On a mailing list, someone asked me:
Greetings Katherine,
I have a question that's been bugging me for some years, perhaps you know something about it? I vaguely remember reading in Arbeau (I think) several years ago that one should not elevate one's hands while dancing as is common SCA practice, but should rather hold one's partner's hands at natural level. I was under impression that the elevated hand position was closer to quadrilles and minuets and 1950's Holloywood Mejeeval than a period practice. Is that right or is my brain on the blink?
My response seemed worth recording, so here it is:
I'm not sure about what Arbeau *says* (though I could look it up if I felt the urge; the book's just in the next room), but his "Orchesographie" contains woodcuts showing various positions and movements, and in the couple of pictures where the dancers are holding hands it is at a "natural" level.
Examples (from Greg Lindahl's SCA Dance page):
Similarly, images from Caroso's "Il Ballarino" (from Greg Lindahl's SCA Dance page again) show hands at a "natural" level:
One picture of court dance in France in the 16th century is the wedding of the Duc de Joyeuse. Hands at natural level again:
The most commonly known picture of English dance in the 16th century is the "Wedding at Bermondsey". I can't find it on the web, but I've got a smallish picture here in a book and peering at it I can't see anyone with their hands above natural level.
Finally, I've got a woodcut in a book on life in Elizabethan and Jacobean times, from a document called "The Doome, Warning all Men" from 1581. Purporting to show country dancing, it depicts four people in middle to upper middle class clothes dancing what appears to be a bransle, accompanied by a drummer. Hands are at natural level.
So we have at least five sources showing hands at natural level, two of which are instruction books from which SCA dances are derived. In constrast, we have no depictions of hands held anywhere higher. The conclusion seems obvious ;)