Steps: all done "in 6" = Reverenza, continenza, voltacia, volta del gioioso, sempio, doppio, ripresa, mezavolta, saltarello.
Start:  One couple, side by side, holding hands, Woman on the right, facing up the hall.
 

      Section 1 (7 bars)
Continenze Left and Right,
Sempio Left, Sempio Right, Doppio Left, Doppio Right, ending with Mezavolta Right,
Ripresa Left, Ripresa Right,
Reverenza Left.

      Section 2 (11 bars)
Woman circles clockwise around man with Sempio Left, Sempio Right, Doppio Left, Doppio Right,
Both take hands and Ripresa Left, Ripresa Right,
Man circles counterclockwise around woman with Sempio Left, Sempio Right, Doppio Left, Doppio Right,
Both take hands and Ripresa Left, Ripresa Right, Reverenza Left.
     (Note that the woman, unusually, moves first in this figure. She starts it on the left side, however, where the man would usually be.)

      Section 3 (6 bars)
Saltarelli Left and Right, ending with a Mezavolta Right,
Voltacia,
Reverenza Left.

Repeat the dance, identically.

Reconstruction Notes

The initial continenze are only in the Siena ms. They are included to match the length of music on the recording used.

Three of the sources end with the usual formulaic instruction to repeat the dance, the man sending the woman ahead. I generally interpret this as meaning that the dance is done again, the woman doing everything first. In this case, however, the woman already moved first. Also, in dances where the woman is to follow the second time, the Giorgio ms especially tends to make sure that she has ended the 1st repeat of the dance in the left position. This means that the dance can be repeated identically with the roles exchanged. In this case the dancers have returned to their exact positions. It is possible that the formulaic instruction really meant "Do it again, reversing roles", in which case the man would circle his partner first the second time. I have left it as an exact repeat, with the woman doing the circling first, again.

The dance is the same size as Lauro, and should match any music that will do for it.

La cour du Roi Rene - I use the piece called 'Lauro' (which the CD information helpfully attributes to the choreographer of the dance, although there is no extant music for it, and leaves out the actual source for the music they used.) There is no introduction, and the dance repeats, with a held note at the end. There are clear 4-bar phrases in the piece, which don't match the dance, but it is quite clear and easy to follow. Use this recording in class.

Last modified Jun 27, 2008

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