The Middle Ages

Question 1

What was the attitude of the church towards dance in the Middle Ages?

Answer 1

Mixed. Christian converts wanted to dance so the church allowed ceremonial, beautiful, solemn, and hymnal dances. Dance with different genders was no allowed.

Question 2

How did the church try to control dance?

Answer 2

The church only allowed ceremonial, beautiful, solemn, and hymnal dances. Dance with different genders was no allowed.

Question 3

What was the Dance of the Angels?

Answer 3

Concept that arose in art and literature

Question 4

What was Los Seises? What does it tell us about dance in the middle ages?

Answer 4

Altar boys who danced as a distraction. The church ended up allowing dance in small groups.

Question 5

Compare the labyrinth dances of the middle ages to the labyrinth dances of Crete

Answer 5

Labyrinth dances of the Middle Ages were danced on Easter led by clergy members. They would lead in a tripudium around a labyrinth

Question 6

What kinds of dances were done at Midsummer and Mayday festivals?

Answer 6

Spring dances

Question 7

Explain the concept of dance of death?

Answer 7

Death and the devil were frequent symbols in the Middle Ages so Han Holbein and Albrecht Durer depicted these images in their art.

Question 8

What was its social significance?

Answer 8

Showed that both the rich and the poor die

Question 9

What is Danse Macabre?

Answer 9

Dance of the dead. Ancient belief that the dead sang and danced on courtyard and if they lured you in you would die in a year.

Question 10

Explain what dance epidemics are and give two examples

Answer 10

Danseomania- form of psychosis from stress of war, plague, famine, religious persecution

• People suddenly began to dance uncontrollably for no reason
• Two examples are: The Tarantella and the Pied Piper of Hamin

Question 11

What were mystery plays like?

Answer 11

Plays that educated the masses about church and teachings

Question 12

What were morality plays like?

Answer 12

Illustrated moral truths such as virtue triumphs over vice, depicted creation, fall and final judgment of man, sometimes allegorical

Question 13

What were miracle plays like?

Answer 13

Told thieves of saints and martyrs

Staged on church steps

Question 14

What kinds of secular dance took place in the Middle Ages?

Answer 14

The carole
Circle dance with linked hands
Early couple dances

Question 15

Who were the troubadours? Why are they important?

Answer 15

Poets and songwriters. They wrote lyric poems set to music about courtly love

Question 16

Who were the minstrels? Why did some minstrels wander?

Answer 16

They were musicians attached to a manor house. They played the harp or viol. They also did poems, buffoonery, eating fire, and dancing. Some minstrels wandered because they were forced to go on or were replaced. The carried lightweight instruments due to their wandering.

Question 17

Who were the letzim?

Answer 17

Jewish minstrels. Lowest rung of professional entertainers. They became super important because they became “dancing masters”

Question 18

Why is the development of musical guilds important?

Answer 18

They provided music for noble dances, taught dances, and notated them (this was the first time written accounts of dance were made)

Question 19

What is basse dance?

Answer 19

Called a low dance because there was no jumping
Chain or walking professional dance
They were about showing off what one was wearing

Question 20

What is haut dance?

Answer 20

“High dance”

A lively dance with jumps

Question 21

What is a Branle?

Answer 21

• a choral or couple dance derived from the carole
• performed in a circle with swaying movement
• dancers held hands or hooked fingers

Question 22

What is a Farandole?

Answer 22

Chain dance- dancers linked hands making arches

Question 23

What is a Saltarello?

Answer 23

Lively dance done in a circle, based on the schottische

Question 24

What is a Moresco?

Answer 24

Dance that recounted the conflict between Europeans and the Moors (black Africans living in Spain and Portugal)

Question 25

What is an Estampie and why is it important?

Answer 25

Dance with the oldest instrumental medieval music that appeared around 12th or 13th century. Weren’t in a circle or holding hands. Had a frontal orientation toward the observers

Question 26

Explain what a pageant was like in the Middle Ages and why was it important to dance.

Answer 26

Moving spectacles that had roots in the miracle plays and the representations of medieval guilds

Question 27

Explain what happened at the Bal des Ardents.

Answer 27

The Bal des Ardents of 1393 almost took the life of Charles VI, king of France