A lecture on dancing in medieval England and its contentious place in society alongside the increasingly sombre influence of the church: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-sing-and-dance

During the eighteenth century, Western Europe gradually relinquished a form of musical experience that had been vital to the life of royal courts, town squares and streets for the best part of a thousand years: the company dance performed by dancers, especially young women, holding hands and moving in a ring or a line. Medieval poems, sermons, chronicles and a great many other kinds of writing reveal much about these dances: where they were performed, when, by whom and to what effect, enabling us to restore a picture that has greatly faded over the centuries.

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/medieval-music-to-sing-and-dance

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