Tudor Tale of the Week

Henry VIII Prancing

In his youth, Henry VIII was very skilled at a dance called the tourdion, which involved four high leaps and a cadence where the dancer landed on both feet.  It required a lot of athleticism to do it well, and he often danced it with his sister Mary because she too was a skilled dancer.  But the tourdion was exhausting, so there was usually a basse danse after:  a dance characterized by slow, graceful, gliding movements that allowed the dancers to catch their breath.

This image is free from wikisource and depicts Henry VIII with Anne Boleyn