page_title: Medieval dance
section_title: Couple dances
hierarchical_section_title: Medieval dance / Couple dances
caption_attribution_description: Codex Manesse, fol. 70v: Heinrich von Stretelingen,
context_page_description: Sources for an understanding of dance in Europe in the Middle Ages are limited and fragmentary, being composed of some interesting depictions in paintings and illuminations, a few musical examples of what may be dances, and scattered allusions in literary texts. The first detailed descriptions of dancing only date from 1451 in Italy, which is after the start of the Renaissance in Western Europe.
  By the end of the Middle Ages, some characteristics that were to remain for centuries can be seen to be established. Court dance largely involved mixed couples but dancing in a larger formation. The basse danse type is seen in most illustrations, where the dancers process in a dignified fashion without raising their feet far from the floor. Perhaps this is because it was easier for artists to depict. Popular dance styles, some no doubt related to modern folk dance, British country dance and other styles, tended to be more energetic and were often performed by a single gender, as circle dances, line dances, or in other formations.They might involve singing by the dancers, which court dances apparently did not.
context_section_description: According to German dance historian Aenne Goldschmidt, the oldest notice of a couple dance comes from the southern German Latin romance Ruodlieb probably composed in the early to mid-11th century. The dance is done at a wedding feast and is described in the translation by Edwin Zeydel as follows:
  the young man arose and the young lady too.
  He turns in the manner of a falcon and she like a swallow.
  But when they came together, they passed one another again quickly,
  he seemed to move (glide) along, she to float.
  Another literary mention comes from a later period in Germany with a description of couple dancing in Wolfram von Eschenbach's epic poem Parzival, usually dated to the beginning of the 13th century. The scene occurs on manuscript page 639, the host is Gawain, the tables from the meal have been removed and musicians have been recruited:
  Now give your thanks to the host that he did not restrain them in their joy. Many a fair lady danced there in his presence.
  The knights mingled freely with the host of ladies, pairing off now with one, now with another, and the dance was a lovely sight.
  Together they advanced to the attack on sorrow. Often a handsome knight was seen dancing with two ladies, one on either hand.
  Eschenbach also remarks that while many of the noblemen present were good fiddlers, they knew only the old style dances, not the many new dances from Thuringia.
  The early 14th century Codex Manesse from Heidelberg has miniatures of many Minnesang poets of the period. The portrait of Heinrich von Stretelingen shows him engaged in a "courtly pair dance"  while the miniature of Hiltbolt von Schwangau depicts him in a trio dance with two ladies, one in each hand, with a fiddler providing the music.
caption: Heinrich von Stretlingen
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