[Bg-dance] Bransles

tmcd at panix.com tmcd at panix.com
Thu Aug 18 22:15:38 PDT 2005


On Thu, 18 Aug 2005, Charlene Charette <perronnelle at earthlink.net> wrote:
> tmcd at panix.com wrote:
>
> > Oy!  Perronnelle!  I know you're lurking -- I can hear you pavaning.
>
> Sorry for the delay.  I was at Urbino for two weeks

Oh, you poor baby.  I'm so sorry for you.

> then caught a nasty bug and was miserable for the next two.

Ow, now I *am* sorry for you.

> > Hermit's Bransle.  The chorus I learned (best I remember since it
> > was years ago) was: turn single 180 degrees with four kicks, then
> > cross arms over the chest and bow twice from the waist, then again
> > to face the center of the circle.
> >
> > You give the chorus (aside from three kicks while turning) as
> >     with arms crossed over the chest and bowing, touch right toe
> >     to left instep, then left toe to right instep, then right toe
> >     to left instep and close
>
> When you say "you give the chorus" which source are you quoting?  I've
> written up dances for many booklets.

The Ansteorran Kingdom Dance Symposium recently completed.

> [ marque pied right / marque pied left / marque pied right / feet
> together ]
> during these steps the dancers cross their arms and bow their heads as
> young novices do

Doesn't expressly say one bow or multiple, so I'll assume one bow.

> "Marque pied" is described thusly:
> Arbeau: Sometimes, when one foot has taken the body's weight and is
> placed in position to support it*, the toe of the other foot is
> brought close up against the foot on the ground.  This movement is
> called marque pied, to wit, marque pied droit [right] when the right
> toe performs the movement and marque pied gauche [left] when the
> left toe does.
>
> * Sutton footnote:
> The French for this passage reads ....  This indicates a leap or hop
> <i>onto<i> the supporting foot, a fact that is not made clear in the
> translation.
>
> ==========
>
> I just tried the dance to the Orchesograpie CD (which recording are
> you using?).  My toe is ending up around the instep of the other
> foot.  I think trying to get the toe to the heel of the other foot
> is putting too much twist in the movement.  Personally, I think the
> marque pied can look similar to a little kid hopping because he has
> to use the toilet.

I was assuming that the feet were planted except for the touching the
instep, which meant that the heels were planted, which means that the
foot that's doing the touching has to twist inward (to move toes while
the heel rotates only), causing the butt-wiggling that so amused
everyone doing it at practice last Sunday.

Instead, with "look similar to a little kid hopping" and weight only
on one foot, it is perhaps more like jogging in place?  So in the
marque pied droit, the left foot has the weight (is planted) and
facing straight out from the body, and the right foot is parallel to
it, touching it, with the toes at the left instep and the heel
slightly raised?

Denyel de Lyncoln
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at panix.com



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