Deborah Bull dances her way through four centuries, from the Renaissance to Romanticism.

Fashion-conscious Europe in the 16th century rejected the floor-bound steps of the previous era in favour of more earthy, lively dances, such as the branle - a kind of line-dancing - the five-step galliard and a shocking dance called La Volta. It's all too much for one critic, who admonished the dancers for "kissing, smooching, slabbering and filthie groping."