A dance as distinguished as the minuet was the Gavotte, performed by couples in joyous, sparkling little steps. Its foundation was three steps and an assemblé in quadruple time, commencing on the fourth beat of the bar. It starts in a line or a circle, one couple separating themselves from the rest. It has six figures. The first figure consists of four gavottes forward, four gavottes round, four back, four around again, the dancers hand in hand, the figures always accompanied by graceful head movements, the partners turning towards each other or apart. The following three movements are nearly the same, with slight variations. The fifth consists of four skating steps and gavotting around the partner. The sixth figure consists of gavotting forward three times, pirouetting back, raising the foot up to the heel, and advancing four times. In the Gavotte the partners generally kissed each other, as they did in so many other dances. In later days the cavalier presented a flower in the course of the figure instead. The Gavotte was a favorite dance of Louis XV, Marie Antoinette and Napoleon. Lully, Gluck and Grétry composed pretty gavottes, and it was frequently performed on the stage by Gardel and Vestris.
The Rigaudon, which enjoyed a great popularity at all the European castles and courts till the French Revolution, was rather intricate. In it each figure occupied eight bars and both dancers started together without taking hands. The dance consisted of seven figures, the first being a sliding step and four running steps, turning, posing and repeating with the opposite foot. The second consisted of turning to left and right alternately four times, and sliding backwards. The third figure was danced diagonally to the right with running steps, turning, posing and repeating. The fourth figure was a graceful hopping and turning, repeating, running diagonally to the right and turning with the arms out straight. The fifth was in two half turns, one turn and repetition. The sixth was three steps left with arms over the head, hopping around, turning to left and right, posing with right hand down and the left hand above the head. The seventh consisted of balancing four times on the left foot and four times on the right and posing. Like the music of so many other old social dances, that of the Rigaudon was of extremely gracious cadences, with sentimental pathos and sweet, gay melodic turns. Music combined with dancing carried gladness and joy into the soft-shaded ball-rooms, bringing smiles and laughter to the lips of the picturesque gatherings.
Somewhat resembling the Minuet, but with quicker steps, was the celebrated French Passepied, with which most of the balls began, all the guests dancing around hand in hand. It originated many other old-time social dances with song. It opened with the dancers joining hands and facing each other, then setting to each other with the pas de Basque, bringing the first left shoulder forward and then the right, and changing their places with a waltz step. The partners cross hands, placing the arms round each other’s neck and making the pirouette with eight pony steps, pawing the ground and then turning. The dance consists of ten figures, each of which demands some dramatic talent.
Other celebrated old dances were the Galliard, consisting of five figures, that require some pirouettes, pas de bourrées, coupés, dessous and springing. Similar to this was the Tourdion, which was more of a glissade movement. The Canaries was a queer old dance, very popular in England and Germany. It had seven figures and started with a pas jeté, by throwing the right foot over the left, and the left over the right. In the last movement the partners held hands vis-à-vis, turning each other without separating hands, posing vis-à-vis one bar and repeating four bars. History tells us how in former times queens and princesses often fell in love with graceful male dancers as did their husbands with the pretty women dancers. Queen Elizabeth fell in love with young Hatton, an insignificant London lawyer, whom she first met at a ball dancing the Galliard. Sir Perro used to say that Hatton danced into the court by the Galliard. It is said that the favors which the virgin monarch extended to the young lawyer excited the jealousy of the whole court, especially that of the Earl of Leicester, who, thinking to depreciate the accomplishment of his rival, offered to introduce to Her Majesty a professional dancer whose performances were considered far more wonderful than those of Hatton. To this the royal lady exclaimed: ‘Pish! I will not see your man; it is his trade!’
A languishing eye and a smiling mouth were considered indispensable accessories to a fashionable society dance. Like the prevailing style of dress and manners, the dances were too delicate and artificial to last. The high-heeled shoes, the elaborately piled-up structures of powdered hair and ornament, and the dresses with long trains were by no means favorable to virility and sincerity. Like all effeminate art, the nobility dances of the past lacked spontaneity and inspiration.
The Ball
After a painting by Auguste de Saint-Aubin