Arbeau's Tourdion

Arbeau speaks relatively briefly about the tourdion (often anglicized to "tordion"), the dance that followed the basse danse as the galliard follows the pavane, in his 1589 work Orchésographie.  But he does give two variations, which I am covering for the sake of completeness.  For details of the rhythm of the tourdion, please see the first post in my galliard series.  Music for the tourdion is played more quickly than that of the galliard and the steps, as a result, are performed closer to the ground and less vigorously:

...the said movement must be performed barely off the ground and gently as a damsel might do it; it is thus the steps and movements are made in dancing the tordion.

There is a textual hint that partners stay together in the tourdion, rather than separating and performing fancy solo steps as in the galliard:

Because in dancing the tordion, one always holds the damsel by the hand and he who dances it boisterously causes needless discomfort and jolting to said damsel.

Along with the older low/high pairing of basse danse/tourdion having gone out of fashion by the time of his writing in favor of the pavane/galliard, this implication of continuous contact might account for the limited repertoire of variations.  There is only so much one can comfortably vary one's steps while attached to a partner.

(The quotes above are from Mary Stewart Evans' English translation of Arbeau.)

Starting foot & opening reverence
Both sequences are given starting with the left foot and ending in a posture with the right foot forward.  This enables them to be easily fitted together in sequence: always lead off with the left foot, which is behind, to start a new step sequence.

Arbeau does not specify a révérence at the start of the tourdion as he does with the galliard, though one may be assumed.  The man's reverence is done by sliding the right foot back, bending the knee, while removing his hat and bowing (illustration).  The hat is replaced as the man rises and brings his right foot back beside the left.  Arbeau does specify a right-foot reverence so that one may do it towards the woman with whom one is dancing.  The woman's reverence is simply to gently bend both knees and then rise again.

I prefer to slide my left foot back slightly just before beginning the first cinq pas in order to more gracefully perform the first kick forward.

Step terminology (French original)
Kick (grève or pied en l'air): hop on one foot and kick the given foot forward (kick left = hop on right and kick left forward).  According to the text, the grève is a higher kick than the pied en l'air (illustration, which does not distinguish the two).  All of the kicks in the tourdion are the lower pied en l'air.

Toe (marque pied): hop on one foot and touch the toe of the other beside it; (illustration).

Cross (marque talon): hop on one foot and kick the given foot gently across the other leg (illustration).

Jump (sault): jump into the air (land in a posture)

Posture (posture): land with weight on both feet, one forward of the other.  A posture left means the left foot is in front (illustration).

Two tourdion sequences
(to be read vertically, left column then right column)

1. Arbeau's basic cinq pas, the same as his cinq pas for the galliard except that in the faster tourdion, the kicks should be smaller.
1    kick L                                kick R
2    kick R                                kick L
3    kick L                                kick R
4    kick R                                kick L   
5    jump                                  jump
6    posture L                           posture R

2. A cinq pas featuring a series of touches or taps of the toe and heel in alternation.
1    toe L                                   toe R
2    heel L                                 heel R
3    toe R                                   toe L
4    heel R                                 heel L
5    jump                                   jump
6    posture L                            posture R