Orchesography, or, the Art of Dancing / The Art of Dancing by Characters and Demonstrative Figures

Of Time, Measure, or Cadence.

Common Time, is used in Gavots, Galliards, Bouree’s, Rigandons, Jiggs, and Canaries.

Triple Time, is made use of in Courants, Sarabands, Chaconnes, Passacailes, Minuets, and Passe-Pieds.

And Quadruple Time, is made use of in slow Tunes, as appears by the second Tune in the following Plate, and the Tunes called Loures.

To Tunes of Common or Triple Time, a Step is put for each Barr or Measure; and to Tunes of Quadruple Time, you must put two.

It is to be observ’d nevertheless, that in Courant Movements, two Steps are put to each Barr or Measure; the first of which takes up two parts in three of the Measure, and the second takes up the third part; and in the Minuet, one Step is put to two Barrs or Measures.

The Barrs or Measures in Dances, must be marked in like manner with those in Musick, viz. with little Barrs crossing the Tract, which are to agree with those of the Tune.Example.

You will understand by the following Examples, how each Step agrees with the Tune to which they are composed.

Common time

Triple time

Example of Steps which doe agree with the Measure of Common or Triple Time.

Quadruple Time.

Lovres

Example of Steps agreeing with Quadruple Time or Louves.

If it happens that you have occasion to put more Steps in a Measure, than are in the foregoing Examples, the following Rules must be observed.

If, for Example, you would in a Measure of Common Time, or half a Measure of Quadruple Time, which is the same thing, put a Fleuret and a Bound; the three Steps composing the Fleuret, must have a double Tie to join them, and which will shew their Motion to be as swift again, as if there had been but one; the Bound also must be joined to the Fleuret with a single Tie only; by which you will know, that these two Steps are in Effect but one.

Examples.

If you would put the same Step in a Measure of Triple Time, the two first Steps of the Fleuret must only have a double Tie.

When in Dancing some Measures of the Tune, are to be let slip, whether in the beginning or middle of the Dance, it must be mark’d in the following manner, vis. by a little Stroke crossing obliquely the Tract, and as many of them are to be mark’d, as there are Barrs to be let slip; and in describing a half Measure, half the Stroke only must be mark’d.

Three Measures and a half.

The same Stroke longways, parallel with the Tract, is equivalent to four of the foregoing Strokes, and takes up four Measures of the Tune.

Fourteen Measures.

For a Time, half Time, or quarter Time, &c. they may be mark’d in the same manner as they are in Musick.

A quarter Time. A half Time. A Time.

In Tunes, which begin with odd Notes, as Gavots, Chaconnes, Jiggs, loures, Bouree’s, &c. the foregoing Marks must be made Use of in the beginning of the Tract.

The Letters of the Alphabet, which are plac’d upon the Steps in the following Example, and which are also plac’d over the Notes of the Tune, demonstrate the Time or Cadence of a Dance.

Of the Figure.

A regular Figure, is when two or more Dancers move contrarily, the one to the Right, and the other to the Left.

A regular Figure.

An irregular Figure, is when two Dancers move together, both in the same Figure, on the same side.

An irregular Figure.

By the Mark representing the Presence of the Body, you will distinguish the Tract for the Man, from that of the Woman; in that for the Man, the half Circle is single, and that for the Woman, is double. The Distinction for two Men, or two Women Dancing together, is known by a Point plac’d in the middle of the half Circle of one of them, that wherein the Point is, representing the Tract for the Woman Side.

If a Number of Dancers figure together, the Mark for the placing the Body will not be sufficient to distinguish them, (as in a Dance for eight:) On this Occasion therefore, you may make Use of Letters, of which AA may represent two which figure together. BB two others. CC two more, and DD the other two; each of which, will also be distinguish’d by there figuring, and which the following Example will demonstrate.

Some Rules to be observed in the Figures of Dances.

