- Farandole
The farandole is an open-chain community
dance popular in theCounty of Nice ,France . The farandole bears similarities to thegavotte ,jig , andtarantella . Thecarmagnole of theFrench Revolution is a derivative.Traditionally led by the "
abbat-mage " holding a beribbonedhalberd , the dancers hold hands and skip at every beat; strong beats on one foot, alternating left and right, with the other foot in the air, and weak beats with both feet together. In the village ofBelvédère , on the occasion of the festival honoring patronSaint Blaise , the most recently-married couple leads the dance.Musically, the dance is in 6/8 time, with a moderate to fast tempo, and played by a
flute anddrum .Georges Bizet included a farandole in his "L'Arlésienne" suite.During his time in the 80's metal band "Talas", Billy Sheehan wrote a solo song called "The Farandole". It includes an electric and bass guitar soloing together with drums keeping up the rhythm.
In Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty's ballet there a farandole in the Second Act in the Fourth Scène, where the dames propose a farandole.
Many people use a variety of questionable evidence to argue that the farandole has a history going back to the
Middle Ages . While there are descriptions of line and circle dances, and iconography showing people dancing in lines and circles [http://homepages.tesco.net/~rostibolli/conf2003.html] , there is no reason to assume thatmedieval dance was done like the modern folk farandole.Arbeau , the most well-known source for renaissance line and circle dances such as thebranle , does not contain any dance with these specific steps and figures.The Majesty Demos, the first recording by the band
Dream Theater , contains a song called "The Farandole".External links
* [http://mtcn.free.fr Dances and traditional musics used in the county of Nice (France)]
* [http://www.dance.demon.co.uk/AGC/Articles/Farandole.html A more extensive description of steps]
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