Processoning with Death Beyond the Middle Ages: Influences of the Dances of Death

Identifier:  imarina:9326426

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina9326426

Authors:  Francesc Massip Bonet

Abstract:
We consider that the late medieval dance of death was based on secular practices that were well established in the popular tradition to accompany the dead in their journey to the afterlife. It would therefore not be an "edifying fiction", as J.C. Schmitt put it, at least with regard to the ceremonial and the dance practices related to the farewell of the dead. When dealing with the characteristic choreographic form of the dance of death, it is necessary to think of very common figures in the history of dance: the circle and the row. The quintessential medieval dance, the "carola", combined them both, with abundant iconographic samples throughout Europe. Thus, the "carola" would have functioned as the matrix form of the late medieval dances of death, the last echo of which seems to be hinted at in a dance that has survived for centuries in popular practice: the "contrapas". This is corroborated by its solemnity and circumspection1.