Die Gaillarde und ihr Erbe

Don Juan of Austria dances in the face of the enemy during the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571, performing a gaillarde. This peculiar testimony of a war dance in our Western culture deserves a more in-depth examination. In two parts—one historically oriented and the other culturally anthropological—efforts are made to gather evidence to reveal traces, impressions in the essence of the dance, much like those on a repeatedly described parchment, which the gaillarde carries as its heritage. Mareike Greb has presented an exceptional master's thesis in the field of historical dance and dancing. In a relatively concise space, she exemplarily offers a study that culturally anthropologically questions the gaillarde, known as a courtly Renaissance dance, based on extensive source analysis. Starting from the examination of the dance in a specific historical context...