ABSTRACT
The fact that both men and women could take part in the same carole leads one to consider their relative number and disposition in the dance. There is ample evidence that the dance was indeed circular. The idea of the carole as a kind of wheel is one that had been taken up by Dante. The circle is a closed circle, not an arc of couples radiating from a central point, although Sahlin was misled by a number of texts into thinking that this, on occasion, could be the case. From details garnered from texts extending over three centuries, that the features of the carole can be described quite precisely. For each element of the dance choreographers are able to cite fictional and non-fictional sources to establish its choreography. The very simplicity of the dance explains why no written choreography or dance manual was required.
