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The Middle Ages is a term coined by

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15th-century Italian humanists to designate the period between ancient times and the modern period of Western European culture. Later historians further divided the Middle Ages into early, high, and late periods.

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Renaissance

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French term for "rebirth;" it opens the door to modern times in Western Europe.

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The history of the arts is closely linked with the development of the Catholic Church

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Church organized a world in chaos. The Roman Empire Fell while classical antiquity suffered a civilization collapse: • Rome was exhausted and she imploded within • The power of Rome was gone

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Brief historical summary of the early Christian Church:

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The nearly four centuries that followed the fall of Rome, the early period of the Middle Ages, were the Dark Ages (476-ca. 1000) in the Western world. It was a brutal time. Ancient urban civilizations were replaced by small villages. The Catholic Church became the focal point of life, a sanctuary for peace in a violent world teemed with ignorance and barbarism.

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The early church fathers were filled

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With bitter antagonism toward the Roman way of life and the hedonism of the Empire.

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Dark Age

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Church offered unity and universal citizenship.

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Catholic Church and Feudal Lords

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Sources of religious, cultural and political authority.

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Catholic Church was the sole custodian of

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Learning, education and a source of morals.

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The Roman Christian Church offered a creed based on

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Hope & a code of behavior based on love. • The Christian Creed was an elaborate statement of faith

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Church restructured Europe's social and economic life:

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• The Church integrated religious values into lives of the people. • Human pleasures were regarded as distractions "dance and the body were considered evil temptations." • Social gatherings were banned and theaters were closed. The Church feared that the people would return to old pagan ways. • The vagabonds of theater will take to the street, actors, dancers, and mimes will become members of an outcast society. • Dances were considered a 'visible sign,' a of the Roman Empire.

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All the ritual implements incorporated into the church services enhanced the dramatic possibilities of the mass.

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• People could audibly and visibly participate in the ritual of the mass. • The use of rituals by the church took religion from a metaphor to a reality "a feeling god through the senses."

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The development and the occupation of great public spaces; we see the birth of sacred art forms:

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• The mass itself becomes more visually decorative

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According to Karl Young and the "Drama of the Medieval Church: The following ritual components of the mass heightened the personal religious experience of the parishioners:

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The altar-platform was raised to afford the congregation greater visibility. The movements and gestures of the priests became preordained. The dress of the priest becomes elaborate and decorative to the church calendar. Gregorian chants became the sacred music of the church. Tropes were developed to embellish the sacred text. Incense adorns the church with sacred smells. Stained glass windows visually enhanced the colors of light. The drama's of the Medieval Church brings theater to church services.

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Mystery Plays

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Treated only orthodox scriptural events, a general huge topic of world redemption through Christ's sacrifice, with picturesque tableaux from the Old and New Testament

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Miracle Plays

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Were secondary, if not always distinguishable addition. They told legends of the saints which increased from century to century with the facts of new martyrdom's and an identification of real people with scriptural precedent

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Morality Plays

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Were still a later innovation, and through teaching and illustrating truths familiar to church-goers by homely allegorical personifications of virtues, vices, and qualities, that were the most purely secularized of the three.

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Dance of Death Frescoes in French and German churches portray

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Medieval allegory of the universality of death. Death is personified as a skeletal figure that leads all people from all levels of society in a round dance to the grave.

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Dance of Death was a phenomenon

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That was carried on outside the control of the church and aroused serious condemnation by religious authorities. • The custom was believed to have originated in France then filtered into Germany, Italy, Spain, and England.

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Death appears in

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Rituals, songs, poems, and pictures as a dancer. He compels people of every station and age, however reluctant, to dance with him. Each in turn is taken, according to a graduated social scale - saints and sinners, rich and poor, young and old. Death was seen as the universal leveler. Death avenges all wrong, and all, no matter how powerful in the living world, must at last yield to him."

