strathspey@strathspey.org:28041

Patricia Ruggiero

RE: Lead up - which hand?

Nov. 5, 2001, 4:13 a.m. (Message 28041)

Rosemary Harrison wrote:
"(Before that, I believe there was a very early version where both the man
and the woman had their palms facing down.)

Do you have a copy of Arbeau's _Orchesography_?  The drawings are rather
naive.  In two different places there are pictures of a couple executing the
"reverence" and it is obvious that the man and woman have nearer hands
joined.  What's maddening is that in these quite simple drawings it is
impossible, to me at least, to tell the orientation of their hands.  I had
always assumed that the man's palm faced upward, the woman's downward.
Following each of these there is a picture illustrating "pieds joints" (same
picture in both cases) --   and now that you mention it, I could almost make
the case that both those little hands have their palms facing downward, the
woman's hand seeming to be resting on top of the man's.  The accompanying
text, explaining the dance figure, doesn't address the subject of the hands.

Pat