Katherine's Renaissance Dance Pages

The bransle: is always done to the left (though I used to have the men do left, and the women right, which is very pretty). 1 - step a little to the left with your left foot, 2-3, bring the right foot near the left, but without allowing it to toch the ground; 4 - step a little to the right with the right foot, 5-6 bring the left foot near the right, finishing with it hanging in the air in front of the right foot, ready to make a simple left.

I often do these as if they were a pair of continentie in 15thC Italy, rising and falling a little with the step left and again with the step right. That's very pretty, but it would be more consistent with the rest of my reconstruction to treat the branle as one unit: rising onto the toes with the step left, and not lowering again until after the step right. This can also look lovely, but I'm not so good at it.