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Dance of Death was never truly a dance

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The tensions this symbol represented itself was in the written word, in the visual arts, and finally in a psychopathic dance. The three components seen in this movement: • Literal/stories - stern warnings of hell and damnation • Visual - skeletons personify death • Dance - Danseomania

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Dance of Death has been interpreted as a form of

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Social and religious satire and the healthy reaction of the people against the strict asceticism of the Church.

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Danseomania and the Dance of Death

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The most striking and unusual dance expression of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance period was the Danseomania, or dance mania, which flourished throughout Europe from the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries. Dance mania took various forms as a mass psychosis resulting from peoples' response to war, plague, famine, religious persecution, and the fear the world was going to end.

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John Martin

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Commented that people of Europe had been so affected by succession of natural calamities (wars, plagues, fires) that they sought an outlet for emotional strain in the dance manias: "Whole communities of people ... were stricken with a kind of madness that sent them dancing and gyrating through the streets and from village to village for days at a time until they died in agonized exhaustion."

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Danseomania

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Was an ominous phenomenon and was characterized by large numbers of people, often entire town populations, dancing until they collapsed or died of exhaustion. Some performed grotesque, hysterical dancing, as if they were carried away by ecstasy, accompanied by wild shouting. • This dance was formless and nameless.

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According to pagan folklore -Danseomania is:

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• Bewitchment, witchcraft and intervention of the devil

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The bite of the tarantula spider known as tarantism

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A form of seizure-like dance which was thought at first to be the result of the bite of the tarantula spider. The dance was deliberately performed in order to avert the effects of the tarantula's poison. The superstitious belief in this "remedy" diminished; it was continued as a traditional folk dance appearing in many Italian provinces - the Tarantella.

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Enlightened people of the day diagnosed Danseomania as resulting from:

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• Group hysteria • Sexual excitement • Contaminated food • Hysterical symptoms of merriment

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Bubonic Plague of 1347 "the great leveler of humanity"

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• No one could escape from its jaws, not wealth nor power, • Not pious living was assurance of deliverance from the dreaded disease.

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Examples of Danseomania include:

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• Hans Christian Andersen "the Red Shoes" • The Pied Piper of Hamelin- 1284

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The Medieval fascination of death and the explanation of the Dance of Death:

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• Lingering pagan beliefs • Ignorance • Folklore • Superstitions

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During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

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People from all strata of society danced for religious and secular reasons. Clergy, male and female nobility, knights, and peasants all danced to celebrate life-span events and religious and secular rituals, and they enjoyed watching entertainers at many occasions

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Priests and clergy

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Performed ritual processions as a part of the mass. Early bishops led sacred devotional dances around the altars on feast days and Sundays.

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Nobility

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Dancing, manners, and etiquette were expected accomplishments for both men and women, who danced in great castle halls for amusement or to celebrate important occasions. • Lords and Ladies devoted much time to learning precise steps and acquiring subtle refinements.

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Knights

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During the 12th century, feudalism and knighthood flourished, defining codes of honor, loyalty, bravery, romantic love, and chivalry, in which etiquette was paramount. • Chivalry revolutionized dancing, endowing it with a code of etiquette, manners, and courtly love.

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Peasants

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Danced for sacred and secular reasons; men and women danced separately or in mixed choral and couple dances. In agrarian society, the dance themes embraced religious ceremonies, life-span celebrations, fertility rites, and calendrical events that had transferred from pagan beliefs and ceremonies into Christian festivals.

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Dance in the Middle Ages can be categorized as

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Associated with the church (liturgical or sacred) or society (secular). Within these two broad categories, dance themes encompassed sacred dance and life-span events that related to religious activities and other occasions.

