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Danza Humana

Although Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, Elyot’s Boke Named the Governour, and most comprehensively Davies’ Orchestra, described the cosmic choreography of the danza mundana, most Renaissance dance writers focused on the danza humana. In this category of the hypothetical danza speculativa, dancing by groups or individuals revealed their inner qualities, whether good or bad. The choreographed group dances of court masques conveyed characteristics of the State or government such as order, harmony, or excellence (or their opposites). Viewers also made judgements about individuals based on their terpsichorean abilities, which could be demonstrated in solo or couple dances, as well as ensembles.

Court masques insinuated a link between the controlled hierarchy of the State and the divine order of the cosmos. Stephen Orgel, the foremost scholar of the English court masque, writes that in a masque, “a deep truth about the monarchy was realized and embodied in action, and the monarchs were revealed in roles that expressed the strongest Renaissance beliefs about the nature of kingship, the obligations and perquisites of royalty.” [23] It was no accident that James I and Charles I, believers in the divine right of kings, promoted and supported the development of the English court masque.

Another idea emphasized in court masques was that simply seeing dancing was instructive and morally beneficial. Ben Jonson articulates this function of dance in a song from Pleasure Reconciled to Virtue (1618):

Then, as all actions of mankind
  are but a Laborinth, or maaze,
 So let your Daunces be entwin’d,
  yet not perplex men, vnto gaze.

But measur’d, and so numerous too,
  as men may read each act you doo.
And when they see ye Graces meet,
  admire ye widom of your feet.

For Dauncing is an exercise
  not only shews ye mouers wit,
but maketh ye beholder wise,
  as he hath powre to rise to it. [24]

According to Jonson, not only did dances embody the intertwining and complex actions of mankind in a manner similar to that of the cosmic motions of the danza mundana, but the very act of watching dancing also edified the beholder. Although this view was hardly universally embraced, it had a long history. Lucian writes that dancing, “imports harmony into the souls of its beholders, exercising them in what is fair to see, entertaining them with what is good to hear, and displaying to them joint beauty of soul and body.” [25] Of course enlightenment, as Jonson reminds his audience, requires a viewer who “hath powre to rise” to “the mouers wit.” Dancing required both an educated audience and skilful, knowledgeable practitioners. Still, if these conditions were met, dancing could reveal truths about human nature and behaviour. Moreover, the graceful and pleasant manner of the conveyance could increase the palatability of a serious message. However, it was the aspect of the danza humana that highlighted an individual’s character and accomplishments that most interested Renaissance humanists and educators.

Baldesar Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano (1528) translated by Sir Thomas Hoby as The Book of the Courtier (1561) recommends dancing for the courtier, “let him laugh, jest, banter, frolic and dance,” with the stipulation that it be executed “in such fashion that he shall always appear genial and discreet, and that everything he may do or say shall be stamped with grace.” [26] Dancing is an appropriate activity for a courtier, as long as he dances in the proper manner.

Sir Thomas Elyot agreed. In The Boke Named the Gouernour, which contains seven chapters on dancing, he asserts, “there is no pastime to be compared to that, wherein may be found both recreation and meditation of vertue, I have among all honest pastimes, wherein is exercise of the body, noted dauncing.” [27] Elyot praises dancing as particularly suited for the nobility. He argues that remembering dance steps is good for the memory, and dancing promotes virtues like prudence and reflection.

A later English educator, Roger Ascham, had more reservations about dancing, but he still recommended it in Book 1 of The Scholemaster (1570):

To daunce cumlie: to sing, and playe of instrumentes cunnyngly: to Hawke: to hunte: to playe at tennes, & all pastimes generally, which be ioyned with labor, vsed in open place, and on the day light, conteining either some fitte exercise for warre, or some pleasant pastime for peace, be not onelie cumlie and decent, but also verie necessarie, for a Courtlie gentleman to vse. [28]

Ascham stresses that dancing should be done in a well-lit public place, presumably to avoid any accusations of or temptations for lasciviousness. Nevertheless, Ascham contends that dancing is not just an appropriate skill for a courtier to possess; it is a necessary one. As the Italian dancing master Fabritio Caroso states, dancing “is so essential to one of good breeding, that when it is lacking it is considered a fault worthy of reproof.” [29]

Similarly, The Honest Man: or, the Art to Please in Court, a translation of Nicolas Faret’s L’Honneste Homme. Ov l’Art de plaire a la court (1630), specifies that a courtier, “should be dextrous in Dancing, at the Tennis-Court, at Wrestling, Leaping, Swimming, Shooting, and all other Diversions, which are not so merely polite, but that they often become useful.” [30] Faret explains further that, “Most of these Things, separately considered, are indeed small ; but together, render a Man accomplished, and cause him to be looked upon with some Kind of Admiration ; especially when they are brightened by the Qualities of the Mind, which give them the last Features of Perfection.” [31]  Not only is dancing appropriate for a courtier, but it is also useful because the proper execution of dance steps reveals the nobility of the dancer and creates admiration in spectators.

