MINUET AND GAVOTTE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 May 1939, Page 2

MINUET AND GAVOTTE

OLD TIME DANCES. The dance which the French brought to the greatest perfection—which many, indeed, regard as the fine flower of art, was the Minuet. Its origin, as a rustic dance, is not less antique than that of the other dances from which the modern art has been evolved. It came to Paris, from Poitou in 1650 and was set to music by Lully. It was at first a gay and lively dance, but being brought to court it soon lost its sportive character and became grave and dignified. It is mentioned by Beauchamps, the father’ of dancing masters, who flourished in Louis XlV’s reign and also by Blondy, his pupil, but it was Pecour who really gave the minuet its popularity, and although it was improved and made perfect by Dauterval, Gardel, Marcel and Vistris, it was in Louis XV’s reign that it saw’ its golden age. It was then a dance for two, moderate triple time and was generally followed by the gavotte. Afterwards the minuet was considerably developed and with the gavotte became chiefly a stage dance and a means of display: but it should be remembered that the minuets which are now danced on the stage are generally elaborated to a view to their spectacular effect and have imported into them steps and figures which do not belong to the minuet at all, but are borrowed from all kinds of other dances.

The original court minuet was a grave and simple dance, although it did not retain its simplicity for long. But when it became elaborated it was glorified and moulded into a perfect expression of an age in which deportment was most sedulously cultivated and brilliantly polished. The “languishing eye and smiling mouth” had their due effect in the minuet; it was a school for chivalry, courtesy and ceremony; the hundred slow graceful, movements and curtseys, the pauses which had to be filled by neatly turned compliments, the beauty and bravery of attire-all were eloquent of graces and outer refinements which we cannot boast now. The fact that the

measure of the minuet, has become incorporated in the structure of the symphony shows how important was its place in the polite world.

Such beautiful dances as the minuet and gavotte were danced at that famous military ball before Waterloo. What of the dances of today? Come to the brilliant and novel military ball of 1939 —Wednesday, June 21 —and participate in the delightfully arranged dance programme with music by the best musicians in the Wairarapa Valley.*