Italian sources
Sources from the 16th-century Italy also describe ballroom dancing, as professional performing dance and music started to develop only in the end of the century; in Italy, these dances were still much more public-oriented. Only a small group, mostly, only one couple, is dancing at a time. They are still members of the partying company, not professional entertainers, but for such a dance, the dancers become performers and the rest of the company – the audience. Similarly to the detailed choreographies of the 15th century, nothing was left to chance in the dances of the 16th century; both the figures and the steps were recorded and described in great detail. The number of different steps is much larger than in the dances of the previous century; the lightness of movement has been transformed into forcefulness and massiveness that fits in well with the wide and stiff costume of the period. Short steps are called beautiful – a long step is already a step where one foot is by about the length of the foot ahead the other. In a very popular dance galliard (gagliarda, gaillarde), full of jumps and leaps, the movements of men and women largely differ in solo parts. Men's movements, consisting of complicated combinations of jumps and leaps, demonstrate skill and power; women's movements involve the following of complex patterns, not forceful jumps. Sources: Fabritio Caroso Il Ballarino and Nobiltà di dame, Cesare Negri Nuove inventioni di balli, Galliard manuals by Prospero Lutii and Livio Lupi.
|