La Dame Basse Dance How to For LOTR Elves

La Dame Basse Dance How to For LOTR Elves
A Historically Accurate Princess Dance.

Aren’t elves elusive? These mysterious residents of the faerie realm dance in and out of lore, including Lord of the Rings (LOTR). I can just imagine the LOTR Elves dancing the medieval Basse dance, “La Dame”.

Elves in Mythology

Elves are most often depicted in Celtic and Norse mythology full of song and dance. JRR Tolkien developed his elves based on the lore of both these cultures. In his books, Tolkien describes two types of elves. The first is a serious “medieval” type of elf, like Elrond and the wood elf king. The second is the vivacious singing, dancing and merry making elves of Rivendell. The movie versions of the Hobbit and LOTR elves reflect the serious “medieval” elves processing from place to place.

Elves Basse Dance

Solemn medieval elves would perform a medieval dance. The medieval Basse dance “La Dame” is the perfect fit for a solemn elf dance. Basse refers to a low, or non-jumping court dance with gliding steps.” The earliest record is found in an Occitan poem of the 1320s by Raimon de Cornet, who notes that the joglars performed basse dances. “La Dame” is a processional basse dance that was the predecessor to the renaissance Pavane processional dance.

Elves Basse dance “La Dame”

The bass dance “La Dame” has a triplet beat structure. The beat structure is 3 beats to each measure, more accurately counted as six (“one, two, three, FOUR, five, six”). Basse dance generally uses five basic steps, each step (or pair of steps for singles) takes one measure. The recommended song for “La Dame” is “Jouissance vous donneray” but we used “Winter (Basse Dance)” by Blackmore knights

The very basic steps are:

(R) Reverence
1 relieve (calf raise), 2 then lower left leg back and bend right knee lowering straight down, 3 straighten, 4 then return feet to close.
(b) Branle
Lift heals up 3x, then both down on 4th (like a stationary double) to the 1 beat
(s) Single
Step close without weight, two measures or 6 q counts
(d) Double
3 steps forward on the toes, close on the 4th step (1 measure per step, or 3 quick beats)
(r) Desmarche (or reprise)
1 point back, 2 Lunge back, 3 straighten,4 pull in, hold (4 measures)

Order of steps for Dance La Dame
Basse La Dame per Salisbury Ms., (20 bars)

R b
ss ddd rrr b
ss d r b
ss ddd r b

Order for the LOTR Elves Basse Dance La Dame

Reverence
Branle (look out, forward, in, forward)
Single RF, LF
Double RF, LF (peal out from partner circling back to side by side), RF
Reprise (Desmarche) LF, RF, LF
Branle (look out, forward, in, forward)
Single RF, LF
Double RF
Reprise (Desmarche) LF
Branle (look out, forward, in, forward)
Single RF, LF
Double RF, LF (peal out from partner circling back to side by side), RF
Reprise (Desmarche) LF, RF, LF
Branle (look out, forward, in, forward)

About our LOTR Elves dance

For this historically accurate princess dance, we filmed in the Idledale co forest outside Castle Dunafon for our Rivendell setting. Our princess is Arwin of the Rivendell elves, with King Elrond, wife Celebrían and son Elrohir in the royal elf court. Thank you to:

Robyn Collins as Arwin,