviving dances of the mid-17th century is disputed....
  • Regency dance
    Regency dance

    Regency dance is the term for historical dances of the period ranging roughly from 1790 to 1825. Some feel that the popular use of the term "Regency dance" is not technically correct, as the actual English Regency lasted only from 1811 until 1820....
  • Polonaise
    Polonaise

    The polonaise , known colloquially as the Bismarck, is a slow dance of Poland origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French language for "Polish." The Dynamics alla polacca on a score indicates that the piece should be played with the rhythm and character of a polonaise ....
  • Quadrille
    Quadrille

    Quadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dance. It is also a style of music....
  • Scotch Reel


Dance in the mid 19th century
19th century

The 19th century began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar.During the 19th century, the Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Late Imperial China, and Ottoman Empire empires began to crumble, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and the Mughal Empire empire collapsed....
 

Starting with the great international polka craze of 1844 anyone who was anyone was dancing. Women are in hoop skirts, and turning dances help to keep the skirts out of the way.
  • Five Step Waltz
  • Polka
    Polka

    The polka is a lively Central European dance and also a musical genre of dancing music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in the Czech lands and is still a common genre in Swedish, Lithuanian, Czech Republic, Poles, Germans, Hungarian, Austrians, Russian, Slovenian and Slovakian folk...
  • Schottische
    Schottische

    The Schottische is a partnered country dance, Bohemian in origin.Schottische was popular in Victorian era ballrooms and left its traces in folk music of countries as distant as France, Spain , Portugal , Italy and Sweden....
  • Two Step
  • Waltz
    Waltz

    The waltz is a ballroom dance and folk dance dance in Time signature, performed primarily in closed position....


Dance in the late 19th century
19th century

The 19th century began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar.During the 19th century, the Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Late Imperial China, and Ottoman Empire empires began to crumble, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, and the Mughal Empire empire collapsed....
, through 1910 or so

All the same dances that were done in the mid century are still being done in the late century, but by fewer people and with less enthusiasm. Dance masters, in a vain attempt to maintain their place in society and in the economy, invent dances of greater and greater complexity.

The bustle replaces the hoop, which necessitates a few changes in dancing style.

At the same time, Ragtime
Ragtime

Ragtime is an originally American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Ragtime was the first truly American musical genre, predating jazz....
 music begins its infiltration.
  • Cakewalk
    Cakewalk

    Cakewalk is a traditional African American form of music and dance which originated among slavery in the Southern United States. The form was originally known as the chalk line walk....
  • Krakowiak
    Krakowiak

    The Krakowiak, sometimes referred to as the Pecker Dance, is a fast, syncopated Polish dance in duple time from the region of Krakow and Little Poland....
  • Mazurka
    Mazurka

    A mazurka is a stylized Poland folk dance in triple meter with a lively tempo that has a heavy Accent on the third or second Beat . Its folk origins are the slow kujawiak and the fast oberek....
  • Racket
    Racket

    Racket may refer to:*Racket , a systematised element of organized crime*Racquets , a ball game*Racket with Michele Placido, Tanya Roberts and Franco Interlenghi...
  • Redowa
    Redowa

    A redowa is dance of Culture of the Czech Republic origin with turning, leaping waltz steps that was most popular in Victorian era European ballrooms....
  • Waltz
    Waltz

    The waltz is a ballroom dance and folk dance dance in Time signature, performed primarily in closed position....


Dance in the Ragtime
Ragtime

Ragtime is an originally American musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Ragtime was the first truly American musical genre, predating jazz....
 era

Vernon and Irene Castle
Vernon and Irene Castle

Vernon and Irene Castle were a husband-and-wife team of ballroom dancers of the early 20th century. They are credited with invigorating the popularity of modern dancing....
 bring an air of respectability to couple dancing, and spark what was arguably the largest U.S. dance craze ever. By the end of WWI people eshew these as old fashioned.
  • Foxtrot
    Foxtrot (Dance)

    The Foxtrot is a ballroom dance which is often said to take its name from its inventor, the vaudeville actor Harry Fox; however the exact origins are unclear....
  • Maxixe
    Maxixe (dance)

