Monferrina
Monferrina is a lively Italian folk dance in 6
8 time named after the place of its origin, Montferrat, in the Italian region of Piedmont. It has spread from Piedmont throughout Northern Italy, in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and even into Switzerland. It also became popular in late 18th-century England as a country dance, under the names monfrina, monfreda, and manfredina, being included in Wheatstone's Country Dances for 1810.[1] In Piedmont, it is usually accompanied by singing and it is danced by several couples.[2]
The dance goes under several different names: monferrina di Friuli, manfréṅna bulgnaiṡa, monfrénna mudnésa, giardiniera (or jardinière) and baragazzina.[2][3]
Execution and background[edit]
The dance starts with two circular promenades by couples arm-in-arm using a lively march step. The individual couples then join both hands for a cross-step with bent knees. The dance often contains bows and mimed teasing and coaxing.[2][4]
Curt Sachs takes the two part structure of the dance, a procession followed by a couple figure, as indicative of its antiquity along with other Italian folk dances of this type such as the trescone, giga and bergamesco.[5]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Don Michael Randel, ed. (1986). "Monferrina". New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-61525-5. This Wheatstone (1768–1823), also named Charles, was an uncle of Charles Wheatstone. "The Dances of Charles Wheatstone & Augustus Voigt" by Paul Cooper, RegencyDances.org
- ^ a b c Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (1931). Costumi, musica, danze e feste popolari italiane (in Italian). Rome: Edizione O.N.D.
- ^ Ungarelli, Gaspare (1894). Le vecchie danze italiane ancora in uso nella provincia bolognese (in Italian). Rome: Arnaldo Forni. pp. 64, 67, 71.
- ^ Galanti, Bianca M. (1950). Dances of Italy. New York: Chanticleer Press. p. 7–8. ISBN 9781258984496.
- ^ Sachs, Curt (1963). World History of the Dance. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 278. ISBN 0-393-00209-8.