Conto dell'Orco (Il Ballarino)

 



Conto dell'Orco is one of Caroso's simpler dances, from Il Ballarino in 1580. This reconstruction is by Adina Hamilton.

This dance is a balletto in duple time. It looks very much like a simple cascarda, however, with a simple verse/chorus structure. Its main difference from a cascarda is that all cascarde are in triple time, whereas this is entirely in duple time.

The dance begins with one man and one lady, standing quite close together, facing each other.

 


Figure 1

In each of the seguiti, make a half circle so that the couple are changing places on each one. This is only really possible if you are close enough together.

1-2

RvL

Riverenza

3-5

SgL SgR SgL

3 Seguito ordinario circling to the left.

6

TbR TbL TbR

3 Trabuchetti

7

Trango L, R

2 Trangi, stepping diagonally away from your partner.

8

Sz CdL

Finish with a seguito spezzato doing a full turn over your left shoulder and end with a cadenza.

 


Figure 2

This is a simple variation of figure 1.

1-5

SgL SgR SgL SgR SgL

5 Seguiti circling to the left.

6

TbR TbL TbR

3 Trabuchetti

7

Trango L, R

2 Trangi, stepping diagonally away from your partner.

8

Sz CdL

Finish with a seguito spezzato doing a full turn over your left shoulder and end with a cadenza.

 


Figure 3

Man's variation – only the man does this part.









Note that the last three bars form a chorus, and are the same as the last three bars of the earlier parts.

1-2

DL

1 Doppio forwards on the left foot. Note that this is fairly slow – half the speed of the seguito ordinarii from the last two verses.

3

PR PL

2 passi backwards, right then left.

4

TbR TbL

2 trabuchetti gravi. These are a bit slower than the trabuchetti done earlier.

5

RpR RpR

2 riprese to the right. You should now be back to the same place where you started the dance.

6

TbR TbL TbR

3 Trabuchetti

7

Trango L, R

2 Trangi, stepping diagonally away from your partner.

8

Sz CdL

Finish with a seguito spezzato doing a full turn over your left shoulder and end with a cadenza.

 


Figure 4

Lady's variation – the lady repeats everything that the man did in part III.

 


Figure 5

This part begins with a slow change of place, then concludes with the man and the lady both dancing their solo parts at the same time.

1 – 2

PL PR SgL

This time changing places with two passi and a seguito, beginning on the left foot.

3-4

PR PL SgR

Change back to place with two passi and a seguito

5-6

DL



During these last 8 bars the man and the lady both do the solo parts (as in III and IV) but at the same time.

7

PR PL

8

TbR TbL

9

RpR RpR

10

TbR TbL TbR

11

Trango L, R

12

Sz CdL