Education - Tudor Dance

In this activity, the students will learn some country dances and will see some court dances demonstrated.

At court and in the houses of the nobility, the younger members of the family would learn court dancing and could spend an hour a day perfecting their skills. Court dance was used as a performance to entertain by small groups of dancers. In contrast everyone joined in the social dances of the period which were based on country dances which required far less skill.

30 - 60 minutes should be allowed for each group participating in this activity.

Court dance changed radically between the Henrician period and the Elizabethan period and either style can be covered, or for older groups, both styles can be demonstrated to show how music and dancing changed during the 16th century.

Additional topics that can be covered are music sources from the 15th century (use of source materials); dance manuscripts and books (use of source materials); and learning to play some simple tudor tunes.