Hampshire Shakespeare Company: Dance Notes

In Renaissance courtly society dancing was regarded as an essential social skill. Many of the dances of both the nobility and the middle classes were written down, making it possible for us to dance them today. Dancing served many functions. As an aid to courtship, it allowed prospective partners to meet and interact, as well as to check (according to one writer) the fitness level and breath(!) of the other person. Most social occasions included dancing, and elaborate balls were held to impress upon visiting courts the wealth (and hence power) of the hosting court. New dances traveled from court to court and country to country, and so it was not unusual to find, for example, French and Italian dances being danced in England.

Dancing played a large role in many Renaissance theatrical productions, such as the English masques - elaborate dance-music-theater works featuring masked dancers. It should be noted, however, that the dance scenes in our two plays are not masques, even though they involve masked dancers. The practice of wearing masks and other disguises to an informal ball was common, the taking on of another persona often allowing the wearers greater freedom of expression in their merrymaking. In Romeo and Juliet it also allows the Montagues to enter the Capulet party unrecognized. The wearing of weapons by men at dances was not unusual. In fact, one sixteenth century dance teacher warned men that attending a party and not having their swords handy could mean "endangering their lives."

Shakespeare's plays contain many references to dance, often in the form of puns. In Much Ado, Beatrice, comparing repentance after marriage to the cinquepace (another name for the strenuous galliard, whose basic five-step pattern consists of four leapt kicks, called "greves," and a jump ) talks of "sink(ing) into the grave" (or, cinqueing into the greve). Dancing also occurs as part of the action of many plays, although Shakespeare does not indicate which particular dances he had in mind. The challenge to the choreographer and director wishing to use authentic period dances is to find appropriate dances which fit the given dialogue and action, or which can be adapted to do so with minimum alteration to the original choreography.

For the first dance scene in Much Ado About Nothing, we have chosen three measures - fairly sedate, walking-type dances, suitable for conversing while dancing (the word "measure" was also a general term for dance"). For the main dance in Romeo and Juliet, we selected a Torch dance to highlight the beginning of the lovers' romance, given the many references to torches in the play. This choice also adds a touch of irony, by having Romeo, who came to the party not wanting to dance (preferring instead to be a stationary torch-bearer), fall in love with a girl who is dancing a torch dance.

Symbolism in dance was common in Elizabethan theatrical productions. Used mainly to evoke harmony and concord (following the Elizabethan world view that dance was the earthly representation of the celestial harmony of dancing stars and planets), dance could also be used to suggest a disruption of harmony. It is not surprising, therefore, that Shakespeare does not have Romeo and Juliet, doomed as they are, dance together. Similarly, in Much Ado About Nothing Claudio and Hero do not dance together until the end of the play, when order is restored. For our final dance in Much Ado we have used circular figures, to reinforce the idea of harmony. The rhythm of our merry dance-song, however, is that of the cinquepace. Will the two couples live happily ever after, or will their married bliss contain just a touch of "repentance"?

Nona Monahin, founder of the Amherst Renaissance Dancers, choreographed the dances for both HSC productions this summer.