I shall now add, that when in Dancing, several Steps are to be perform’d in the same place, the Tract is then to be respected only as the Conductor of the Step, and not in Relation to the Figure; but where the Steps move continually from one place to another, then the Tract is to be observ’d, not only for the Description of the Steps, but also for the Figure of the Dance. Place your self then where the beginning of the Tract directs, and observe whether the Figure be streight, diametrical, circular, or oblique, whether it be forwards, backwarks, or sideways, if to the right, or to the left; all which I have already demonstrated in the foregoing Pages; then having learnt the Tune, which must be prick’d down on the Top of each Page, add the Steps to the Tune, as has been already shewn, moving in the Figure as is described on the Paper. When it happens that the Tract or Tracts cross one another, the Steps on the one, must leave a sufficient Breach, for the describing the Steps; on the other, to avoid Confusion.

For giving the Hands in Dancing.

When you have thus given one Hand or both, you are not to quit Hands, till you find the same Marks cut through with another little Stroke, which shews, that in that place the Hands are to let go.

Of the Movement of the Arms.

The Arm is represented by the Letters ABC, of which A represents the Shoulder, B the Elbow, and C the Wrist.

Where to place the Motion of the Arms on the Tract.

I shall not pretend to make a long Disquisition on the Motion of the Arms, but shall only add, that as there are three Movements from the Waste downwards, fo there are also three Movements in the Arms, which have a Correspondence, and are agreeing with them below, viz. that of the Wrist, has Relation to the Heel; that of the Elbow, to the Knee, and that of the Shoulder, or the whole Arm, to the Thigh.

You will know when the Arm moves by an arch’d Line, mark’d C D, drawn from that which represents the end of the Arm, which shews the Figure the Wrist makes in moving, as from C to D.

The Movements of the Arms are to be perform’d two ways, upwards or downwards; upwards from the Position of the Arm below, or downwards from the Position above.

The Motion of the Arm upwards, is when the Arm, which is open or extended, closes (in approaching) to the Body ascending, and the Motion of the Arm downwards, is when the Arm, which is clos’d, opens or extends it self descending.

Examples of the Movements of the Arms.

The Arms may either move both together, or one after the other; you will know when the Arms are to move together, by a Line or Tie drawn from the one to the other; and when there is no Tie, they are then to move one after the other.

The Arms may either move alike with the same Movement, as when both Arms either open or extend themselves together, or close, or approach each other at the same time.

Or they may move contrary one to the other, when the one opens, and the other closes.

Some Rules to be observed in writing of Dances.

On the Top of each Page, on which your Dance is describ’d, you must prick down as many Barrs of the Tune, as there are Barns or Measures in the Dance.

Altho’ the Tract serves generally for the explaining the Figure of the Dance, yet it often happens that many Steps are to be perform’d in the same Place, and then (as I have shewn before) the Tract is to have regard only to the Steps. This Tract is only a borrow’d Tract, and which may be drawn any way, as shall be most convenient. As for Example, from A to B, altho’ the Tract is drawn out in length from A to B, the Dancer nevertheless removes not from A, which may also be well understood by the Steps, which are from A to B, which can only be perform’d in the same place.

You must observe at the end of each Page, the place where the Dancer finishes, and to what part of the Room the Face directs, by which means you will readily know where to place the beginning of the Tract in the following Page ; and so continue from Page to Page, to the end of the Dance.

But if in the beginning of a Page, two Dancers should happen to be close together, and some Steps to be perform’d in the same place; which Steps cannot be conveniently described, neither on one side, or the other, and that the Closeness of the Dancers, will not admit of advancing of the Tracts, one towards the other; you must then be oblig’d, instead of placing the Tracts at C D, to retire as far back as will be necessary to describe the Steps, so that the Steps may end at C D.

Or else the contrary may be done, by placing the beginning of the Steps at C D; and instead of describing the Steps one towards the other, they must Separate, as from C to E, and D to F.

You will find these are perform’d without the Dancers moving out of their Places; and both these Examples are equally good, in considering only which agrees best with the Figure of the Dance that follows.

If in the Dances in the second Volume, you find some of the Steps longer than others, you must have no Regard to them, as to their Length in the Description of them, but judge of their Extension by the Distance of Positions, (as I have already shewn in the Termination of the Steps, in their Positions;) so that you are not to conclude any thing from the Length or Shortness of Steps.

FINIS.