Lise Carrel and Jacopo Bisagni

In this workshop we will try and move beyond the modern popular perception of what Medieval dances looked like, by looking at – and by trying to apply in practice! – the evidence found in three kinds of sources: (1) textual and iconographic sources that give us indications about dancing in the Middle Ages, dating from the period before the publication of the earliest Italian dance treatises (Domenico da Piacenza, etc.), that is before the mid-fifteenth century; (2) French Renaissance treatises preserving dances that had roots in the Medieval past, such as the various types of bransle; (3) traditional French dances of modern attestation but of probable or possible Medieval or Renaissance origin, such as the farandole, the rondeau (accompanied by the dancers’ own singing – as shown in some sources), the bourrée, etc.

Before each dance, we will look at the manuscripts, paintings and texts that allow us to reconstruct a certain choreography, and then all the participants will be welcome to join the re-enactment of the dances – all of which will be accompanied by live music.