The medieval dances are relatively known little about, having left few hard copies. If some chronicles of time speak about it, none describes them, so that it is today almost impossible to know how they were danced. To this difficulty the problem of musical deciphering is added: the musical Notation is at that time registered on a carried with four lines (and not to five like today), which returns the interpretation of the melody sentences rather random.

Among the dances whose names arrived to us, let us quote:

• the carole, generic term
• the macabre dance (13th century)
• the Estampie (13th century)
• the Swing (14th century)
• the Saltarello (14th century)
• the Tresque (14th century)
• the Low-dance (fine of the 14th century)
• the Tarentelle (15th century)

See too

• Dance of the Rebirth