Horse's Branle.
Source: Orchesographie, written by Thoinot Arbeau and published in 1588-1589.
This is a fairly good representation of the dance, despite the
wandering camera and few authenticity issues listed below.
The ladies in the inner ring are dancing the gentlemens part.
wandering camera and few authenticity issues listed below.
The ladies in the inner ring are dancing the gentlemens part.
Steps.
- The gentlemen take the ladies by both hands and stands back to back with the other men, forming two circles with ladies on the outside facing in and gentlemen on the inside facing out.
- Step L, bring feet together, step L and bring feet together. 4 COUNTS.
Do partners hold hands and move only slightly in opposing directions as shown above? Do they move to the gentleman's left as the book is written to instruct a young man in the art of dancing? Do they drop hands and make full sized double steps in opposition? Arbeau does not specify. - Step R, bring feet together, step R and bring feet together. 4 COUNTS.
- Step L, bring feet together, step L and bring feet together. 4 COUNTS.
- Step R, bring feet together, step R and bring feet together. 4 COUNTS.
- Step L, bring feet together, step L and bring feet together. 4 COUNTS.
- Step R, bring feet together, step R and bring feet together. 4 COUNTS.
- Step L, bring feet together, step L and bring feet together. 4 COUNTS.
- Step R, bring feet together, step R and bring feet together. 4 COUNTS. (32 total)
- Gentlemen paw the ground twice with their right feet. 2 COUNTS.
- Step R, bring feet together. (Man's R, everybody's R?) 2 COUNTS.
- Gentlemen step L and bring feet together, turning halfway around to the LEFT.
Gentlemen step R and bring feet together, finishing the turn to the LEFT. 4 COUNTS.
This dance is commonly done with a partner switch added at this point, with the men travelling one spot counterclockwise around the circle while they turn to the left. This is not called for by Arbeau, who elsewhere does list specifically when couples should change partners. So it's unlikely that this is accurate, but it is a lot of fun. - Ladies paw the ground twice with their right feet. 2 COUNTS.
- Step R, bring feet together. 2 COUNTS.
Use the same answer as above, but if you moved to the man's right, I suggest moving to the lady's this time. - Ladies step L and bring feet together, turning halfway around to the LEFT.
Ladies step R and bring feet together, finishing the turn to the LEFT. 4 COUNTS. - Repeat. (48 counts total)
Notes.
- Basically...one of the elements of the basic version of this dance that everybody does...is probably wrong. Arbeau explicitly calls for partner changes in the Torch/Candlestick Branle and in the style of dancing Galliards that he refers to as Lyonnaise. It seems unlikely that he would assume a partner change on another dance. I'm not sure when and where the partner change came from, but I like it, so we do it.
- In the notation from Arbeau the beginning sequence is described in doubles and singles, but for the purpose of my notations I try to avoid using any dance terms. To learn more about them you can read about them in the Courtesies section.
Resources.
- The Horse's Branle. Entry in the Renaissance Dance Database. This offers links to dance cheat sheets, sheet music online and music downloads.
Music.
There are several very nice MP3s of the Horse's Branle available to buy on Amazon:
I made my customary playlist of branles for you to use for practicing at home. However, this time the program wouldn't let me put it in any particular order. Luckily the absolute fastest versions still ended up near the end of the list.
|
|