Early Dance

Meant to be a concise history of dance, this dry overview is split into two short videos: From the Greeks to the Renaissance and The Baroque Era. We watched the first part, which combined voice-over narration with prints, engravings, and paintings to trace the rise of dance in the Greek theater to the Italian court dances during the Renaissance and the English masques at the court of Queen Elizabeth. A few dances are reconstructed and shown on the video (the colorfully costumed dancers are, unfortunately, filmed with what looks like a simple home camcorder, resulting in poor quality). While the series might have some application in a college level dance course, all others may safely pass on these. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)