Cupido

Cupido is a 15th Century Italian Dance which appears in six different manuscripts. It is classified as a bassadanza.

Reconstruction

This dance is performed by four people., two men and two women.

Steps used

• continentia left and right (CL and CR)
• sempio left and right (SL and SR)
• doppio left and right (DL and DR)
• riverentia (Rv)
• ripresa left and right (RpL and RpR)
• mezavolta right (MzvR)
• continentia left and right (CL and CR)
• volta del gioioso left (VdgL)

Choreography

This dance begins in a line, one behind the other, with the men in first and third positions. Everybody begins with two sempi moving forwards. Then the women advance with a doppio, while the men perform a mezavolta to the right with a doppio. The men should now be standing beside the women, facing the opposite direction. Everybody performs a ripresa left, a ripresa right and a riverentia.

1 SL, SR
2 DL (women) MzvR (DL) (men)
3-4 RpL, RpR
5 RvL

Taking right hands, each couple performs two sempi and a doppio to travel a full circle. Everybody performs a ripresa right to exchange places with their partner. Then men advance with two doppi while the women perform four continentie, alternating left and right. Everybody perfoms a mezavolta with a doppio to end up facing towards each other, then finish with a ripresa left, a ripresa right and a riverentia.

6-7 SL, SR, DL (holding right hands)
8 RpR
9-10 DL, DR (men) CL, CR, CL, CR (women)
11 MzvR (DL)
12-13 RpL, RpR
14 RvL

The women advance towards the men with two sempi, while the men advance with one sempio, and perform a quick mezavolta with a second sempio. The couples should now be side by side. Joining hands they perform a ripresa left, and then drop hands to perform a volta del gioioso and finish with a riverentia. This dance is then repeated with the first two sempi having the women lead off, and the men slip in beside them. From this point on their roles are reversed.

15 SL, SR (women) SL, MzvR (SR) (men)
16 RpL (joining hands)
17-18 VdgL
19 RvL

Music

Theoretically this may be danced to any 17 bar bassadanza tune.