The Official Origins of Renaissance Dance: The Classical Influence

The impetus in the Renaissance was to make art based on the newly discovered classical forms by imitating those forms as closely as possible. Dancing did not escape this trend. In the fifteenth century, the courts took up dancing as a proper courtly entertainment. Then Renaissance dancing masters such as the Italian Fabritio Caroso and the French Thoinot Arbeau²¹ in the sixteenth century edited, refined, and codified the peasant dance steps, applying the classical principles of balance, harmony, symmetry, unity, and order. The result was a new kind of dancing where combinations to the left were repeated to the right, music and dance corresponded rhythmically, and the floor patterns mimicked planetary movement in the heavens.

Fabritio Caroso, however, did not see the dances he taught as a reaction to the spontaneous movement of the Middle Ages. Rather Caroso saw galliards and corantos as continuations of highly respectable dances in the classical world. In the introduction of his dancing manual Nobilità di Dame (1600), Caroso states,

Now if the excellence and dignity of matters is judged by the esteem in which they are (or have been) held, there is no question that this is no newly important art, but that it was also respected and practised by the ancients, who not only employed it in their comedies, tragedies, and public festivals, but also in their religious rites, to honour their deities. Thus they established the order of the Salic priests to represent the affections of the spirit. In our own time everyone knows in what high esteem [dancing] is held by lords and gentlemen.²²

While we do not know for sure whether dancing was respected in ancient Athens-the hetairai and other Greek courtesans were often known as dancing girls-most of Caroso's statement can be substantiated by historical accounts and the plays themselves. Yet, this marks only the beginning of Caroso's associations of dance with the Greeks and Romans.

Given this obsession with the classical world, it is not surprising that Caroso pushed the connection between his dances and classical arts further. Caroso named several steps after poetic and architectural terms. The Corinthian, Dactylic, Sapphic, and Spondaic steps are all variations on the same step, the trabuchetto, or falling jump, and have minimal relation to Roman columns or Greek poetry. Naming the steps he created after recognized concepts gave them a legitimacy they would not have had otherwise.
In Nobilità di Dame, Caroso's explanation of the Corinthian step, or corinto, reveals this agenda. Caroso compares the rules he has created for dance steps to the laws of architecture:

It is quite true that in architecture there is a Corinthian style belonging to the fourth order, and I admit that this architecture is most accurate. You should know, then, that I have imitated it; for as you can see in the frontispiece to this work, everything is executed according to true architectural law. Thus, for illustrating one of the two mottoes are a compass and a timepiece, and the motto around them says, 'Rule, Time, and Measure.'²³

Caroso continues with an almost Platonic concept when he states, "Let me say then, that should an architect who is less than first-rate plan a beautiful palace and complete it, it may contain sundry defects. Despite this, and though it will always be subject to criticism for such defects, it will not cease to be termed a palace."²⁴ Since inferior movements can still be called dances, Caroso stresses the need for choreographed steps and rules for performing them to prevent bad dancing from degrading the art form.
Like the laws of architecture he mentions, Caroso's dance rules include observance of proper forms, symmetry, and balance. His choreographies frequently use S-curve floor patterns, he always repeat steps on both the left and right sides, and most of his dances begin and end with a reverence, or choreographed bow honoring either the host or the dancer's partner. Caroso calls for rules for dancing in order to approach perfection. Indeed, he cites Michelangelo as his example of a contemporary artist whose masterpieces have their foundation in balance, order, and measured space:

[True perfection, however,] requires one to be as supremely excellent in his work as the great Michel Angelo Buona Rota, who, whether in painting, sculpture, or architecture, was unique in all the world; in Rome [for example] you may see the beautiful grand palace [of] the Most Serene Duke of Parma, as well as the facade of the Church of Jesus (one of the great wonders of the world). There you may see that all is truly ordered, even the letters which are equidistantly inscribed on the aforementioned facade. Thus, though many [practitioners] in all sciences may be called masters, few are truly perfect. Therefore, in this profession, all who follow it must do so according to basic laws and theoretical perfection, and not just because of [common] practise.²⁵

Finally, Caroso's explication of the specific physical description of the classically based dance step, "Now to do this Corinthian step do three reprises with your left foot, and one falling jump sideways, and repeat with your right foot,"²⁶ is followed by a brief and rather contrived explanation as to how the Corinthian acquired received its name: "This term is derived from the way these graceful movements pull at the heartstrings, causing onlookers to become enamoured of them, so I have termed it thus."²⁷ To be fair, we can surmise that Caroso was partial to the Corinthian column as that is the type of column that appears in the frontispiece of Nobilità di Dame. Still, after such a lengthy preface, one expects a bit more of a connection between the column and the dance. Apparently, Caroso expected other spectators to be as easily enamored of the graceful appearance of Corinthian columns or at least to accept the classical precedent for the carefully choreographed step.

Of course Caroso was just one of the many dancing masters interested in Greek and Roman forms. Classical literature influenced the structure of most of the Renaissance dance manuals. A dialogue between a knowledgeable teacher and an ignorant student in the style of a Socratic dialogue serves as the format for both Caroso's Nobilità di Dame and Arbeau's Orchesography, the two most informative dance manuals from this period. Similarly, the emphasis on symmetry and ordered movement examined at length above applies to Arbeau's treatise as well.

Footnotes

²¹ Thoinot Arbeau was a pseudonym for Jehan Tabourot perhaps used since the dance aficionado was actually a member of the French clergy and not a professional dancing master. back to text
²² Fabritio Caroso. Courtly Dance of the Renaissance: A New Translation and Edition of
the "Nobilità di dame" (1600). Translated and edited by Julia Sutton. (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1995), p. 87. back to text
²³ Caroso, p. 132. back to text
²⁴ Caroso, p. 132-133. back to text
²⁵ Caroso, p. 133. back to text
²⁶ Ibid. back to text
²⁷ Ibid. back to text