Very few people in the 21st century associate classical music with dance. A symphony is more likely to pull you into reverie or a daydream than to get you out of your chair. But that wasn’t always the case. Historically, classical music—back when it was the pop music of its age—was danced to throughout Europe, and methods and styles of dance were as numerous as the cultures that performed them. In fact, dance was so deeply associated with classical music that many of the greatest composers of the age, the geniuses of the craft, would write dances into their compositions!

Some of these classical dances have survived until today: the polka and waltz will sound familiar to any modern listener. Others, like the loure and tarantella, have faded into obscurity. But these obscure dances live on in the great music that was written with them in mind. Below, we’ve assembled a list of our four favorites—dances that may not be familiar but still sound sprightly. Here’s hoping that after familiarizing yourself with them, you find the urge to get up and get down the next time you’re listening to TheClassicalStation!

The Gigue

No, not the JIG—the GIGUE! While related to the wild dance that we’ve all come to associate with Ireland and Scotland, the gigue is what happened after that dance made its way to France.¹ The French took the solo dance of the British Isles, modified it to be danced with a partner, and rendered it significantly more balletic.

The gigue was used to indicate the end of a theater performance or of a dance. And when composers included a gigue in their scores, it conventionally came at the end of the piece.² Despite its more subdued form under the French, the gigue retained its upbeat air and relatively rapid tempo (conventionally played in 6/8 time), which became even more pronounced as the gigue migrated across Europe, eventually becoming the Italian giga, a whirlwind of a dance played at the breakneck 12/8 time.³

Many composers included gigues at the end of their pieces, including Handel, who ends his Water Music Suite No. 3 with a piece that must’ve had everyone on their feet:

The Ländler

The ländler is a forefather of the waltz, which originated in provincial Germany (“ländlich” in German literally meaning “rural”) where it frequently involved yodeling and stomping your feet, a far cry from the turning ballrooms of the European elite.⁴ The ländler gained widespread popularity due to its infectious ¾ time and the skill that could be portrayed in its many different handholds and variations. The dance is conventionally done back-to-back with a partner and involves each in turn ducking under and around the other.⁵

Musically, the ländler has been embraced by a number of classical composers, including Bruckner, Schubert, and Mahler.⁶ Here’s an example from Beethoven himself where you can hear the early hints of a waltz trying to break through:

The Krakowiak

The krakowiak finds its beginnings in the Polish city of Krakow, where historians believe it was associated with a folk courtship ritual.⁷ Over time, particularly as Poland became a country under siege, it was formalized, and the dance, along with the traditional Polish dress of the dancers, became symbolic of Polish pride.⁸

Eventually, the krakowiak spread to the rest of Europe, where it became a way for the elite ballrooms of Paris to show their support for the far-off country.⁹ The dance itself is rapid and syncopated, usually involving patterned stamping and singing. As the couples process out to perform, the “lead” couple will perform the steps, which are then taken up by all the other dancers.¹⁰ The most famous classical examples of krakowiaks come, unsurprisingly, from the Polish composer Frederic Chopin:

The Galop

The galop was popularized by the dances held after hunting parties, where huntsmen would return from galloping around on horses and want to do something similar in the dancehall.¹¹ The dance itself is fairly basic as classical dances go, with partners holding onto each other and sliding quickly in a circle around the room.

Eventually, the galop would develop into the modern polka, laying aside its relationship to hunting and taking on some added complexity.¹² It does, however, persist to this day in those European enclaves where hunting parties are still a tradition, with a galop being played as the final dance of the evening.¹³ Musically speaking, a variety of composers have included galops in their work, not the least of which is Franz Schubert:

Bonus

Finally, I’ll leave you with Offenbach’s Galop Infernal to demonstrate that though the names of these dances may be foreign, every one of us knows at least one by heart:

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Footnotes

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigue ↩
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigue ↩
3. https://www.britannica.com/art/gigue ↩
4. https://www.classical-music.com/features/musical-terms/what-is-a-landler ↩
5. https://www.britannica.com/art/Landler ↩
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ländler ↩
7. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980 ed.) ↩
8. Polishmusic.usc.edu ↩
9. Polishmusic.usc.edu ↩
10. Polishmusic.usc.edu ↩
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galop ↩
12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galop ↩
13. https://www.britannica.com/art/galop ↩