Carol
- For the carol as a musical form see:Carol, Christmas carol
The most documented form of dance during the Middle Ages is the carol also called the "carole" or "carola" and known from the 12th and 13th centuries in Western Europe in rural and court settings. It consisted of a group of dancers holding hands usually in a circle, with the dancers singing in a leader and refrain style while dancing. No surviving lyrics or music for the carol have been identified. In northern France, other terms for this type of dance included "ronde" and its diminutives "rondet", "rondel", and "rondelet" from which the more modern music term "rondeau" derives. In the German-speaking areas, this same type of choral dance was known as "reigen".
Read more about this topic: Medieval Dance
Famous quotes containing the word carol:
“It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!”
—Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906)
“Shall I tell you who will come
to Bethlehem on Christmas Morn,
Who will kneel them gently down
before the Lord, new-born?”
—Unknown. Words from an Old Spanish Carol (l. 1–4)
“Our enemy is by tradition our savior, in preventing us from superficiality.”
—Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938)