# Your favorite dance form(s)



## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

There are forms of music made for dance that capture many more moods than can be tallied for most other music groupings, and I would even venture to say more different moods than big ensemble forms like overtures, choruses, symphonies, etc. Want slow (or stately), austere, and pensive music to dance to? Why not a sarabande? Want the equivalent in austerity but at a brisker tempo? Choose a fandango and enjoy the contrast between the austerity of the cadences and the liveliness of the ornaments and melodic progressions.

Forms abound in pretty much all of the widely used time signatures. Waltzes, boleros, chaconnes, allemandes, mollossiques, gigues, jotas, mazurkas, trios, minuets, zoppettos, and tons more exist if you merely look around at dances in 3/4 time.

As much as the music made for church services has contributed to our ideas of harmony, modes, counterpoint, tuning, and arrangement and orchestration, the dance forms determined many more of the instruments that have been played, gave us our sense of rhythm and cadential pulse. Looking at the relationship between folk music and sacred music, it seems that folk music filled in the gaps between the church and the strikingly different and endlessly creative vessel of the classical period, and the dance forms took comparatively little time to mature into a plethora of new dances, new variations (like the fughetta) on forms, and highly complex versions of the devices employed by sacred music. We see counterpoint reach great heights as a science in one of it's greatest champions, the fugue. Similar sacred music that based itself primarily upon subject/counter-subject patterns, looks more than a little plain and simple by comparison. How dull a canon sounds next to a fugue!

I used to prefer the dance forms over sacred music, because of my anthropological bent on history, and their cultural significance, until I really got into late Baroque sacred music. I voraciously tore through everyone's cantatas, but I could always count on the contemporary dances for "lighter fare".

As I ramble on and pretend to be intelligent, I've been enjoying Boccherini's Fandango G. 448.






So, have any of you a passion for the dance as well?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Fandangos are awesome, but for me bourrées all the way!


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

In particular I adore Waltzes ^^ Marches are also good, and so are Tangos, Mazurkas, Polonaises, and Skanks.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Waltzes, especially when they are decadent. . Like Ravel's "La Valse".


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

As dance, my favorite dance without a doubt is the tango. As music, I suppose it is also my favorite, though I like the waltz. 

Dance, by the way, seems to be making a revival as an art form here in Korea. You might not like the music, but if you see what Korean youths do with their bodies to the beat, you'd be impressed. There is a lot of creativity and talent and work being put into it.


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## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Fandangos are awesome, but for me bourrées all the way!


I do prefer the typical length of a bourree over that of a fandango, and have to admit I'm not quite as much into Spanish folk music.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

Can I go with Strathspeys and reels?  Then comes the Waltz and Tango.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

Baroque Gigue 

Just hope my wig doesn't fall off.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

This is my favourite.


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

> Your favorite dance form(s)


Probably watching my parents doing the 'Boogie' as a kid lol


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

HarpsichordConcerto said:


> This is my favourite.


Hmmm...! Men and women in big hair-dos and tights. What's not to like


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

Actually this is my favourite: 





How could you not enjoy watching that?


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

Anything before 60s.
Russian, Persian, Georgian, Armenian, Native Tribes of north America (I mean Dances around the fire!), Swing/Boogie and Waltz more than others.

Ugly mention: Ripped-off Michael Jackson like dances of current pop. Also goofy Disco/DJ/Trance dances

But I possibly won't dance ever! .. maybe I'll do those mild ones


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

My least favorite is generally the _Waltz_, (though there are some exceptions). I'm a great fan of many of the Baroque dance forms - the _Sarabande_, _Gigue_, _Bouree_, _Chaconne_, etc. (basically any of the forms used by J.S. Bach). I love Ravel's exploration of some of the French Baroque dance forms in his brilliant work _Le Tombeau de Couperin_. At times it seems many of these dance forms can somewhat over-lap in characteristics and have somewhat blurry definitions, for example it is thought by some the _Rigaudon_ dance movement from _Le Tombeau de Couperin_ was originally entitled_ Bourree_, but Ravel decided to change the name simply because of the similarity in the sound of the last two syllables of the word _Rigaudon_ with the name of his friends _Gaudin_ who he dedicated the work to!


