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Dance and Renaissance Humanism

In “Renaissance Humanism and Classical Antiquity,” Paul Oskar Kristeller writes that the increasing number of Latin and Greek texts available in Renaissance Italy, “had a stimulating and fermenting effect on all areas of literature, the arts, the sciences, and learning.” [7] This was certainly the case for the art (or science) of dance, “dance masters, like practitioners in other fields of artistic endeavor, reacted to, used, and applied the knowledge generated by the humanist movement.” [8] References to dancing littered classical texts, from Homer to Aristotle to Aristophanes, not to mention Lucian’s dialogue on dance. [9] These references not only generated interest in the dances of Antiquity, but they also raised the status of contemporary dancing. Dancing masters associated contemporary dance steps with classical concepts to capitalize on the popularity of everything ancient.

These correlations could be quite clever, if not always consistent. Fabritio Caroso’s description of steps in Nobilità di Dame (1600) includes the dattile and spondeo (the dactylic and spondaic steps), which could be used to dance the metre of poems. [10] On the other hand, the saffice, destice, and corinto are all variations of the same step, but while the corinto is named after the Corinthian architectural order, its companion steps do not continue the association. [11] Instead of the Doric and Ionic orders, the saffice is named after Sappho, and the destice is simply explained as the dexterous step, because when you perform it, it “appears very graceful to any bystanders.” [12] Establishing some association with Antiquity, however tenuous, was more important than ensuring that the association was authentic, or even logical. Besides, actually reconstructing ancient dances, even if it had been possible, held little interest, as Thoinot Arbeau explains in Orchésographie (1589), “there is no need to trouble yourself about [ancient dances], as such manner of dancing is out of date now.” [13] Humanist interest in Antiquity might have spurred dancing masters to refer to classical concepts, but their associations were neither critical nor systematic.

On the other hand, it was the humanists’ “text-based approach” that prompted dancing masters to write down their choreographies in the first place. [14] The first known dancing manuals were written in the mid-fifteenth century; utilized the structure, established by Petrarch, of contrasting pairs; and followed the classical precedent of writing in dialogue form. [15] Moreover, this surge of scholarship was not restricted to dancing masters; Renaissance humanism also inspired a number of scholars, educators, and courtiers to inquire into the history and significance of the dance.

Footnotes