Missy - Suplemental - Dance

 

I belong to a gamer/maker club here in Frederick. During the cooler seasons of the year they often offer SCA adjacent dance lessons. 

Often those lessons are tied to an end goal of performance at a party. This year for our club Halloween party we are doing A Midsummers Nights Dream as our theme. 

So here we are with a bonus Shakespeare topic: Shakespearean dance. 

I am delighted. I am also not a dancer but I would love to be. I’m going to add a few suplemental entries over the next 6 weeks as I try out new Elizabethan and medieval dances. Some of these, and very likely most of these, were danced during the time of Shakespeare, and were danced by him and his troop and their audiences.

Last night we learned variations on the Bransle (Branle) that mostly looked like a conga line and then a conga line that got twisted up. The pronunciation of Branle is basically the same as brawl.

Here is a video from YouTube of people doing it right.

This was a fantastic ice breaker dance as mostly we shuffled and at the most rousing points we were all laughing hard and pulling each other about. 

Branle is a French origin dance popular from the early 1500s through the 1700s. This one is both Shakespeare  period appropriate and easy. 

After a break for fresh bread and butter (and lots of drinks) we moved on to our 2nd dance of the evening. 

This one, called the Maltese Bransle in the SCA, and also known as the Schiarazula Marazula was fun and a little violent.

I’ve seen a ton of different versions of this one on YouTube today and they all have circle and snap and clap but ours also had spectacular, establish dominance on each others feet, stomping!

Among its most notable aspects, this dance, first recorded in Italy the 1570s,  was recorded by the inquisition as being confused with witches summoning rituals, and the next best anecdote was of the whole thing being a post crusades version of belly dancing.

So there we have it for night one of Shakespeare oriented dancing.

Here we are in all our uncoordinated but enthusiastic glory.

Special thanks to The Haven Guys for the pics and video from last night!