contredanse française

dance

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June 24, 2026

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The contredanse was an 18th-century French dance for multiple couples, evolving from the English country dance. Initially, it used "longways" formations where couples danced to the head of a line, performed a duet, and then yielded to the next couple. Later, French contredanses adopted square formations, leading to the popular cotillion and quadrille. This dance required cooperation to execute various geometric figures, as steps were not always standardized. As a musical form, it was written in ²/₄ or ⁶/₈ time and was used by composers like Beethoven and Mozart.1

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Western dance
English social dance
…anglaises; the rounds became the contredanses françaises, which were also known as cotillions and quadrilles. These figure dances, which quickly spread to Spain, Germany, Poland, and other countries, were the dances of the rising middle class. By no means revolutionary in their content, they were nonetheless a distinct declaration of…
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…anglaises; the rounds became the contredanses françaises, which were also known as cotillions and quadrilles. These figure dances, which quickly spread to Spain, Germany, Poland, and other countries, were the dances of the rising middle class. By no means revolutionary in their content, they were nonetheless a distinct declaration of…
Read More