This revelation of virtue and nobility lay at the heart of the danza humana. Graceful movement suggested nobility, and selecting appropriate dances and style of performance for a particular occasion reflected good judgement. As Castiglione emphasizes repeatedly in The Courtier, it was crucial that a courtier demonstrate both:

There are certain other exercises that can be practised in public and in private, like dancing; and in this I think the Courtier ought to have a care, for when dancing in the presence of many and in a place full of people, it seems to me that he should preserve a certain dignity, albeit tempered with a lithe and airy grace of movement; and although he may feel himself to be very nimble and a master of time and measure, let him not attempt those agilities of foot and double steps which we find very becoming in our friend Barletta, [the dancing master,] but which perhaps would be little suited to a gentleman. Yet in a room privately, as we are now, I think he may try both, and may dance [morescas] and brawls; but not in public unless he be masked, when it is not displeasing even though he be recognized by all. [32]

Not only must a courtier be graceful and dignified in his dancing, but he must also know when it is appropriate to dance which dances. In private a courtier may attempt more complicated, technically demanding steps, than in the public arena. The reasons include not embarrassing oneself by failing to execute complex steps properly on the one hand, and on the other hand, avoiding performing them so well that viewers mistake the courtier for a professional dancing master. In both cases rank was at stake; dancing badly insinuated that you lacked the grace inherent in true nobility, while dancing too well implied you were a working man from an inferior social class. Yet, Castiglione adds that “even though he be recognized by all,” dancing while masked allowed the courtier to perform steps in public that would otherwise be inappropriate. This qualifier refers to the convention of the mask and disguising in the Renaissance, and highlights the complex codes of behaviour in this period. At the same time, it provides another reason why a courtier needed to dance well; there were many opportunities for demonstrating terpsichorean talent.

The abundance of dance events and their social importance also led some writers to condemn dancing. Pier Paolo Vergerio was all too aware of the effects admiring spectators might have. In the 1402 Ad Ubertinum de Carraria de Ingenuis Moribus et Liberalibus Adulescentiae Studiis Liber Vergerio writes, “Dancing to music and group dances with women might seem to be pleasures unworthy of a man. Yet there might be a certain profit in them, since they exercise the body and bring dexterity to the limbs, if they did not make young men lustful and vain, corrupting good behavior.” [33] Although he still acknowledges that dancing is healthy for the body, Vergerio warns that dancing could encourage lust and arrogance. This concern was not entirely unfounded. In a series of questions and answers in “Necessary Notes for a Courtier“ an Appendix to his The Court and Country, or A briefe Discourse Dialogue-wise set downe betweene a Courtier and a Country-man (1618), Nicholas Breton asks, “What most delighteth a Ladies eye in a Courtier?” [34]   The answer summarizes several aspects of the gentleman, “Neat apparell, wise speech, to manage a Horse well, to dance well.” [35] While “wise speech” is hardly controversial, that dancing pleases ladies makes it potentially problematic.

However, the possibility (or possible temptation) of pleasing a lady hardly justifies the vehement outburst of Desiderius Erasmus in Institutio Principis Christiani (1516):

How, then, can you expect that anyone who has spent his first years among flatterers and frothy women, corrupted first by base opinions and then by sensual pleasures, and wasting these years engaged in gambling, dancing, and hunting, could later on be happy in those duties the fulfillment of which requires the most diligent thought? [36]

Erasmus attacks both the widely condemned games of chance and the generally approved pastime (at least in moderation) of hunting. The attack on hunting, a favourite royal activity and a mark of nobility, undermines the impact of Erasmus’ disapproval of dancing. Moreover, Erasmus’ general disapproval of commonly sanctioned recreations lessens the significance of his antidance stance.

While Erasmus was not alone in viewing dance as sensual or gratuitous, most educators restricted themselves to caveats. Juan Luis Vives also viewed dancing as frivolous and a waste of time. Still, since he wrote Linguae Latinae Exercitatio (1539) in dialogue form, Vives provided both the pros and cons of dancing. His foolish counsellor recommends dancing as a healthy respite from studying, calling it one of “the studies in which young nobles most delight.” [37] The wise counsellor concludes, however, that, “It is incumbent on youth, to reject and despise sluggishness, ease, little delicacies, and frivolity, whilst the whole mind should be intent on the study of letters and the cultivation of goodness of soul.” [38] While Vives does not ban dancing outright, he considers it a foolish and unnecessary activity that takes time away from more important pursuits.

At the same time, both Vergerio and Vives acknowledge that dancing has unequivocably good qualities; dances, Vergerio writes, “exercise the body and bring dexterity to the limbs.” [39] The English educator, Richard Mulcaster, details some of these benefits in The Training Up Of Children (1581). In the chapter entitled “Of daunsing, why it is blamed, and how deliuered from blame” Mulcaster passes over moral issues and instead describes at length the physical benefits of dancing, which include easing stiff joints, aiding digestion, strengthening the legs and feet, and “in deliuering the kidneys or bladder from the stone, it is beyond comparison good.” [40] For Mulcaster, dancing’s excellence as an exercise clearly outweighed its drawbacks.

Not surprisingly Renaissance dancing manuals also advocated dancing's physical benefits. In the French dancing manual Orchésographie (1589), Thoinot Arbeau states, “dancing, or saltation, is both a pleasant and a profitable art which confers and preserves health; proper to youth, agreeable to the old and suitable to all provided fitness of time and place are observed and it is not abused.” [41] Similarly, in Nobilità di Dame (1600), the Italian dancing master Fabritio Caroso contends that “As a result of dance many other praiseworthy and honourable qualities may be acquired, for through physical exercise one keeps fit and becomes agile and dexterous.” [42] Despite potential unsavoury associations or side effects, these and many other examples illustrate the common conviction that dancing promoted good health. [43] The prevalence of court masques and other court entertainments in which courtiers were expected to dance, the assumption that one’s manner of dancing revealed truths about one’s character and talents, and the acceptance of dancing as a recommended exercise, in other words the components of the danza humana, provided powerful incentives for courtiers and aspiring gentlemen to learn how to dance.

Footnotes