Dance show format

For those wanting flavour without the violence, we can provide members in authentic costumes to perform, and teach medieval dance. Dance shows usually last for about twenty minutes, during which time five or six dances can be performed. We include both courtly dances, performed exclusively by the nobility, and peasant dances, which involve most members. We also encourage audience participation!

Dance was an important part of life in medieval Europe, and there are numerous pictorial references showing dancers and musicians.  Unfortunately no written dance steps from the fourteenth century have survived, although a lot of information can be gained from studying visual and other sources. We know from paintings and illuminations, for example, that dances ‘in the round’ were common, and these seem to have been performed in many different contexts ranging from castle halls to village celebrations. These sources can also show the steps that the dancers are performing, and the pattern of their movements.

The dances that we perform are based on visual, musical and other references from the 14th and 15th centuries, and a few are taken from a 16th-century work by Thoinot Arbeau, who was a 16th-century historian of dance. Arbeau’s manual, published in 1588, concerns dances that he called ‘historical’, and was unique in that it includes dance tabulation (where instructions for the steps are lined up against the musical notation). The Paladins perform several of the simpler dance types that Arbeau describes, such as the ‘b.r.a.n.s.l.e’ (pronounced ‘brawl’) and the ‘pavane’. In style, these dance forms are very similar (if not identical) to some of the dances depicted in 14th- and 15th-century sources and as they were viewed as ‘historical’ dance forms in the mid-16th century (when Arbeau was writing), we are confident that they would have been familiar to our medieval counterparts.

We perform both courtly and rustic dances, allowing audiences to compare and contrast the different types of dance and the social contexts in which they could have been performed.  A typical dance display usually lasts around half an hour, consisting of around 4 or 5 dances. Generally between 4-8 dancing couples are present, most of whom will wear courtly costume. A costumed narrator will engage the audience by explaining a little about each dance, and towards the end of the display the audience will be invited into the arena to join us in some of the more rowdy, ‘follow-my-leader style’ dances! This tends to be popular with even the shyest audience member, and we were recently informed by a lady in her seventies that this was the first time she had ever danced and she loved it!

The music that the Paladins dance to is performed by the talented musicians within the group. Dressed, like the dancers, in authentic courtly clothes, and playing reproduction medieval instruments, these musicians provide a lively and historically-accurate accompaniment to the dancing and create a fantastic and unique atmosphere. Instruments that we play include the hammered dulcimer, the fiddle, the gittern, the harp, shawms, crumhorns, recorders, symphony, drums and a tambourine, and we also have some talented singers. We will shortly be producing a separate page dedicated to our musicians so please come back to check!

Please note that at some shows, musical accompaniment to the dance show may be provided by a recorded version of the music (recorded by our musicians), but wherever possible live music will be provided.