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Religious Dance in the Middle Ages

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religious dance was both liturgical and sacred. In the early Christian church, liturgical dance was part of the service, but during the Middle Ages it separated from the church. Please read about the following: • Los Seises • Church Festivals • Midsummer of St. John's Eve

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Secular dances in the Middle Ages and Renaissance sprang from sacred dance. Like ancient forms, dance celebrated life-span events and calendrical occasions. Since society was agrarian, fertility was a major theme. Dance was a response to the times and their pressures, such as war and pestilence, amusement and entertainment. Within this broad category of secular dance emerged:

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• Folk dance • Rituals of chivalry • Feudal dances that evolved into dances of the court • Entertainment

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The origins of European Folk Dance:

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• Pagan celebrations with its simple dances and spontaneous and passionate outpourings demonstrated a heightened sense of community and communal energy. • These ancient dances provided the community a robust means of breaking the tedium of daily lives

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Pagan Rites to Religious Festivals these dances were:

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• Social in nature and communal and were passed on generation to generation through oral tradition • The dance steps were loosely organized • The dance steps were named with a simple ordering of the steps • The peasant dances will become the dances of the Renaissance (Court Dance)

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The carole was originally a hymn and processional dance that was performed on church holy days and other festivals.

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• Caroles had both religious and secular connections • The leader sang a verse and the other members sang the chorus. • In their secular form, performed as a ring dance or circle dance while still accompanied by song

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The minstrel wandered from castle to castle and town to town throughout Western Europe, bringing the latest news, fashions, dances, and music to taverns, guild halls, or baron's keeps.

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• The popularity of these dances will be an important part of castle life and social and moral values will be transmitted through their performance. • The minstrel specialized in providing music and musical accompaniment for court entertainments.

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Troubadour performed dance songs that included verses that were sung or played, after which they joined hands and danced.

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• Banned by the church, these artists wandered the European countryside entertaining where they could. • As the church hold slackens they organized court entertainments, and instructed the members of the court on appropriate courtly behavior and social manners.

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The Jester, a permanent resident in noble homes, was a fool or comic character with a connection to the devil.

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• The jester was an entertainer who had skills in acrobatics, stilt walking, tight rope walking, buffoonery and other diverse entertainments.

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Dancing Master

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15th century, social dancing was the standard for training gentlemen and women in the socials behaviors, so they could conduct their lives with a manner of grace. Dancing masters taught dancing and social etiquette to the nobility. Dance teachers supplanted troubadours in artistic circles. Three prominent dance masters from the 15th century: • Domenico da Piacenza • Antonio Cornazano • Guglielmo Ebreo

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Court dances

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Many of the dances performed in the court originated as peasant dances. Those that were originally performed outdoors changed in some ways when they were performed inside. Overtime, after the dances had moved into the court, they became more sophisticated, often changing further in quality and form. The court dances were tied to the musical forms of the period. Dancing at court was an amusement and an entertainment - and an important tribute of a cultured person.

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The Medieval Pageant

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The Medieval pageant brings us closer to the beginnings of the ballet. The pageant was ambulant spectacle that retained certain aspects of the morality, miracle and mystery plays, but in essence it was less genuinely religious • A pageant consisted of a parade of elaborate platforms constructed by the trade guilds of the town. • Various guilds competed with each other in devising ornate, mobile scenes to pay homage to their patron saints and provide splendid advertising for themselves. • These float-like constructions were pulled through the streets, the participants and would end their performance with nourishment offered in the guild halls. • The culinary aspects would take a life of its own--- a festive embellishment of post-pageant feasting. • The banquet

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Renaissance Spectacle

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Italy will be the home/incubator for the birth of a new age. For centuries, massive forces of superstition and ignorance dominated Europe. A new era dawned, shaped by the reawakening of confidence in the ancient notion of human potential. • We see a new concept in human society- the unique worth and privileged place of the individual in the universe, the awakening desire for beauty, and the renewal of the pagan pursuit of happiness.

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The Development of Classical Ballet:

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Ballet took its roots in Italy as the competitive rulers frenzy courts try to out do one another as they try to further develop their prestige in the eyes of their neighbors. The arts gave brilliance and prestige to the Courts of the Renaissance Princes.

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In the 16th century dance dominance moved from

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Italy to France

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Catherine de' Medici

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Marriage to Henry II of France was an important impetus for this transition. Her dominance of the French court as the Queen mother and her love of ballets with underlying political themes led to the production of Le Ballet-Comique de la Reine, the first ballet and libretto in Europe.