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

The menuet and it's slower sibling the sarabande can be very pleasant. I usually prefer the baroque and some of the 'neoclassical' takes on it to the typical Haydn/Mozart type menuets.


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## DrKilroy (Sep 29, 2012)

Waltz, minuet and gaillard.

Best regards, Dr


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

aleazk said:


> Waltzes, especially when they are decadent. . Like Ravel's "La Valse".


Outside of Ravel's "La Valse" can you give any other examples of Waltzes you enjoy?


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## EricABQ (Jul 10, 2012)

Pole.

.....


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## Head_case (Feb 5, 2010)

Beat this guys:


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

I always get all excited when the Gigues come on in baroque suites.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

EricABQ said:


> Pole.
> 
> .....


:lol: :devil:


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

clavichorder said:


> I always get all excited when the Gigues come on in baroque suites.


The Baroque suite originated from dance anyway; in particular, the French dance from Lully and his king.


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## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Minuets - always an anticipated highlight for me in many a Baroque piece. That such variation can be a feature of a simple ABA form is fascinating.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Give me a good waltz. Tangoes are pretty cool too. That said, I've barely scratched the surface and certainly may change my mind in the future


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## Mickey (Oct 5, 2012)

It's hard to choose. They are all so fun. Blue Danube while overplayed is still a luxurious waltz.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Flamenco, such as the "Bulerias", would perhaps make a great point of departure for some colourful orchestral music more modern than De Falla, but I know of none.










http://www.answers.com/topic/bulerias-miscellaneous-classical-work


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## Guest (Nov 2, 2012)

Jazz Dance


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

My favorite dance form is the Gavotte.

The problem is when I go to a bar, I can never find a female willing to dance it with me, so I just sit there drinking Jack Daniels.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Keep doing your thang hpowders. Nevermind what the females think.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

clavichorder said:


> Keep doing your thang hpowders. Nevermind what the females think.


Always have! Always will!

Gavotte the hell do they think I am?? :tiphat:


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

hpowders said:


> Always have! Always will!
> 
> Gavotte the hell do they think I am?? :tiphat:


Warren Beatty has no problem getting the ladies to gavotte, although he always keeps one eye on the mirror when doing so.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

GreenMamba said:


> Warren Beatty has no problem getting the ladies to gavotte, although he always keeps one eye on the mirror when doing so.


I'm more into doing the horizontal twist, myself, with a ceiling mirror.... so I can check if I'm using the correct form, of course.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

The chaconne - the tunes are so lovely.

Lully:





Purcell: 





Gluck:





It moved from being a dance to being a style of musical composition favoured in the Baroque era. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaconne

So of course the Chaconne of Chaconnes has to be Bach's:


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Ballet, anyone? You really get to exercise all of those parts :lol:


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Ignore the horrible music that was added on later and that has nothing to do with the dancing, but this brief excerpt from the film _King Solomon's Mines_ shows the grace and splendor of classic Tutsi dance. Tutsi dance was also featured at some greater length in an earlier film, a documentary titled Savage Splendor that I saw back in the early 1950s. Stunning!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Tango for me, especially when South American sensuality mutates into jazzy Euro-decadence at the hands of Kurt Weill and the Weimar-era Berlin cabaret crowd.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

brotagonist said:


> Ballet, anyone? You really get to exercise all of those parts :lol:


Ahh yes, now just where did I put my tutu?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

You want dance?? I'll give you dance! Here is the classic Indian _Bharatanatyam_, about as good as it gets. There is some blather at the beginning of the video, some of which actually outlines the story being told about Rama, Hanuman, etc., but if you jump to 6:30, the actual dance begins. Let There Be Dance!


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## Stirling (Nov 18, 2015)

Pavane & Galliard


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

just for fun


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