Bassa Danza

The Bassa Danza is one of the two major styles of 15th Century Italian Dance, the other being the ballo. Its name literally means low dance and indicates that it does not include large leaps.

According to Antonio Cornazano a Bassa Banza was always followed by a saltarello. The choreographies for several Basse Danze, such as Febus, also include choreographies for the following saltarello.

Music

There are only three pieces of bassa danza music that survive from the 15th century dance texts. The music is in 6/8, and it seems that the music was freely interchangeable, provided that the number of bars in the music matched the dance.