Bizzaria d'amore (Variations on a theme of Cesare Negri)

This work is an adaptation of the original sixteenth century dance melody from Italy. It was specially written around 1990 for dance performances with organ accompaniment with students of the then Historical Dance department of the Rotterdam Dance Academy, now Codarts. For this purpose, dance teacher / choreographer Vera Baris had reconstructed the original choreographies on the accompanying dance melodies from sixteenthcentury treatises. One of these treatises was Le Grazie d'Amore, from the Italian dancer and choreographer Cesare Negri (c.1535 - c.1605). Born in Milan, he founded a dance academy there in 1554.
He was an active court choreographer for the nobility in Milan. Le Grazie d'Amore was the first text on ballet theory to expound the principle of the five basic positions. It was republished in 1604 as Nuove Inventioni di Balli (New Inventions of the Dance).The dances were originally monophonic tunes, which Lelie developed into virtuoso variation works.

Sheet music and digital edition (pdf) can be ordered at http://www.boeijengamusic.com.