You are here

Home › Italy, 16th Century › Cascarde

Allegrezza d'Amore

Source: 
Italian sources, c.1550-c.1620
Caroso
Il Ballarino (1580)
Dance Type: 
cascarda
Number of dancers: 
3
Choreography: 

Two women and a man, standing in a triangle. We'll call the women who stands to the man's right "woman A", and she who stands to his left, "woman B"

First Verse

  1. Riverenza
  2. 2 seguiti spezzati flankingly backwards
  3. 2 passi presti to the left, cadenza left
  4. 2 passi presti to the right, cadenza right
  5. Trabuchetto a piedi pari with left flank back: do in turn, first man, then woman A, then woman B.
  6. 2 passi presti forwards, then Cadenza
  7. 2 Trabuchetti gravi
  8. 2 Seguiti Spezzati flankingly backwards
  9. 2 passi presti forwards, and Cadenza

Second Verse

  1. 2 fioretti a piedi pari flankingly (forwards)
  2. 2 passi presti backwards
  3. 2 seguiti spezzati forwards, the man passing between the women
  4. repeat 1-3, returning to own place
  5. Riverenza minima: man, then woman A, then woman B
  6. 12 seguiti battuti, 6 turning left, 6 turning right
  7. 2 passi presti forwards, and Cadenza

Third Verse

  1. 8 seguiti spezzati in a chain: man goes between women, touching right hand of woman A, then left of woman B. The ladies in turn repeat this. At the end, each is in his own spot.
  2. 2 Passi in gagliarda, Cadenza: man, then woman A, then woman B. (this is fast)
  3. 2 Scambiate LR (these are slow)
  4. 2 Puntate, one forwards and one backwards
  5. Seguito spezzato turning left, and Cadenza

Fourth Verse

  1. 2 Fioretti a piedi pari
  2. 2 trabuchetti
  3. 2 passi presti, Cadenza, to the left
  4. Repeat 1-3 on the right, to the right
  5. 2 battute with left: man, then woman A, then woman B
  6. 2 passo presti scorsi, and Cadenza: man goes between women into place of woman A; woman A goes into place of man; woman B goes into place of woman A. They end in a triangle, as they started.
  7. Riverenza
Discussion: 

There's no repeating "chorus" at the end of each verse, but there is a distinct "solo" section in the middle of each.

Most of the dance is straightforward to reconstruct, but a few things needed working out in class, or are subject to personal interpretation.

Here's what we do:

Second verse:

We do the fioretti a piedi pari flankingly forwards, just a little, to somewhat balance the following passi backwards, and make passing through with only two spezzati more plausible. It look a little practice to get the places where we need to change which shoulder is forwards right (there aren't many) but was then flowing, comfortable, and made the spacing work well.

We dance the 12 seguiti battuti in very tight circles, almost in place.

Third verse:

Chain: after much experimentation, and with some misgivings, we settled on this: the floor pattern of our chain is exactly as in a "normal" three-person chain in a Caroso dance (e.g. in the Spagnoletta Nuova in Il Ballarino), but with touching of hands, and using 8 spezzati, instead of 6 spezzati, 2 passi and a cadenza.

So: The man moves forwards, takes the right hand of woman A and starts her moving, then turns leftwards, takes woman B's left hands, and exchanges places with her.

Woman B is then ready to take right hands with woman A, and exchange places with her.

Woman A then passes between the other two, taking left hands with the man, exchanging places with him.

The man makes a final pass between the two women, taking left hands with woman B and changing places with her, while the women take a gentler curve to move into place.

Fourth verse:

We do the fioretti and trabuchetti facing inwards, and only the passi to the left and right.

Final pattern: again, settled with some misgivings.

  1. The man walks between the other two women, and ends facing them.
  2. Woman A walks to her left, to stand next to woman B, near where the man had been.
  3. Woman B walks between the other two, and ends facing them.

This pattern leaves each dancer in his or her original orientation with respect to the other dancers (good), but is curiously asymmetric.

The other obvious option, to me, is a simple exchange where you invert the set three times, with each person passing between the other two. This is simple (good), symmetrical (good), but doesn't leave you where you started with respect to the other dancers (bad), and makes the whole set "drift" quite a way (possibly bad).

We've not yet settled on a reconstruction of "passi scorsi" that we're happy with.

 

Music: 

The recordings on Homage to Amor (Angene Feves) and Il Ballarino - Italian Dances (Jeremy Barlow) are both pretty and very danceable. Homage to Amor is quicker.

 

About this translation: 

August 2013. Needs proofing.

Translation: 

Standing facing in a triangle, that is, two ladies and one man, they do the Riverenza, two Seguiti spezzati flankingly backwards, with two Passi presti to the left, and the Cadenza, beginning with the left foot, and another two Passi presti, and the Cadenza to the right, beginning with the right. The man then does a Trabucchetto a piedi pari with the left flank behind: the lady who stands at [his] right hand does the same; and then the last lady does the same. That done, all together they do two Passi presti forwards, and the Cadenza, two Trabuchetti gravi, two Seguiti spezzati flankingly backwards, and two Passi presti forwards, and the Cadenza, beginning each thing with the left foot.

In the second time, they do two Fioretti fiancheggiati a piedi pari together, two Passi presti backwards, with two Seguiti spezzati forwards, the man passing always between the ladies, and at the first pass exchanging places. That done, they return to do the same Fioretti, Passi presti, and Seguiti spezzati: returning each to his own place. Then the man does a Riverenza minima, and then the Lady who stands to the right does another: and she who stands at the left does the same. Then all together they do twelve Seguiti battuti di Canario, six turning to the left, and the other six to the right, with two Passo presti facing, and the Cadenza.

In the third time, they do eight Seguiti spezzati in a chain, the man passing between the women, and touching the right hand of the lady who stands at the right; and the the left of the other lady. Then one lady and the other does this, finding themselves at the end of thse Seguiti each in his own place. The man then does two Passi in Gagliarda, with the Cadenza; the ladies do the same, one then the other. Then they do together two Scambiate, one to the left, and the other to the right: with two Puntate, one forwards and the other backwards: and one Seguito spezzato turning to the left, and the Cadenza facing.

In the fourth time, they will do together Fioretti a piedi pari, two Trabuchetti, and two Passi presti, and the Cadenza to the left, beginning each thing on the left foot. They return to do the same again, on the other side, to the right. Then the man does two battute with the left foot, and the ladies to the same, one then the other. Finally, the man passing between the ladies, he does two Passi presti scorsi, with the Cadenza, placing himself in the place of the lady who stands to his right. She will do the same, going into the man's place. And the lady who stands at the left passing through the middle foes into the place of the other lady, doing the same actions that the others have done. At which they should find themselves in a triangle, as they stood at the beginning of the dance. And to finish the Cascarda they do the Riverenza gracefully together.

Creative Commons License All content on this website is released under the CC BY-SA v3.0 license unless otherwise specified. For full details, please see the copyright page.