    The maxixe , occasionally known as the Brazilian tango, is a dance, with its accompanying music, that originated in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in 1868, at about the same time as the Tango was developing in neighbouring Argentina and Uruguay....
  • One-Step
    One-Step

    The One-Step was a ballroom dance popular in social dancing at the beginning of the 20th century.Troy Kinney writes that One-Step originated from the Turkey Trot dance, with all mannerisms of the latter removed, so that "of the original 'trot' nothing remains but the basic step"....
  • Tango
    Tango (dance)

    Tango is a musical genre and its associated dance forms that originated in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay, and spread to the rest of the world soon after that....
  • Waltz
    Waltz

    The waltz is a ballroom dance and folk dance dance in Time signature, performed primarily in closed position....


Dance in the 1920s
1920s

The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the "Jazz Age" or the "Roaring Twenties", when speaking about the United States and Canada. In Europe the decade is sometimes referred to as the "Golden Twenties"....
 

It's the roaring twenties, and kids are spoiled. For the first time, there is a class of children who don't have to immediately go to work to support the family. This is an era of highly energetic dances done by the younger generation.
  • Black Bottom
    Black Bottom (dance)

    Black Bottom refers to a dance which became popular in the 1920s, during the period known as the Flapper era.The dance originated in New Orleans in the 1900s....
  • Charleston
    Charleston (dance)

    The Charleston is a dance named for the city of Charleston, South Carolina. The rhythm was popularized in mainstream dance music in the United States by a 1923 tune called Charleston by composer/pianist James P....
  • Foxtrot
    Foxtrot (Dance)

    The Foxtrot is a ballroom dance which is often said to take its name from its inventor, the vaudeville actor Harry Fox; however the exact origins are unclear....
  • Shag
  • Waltz
    Waltz

    The waltz is a ballroom dance and folk dance dance in Time signature, performed primarily in closed position....


Dance in the 1930s
1930s

In Western Europe, Australia and the United States, more progressive reforms occurred as opposed to the extreme measures sought elsewhere. Roosevelt's New Deal attempted to use government spending to combat large-scale unemployment and severely negative growth....
 and 1940s
1940s

The 1940s decade, known as the forties, ran from 1940 to 1949....
 

More than ever before, white society is getting its dances from black society. Swing music and swing dancing are what's happening
  • Big Apple (dance)
    Big Apple (dance)

    The Big Apple is both a partner dance and a circle dance that originated in the Afro-American community of the United States in the beginning of the 20th century....
  • Foxtrot
    Foxtrot (Dance)

    The Foxtrot is a ballroom dance which is often said to take its name from its inventor, the vaudeville actor Harry Fox; however the exact origins are unclear....
  • Lindy Hop
    Lindy Hop

    Lindy Hop is an African American dance, based on the popular Charleston and named for Lindberg's Atlantic crossing, that evolved in New York City in 1927....
  • Swing
    Swing (dance)

    The term "swing dance" commonly refers to a group of dances that developed concurrently with the swing music style of jazz music in the 1920s, '30s and '40s....
  • Waltz
    Waltz

    The waltz is a ballroom dance and folk dance dance in Time signature, performed primarily in closed position....
  • Tap
    TAP

    Tap may refer to:* Tap, Azerbaijan, a village in Goranboy Rayon* Tap , controls the release of a liquid or gas* Tap or Flap consonant, a type of consonantal sound...


See also

  • History of dance
    History of dance

    File:Veiled dancer Louvre Myr660.jpgThis is Dance History.Dance does not often leave behind clearly identifiable physical artifacts that last over millennia, such as stone tools, hunting implements or cave paintings....
  • Ballet
    Ballet

    Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
  • Masque
    Masque

    The masque was a form of festive Noble court entertainment which flourished in sixteenth and early seventeenth century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio....
  • List of dances
    List of dances

    This is the main list of dances. It is a non-categorized, index list of specific dances. There may also be listed dances which could either be considered a specific dance or a family of related dances, depending on your perspective....
  • An American Ballroom Companion
    An American Ballroom Companion

    An American Ballroom Companion is an online collection of over two hundred social dance manuals at the Library of Congress related to the period of cca....


External links