Basse danse

The word basse describes the nature of the dance, in which partners move quietly and gracefully in a slow gliding or walking motion without leaving the floor, while in livelier dances both feet left the floor in jumps or leaps.

The earliest record of a basse danse is found in an Occitan poem of the 1320s by Raimon de Cornet, who notes that the joglars performed them.

[4] The basse danse was often followed by a tourdion, due to their contrasting tempi, and these were danced and composed in pairs en suite like the "pavane and galliard" and the "allemande and courante".

[5][6] Early music consisted of songs based on a tenor cantus firmus and the length of the choreography was often derived from the verse of the chanson.

[7] A treatise in the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels[full citation needed] gives us information about the elements of basse danse and the choreography of specific examples.