| Description | VHS video containing a short promotional documentary film relating to the Gresley dance manuscript (D77/4/25/25). Begins with an interview with County Archivist Margaret O'Sullivan (1945-2021) at Haddon Hall, showing the Gresley dance manuscript to the camera, explaining the volume's origins, its possible links with Derbyshire and how the Conservator identified a watermark dating the paper on which it is written. Later scenes show a woodwind/string quartet in contemporary dress performing music of the period on authentic instruments, with dancers inside a large room in Haddon Hall performing choreography from the volume. Interview with musicologist David Fallows of University of Manchester (b1945), explaining the cultural context of the document and his own experience of understanding the choreography and the music. Interview with Jennifer Nevile, expert on medieval dance, discussing connections between the dances in the notebook and those from 15th century Italy.
The five dances are:
Prenes a Gard.
Talbott.
Esperans.
Li Beaus desconus.
Northumberland. |
| Administrative History | In March 1999, five dances from John Banys's notebook, a manuscript in Derbyshire Record Office, were re-enacted by the Capriol Dancers, accompanied by the Bedford Waits, in the Great Hall at Haddon Hall, near Bakewell in Derbyshire.
This was the first time in 500 years that these dances have known to be performed. The setting was as authentic as possible - the Great Hall at Haddon was built in the late 15th century and is unaltered. Derbyshire Record Office commissioned this performance to bring to life to a contemporary audience this important evidence of Derbyshire's medieval cultural heritage. |