Monferrina

Monferrina is a lively Italian folk dance in 6
8 time named after the place of its origin, Montferrat, in the Italian region of Piedmont. It has spread from Piedmont throughout Northern Italy, in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Friuli-Venezia Giulia and even into Switzerland. In Piedmont, it is usually accompanied by singing and it is danced by several couples.[1]

The dance starts with two circular promenades by couples arm-in-arm using a lively march step. The individual couples then join both hands for a cross-step with bent knees. The dance often contains bows and mimed teasing and coaxing.[1][2]

The dance goes under several different names: Monferrina di Friuli, Monfrenna bulgnaisa (from the province of Bologna), Monfrenna mudnaisa (from the Province of Modena), Giardiniera or Jardinière and Baragazzina.[1][3]

Sachs takes the two part structure of the dance, a procession followed by a couple figure, as indicative of its antiquity along with other Italian folk dances of this type such as the Trescone, Giga and Bergamesco.[4]

English country dance

A Monferrina was an 18th-century country dance, named for its Italian place of origin, which became popular in England around 1800 under the names monfrina, monfreda, and manfredina. It was a lively dance to music in 6/8 time. Collections of music for the dance include Wheatstone's Country Dances for 1810.[5]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (1931). Costumi, musica, danze e feste popolari italiane. Roma: Edizione O.N.D.
  2. ↑ Galanti, Bianca M. (1950). Dances of Italy. New York: Chanticleer Press. p. 7–8.
  3. ↑ Ungarelli, Gaspare (1894). Le vecchie danze italiane ancora in uso nella provincia bolognese. Rome: Arnaldo Forni. p. 64,67,71.
  4. ↑ Sachs, Curt (1963). World History of the Dance. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 278. ISBN 0-393-00209-8.
  5. ↑ "Monferrina" in Don Michael Randel, ed. (1986). New Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-61525-5.
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