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Louis XIII of France (1601 - 1643)

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Louis was a multitalented king who enjoyed producing and performing in court ballets, He composed music for them and was said to have a gift for comic roles.

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Louis XIV of France (1638 - 1715)

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Louis reigned from 1643 to 1715. Not only was he king of the most powerful nation at that time; he was also a dancer and an ardent patron of the arts. • His most famous role was the Sun King • He established Academie Royale de la Musique • He established dance as a profession for both men and women • Jean Baptiste Lully (1632 - 1687) • Pierre Beauchamps (1636 - 1705)

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Dances of the 18th Century

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At the beginning of the century dance was an integral part of the court. In the second half of the century, court life became fragile, until the French Revolution toppled the monarchy and changed the design of the dance. Please discuss the two dances of the period. • The Minuet • The Contradance

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Ballet in the 18th century underwent many changes, choreographers embraced the theory of ballet d' action, the next step in the development of ballet as an art form.

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• 18th - Century Theaters • La Fille Mal Gardee

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. The Romantic Movement (1830 - 1850)

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Was an opposition against the excessive scientific narrowness, authority, and tradition of the 18th century philosophies. • Everything was being subjected to geometrical and mathematical models while demeaning feelings and imagination

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Romantic thinkers

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Refused to conceive of human nature as primarily rational. The enlightened mind criticized religion and faith • Romantics saw religion as basic to human nature and faith.

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Christianity, folklore, folk songs and fairy tales

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Became important in the mind of the Romantic artist. The Romantic Artist was fascinated by dreams and hallucinations - anything that suggested the existence of a world beyond empirical observation and reasoning. Romantic artists revolted against the cold and lifeless classical form. The Romantic artists wanted to express themselves in new and fresh ways • To be an artist was a 'calling'

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Romanticism transformed ballet into an art performed by women for men

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• The ballerina seized the stage from the male star

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Real and the unreal, the earthy and the ethereal, existed side by side - the new ballet became richer as the dancers style contrasted with each other:

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• Movements that were earthbound or terre a terre. These movements were fast seen in character dances or national folk dances • Movements that were poetic steps of elevation were ethereal and light and seen in other worldly scenes

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Theatrics of the Romantic Dance:

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• Gas lighting was used to light the stage • The house lights were lowered to support the mood or atmosphere • The curtained was lowered between acts to set the stage

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Marie Taglioni (1804 - 1884)

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Became the embodiment of the spirit of Romanticism. Taglioni's unique quality of purity and lightness created an ethereal style that became the symbol of the romantic era. • Pointe Work

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Fanny Elssler (1810 - 1884)

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Known for her fiery temper and earthy movements, quite the opposite of the romantic image of ballerinas. Elssler offered a contrast to the femininity of the other romantic-era ballerinas. She was a versatile dancer and actress who embodied the standards of the 19th-century female dancer.

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Jules Perrot (1810 - 1892)

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Considered the greatest male dancer of the Romantic era. His ballets were known for their dramatic plots and expressive choreography.

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The Romantic Ballets

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• La Sylphide (1832) • Giselle (1841) • Pas de Quatre (1845)

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Ballroom Dances of the 19th Century

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• The Quadrille • Waltz • Polka

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The Film "Dance at Court"

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To succeed at court, a man of ambition had to be as accomplished in dancing as he was in riding, fencing, and fine speech. Besides the dance master where did a courtier in the time of Louis 14th get that skill? • Dance Manuals

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Classical Ballet uses the same language worldwide

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French. This language comes from the times of Louis 14th and the professionalism of classical ballet

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What was Louis 14th most famous role?

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• Apollo the Sun King

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Why was it important for a courtier to execute dance steps correctly in the Court of Louis 14th?

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• Ballet was a demonstration of deportment, rank and prestige

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How is the Court of Louis 14th seen today?

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• Classical Ballet

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