Febus

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

Reconstruction

This dance is performed by three people. The original instructions call for one man 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)
• saltarello left and right (SlL, SlR)
• voltatonda left (VtL)

Choreography

The three dancers begin in a line, side by side facing up the hall, and holding hands. The man is standing in the centre.

The dancers perform a continentia left and then right. They then perform two sempi, one doppio left and a ripresa right. This sequence is performed again, however while the women perform the final ripresa the man performs a mezavolta to face down the hall.

CL, CR
SL, SR, DL
RpR

CL, CR
SL, SR, DL
RpR (women) - MzvR (man)

Everybody perfoms two dopi, so that the man moves away from the two women. Everybody perform a mezavolta to face each other again, and then perfome two sempi and two dopi, with the man passing between the two women. All perform a mezavolata right again, a ripresa left then right and a riverentia.

DL, DR
MzvR, SL, SR
DL, DR
MzvR, RpL
RpR, RvL

With the man passing between the women again, all perform 2 saltarelli. Next perform another mezavolta to face each other again, and perform three ripresa, left, right and left. Perform a voltatonda by doing a sempi right and sempio right and a sempio left turing in a full circle over your left shoulder, and then perform a ripresa right.

SlR, SlL
MzvR, RpL
RpR, RpL
VtL, RpR

To complete the dance everybody performs two sempi to come into a straight line. The women then perform a mezavolta right. Joing hands everybody perform a ripresa left, a ripresa right and a riverenita left.

SL, SR, women MzvR
RpL, RpR
RvL

Music

This dance is 31 bars long, and so theoretically any bassadanza music 31 bars long should be able to be used for this.

• A two part arrangement of music especially written for this dance in 2005