Gavotte
Also known as: Gavot
History & Cultural Context
The Gavotte emerged in France during the mid-17th century and became one of the most popular Baroque court dances. The dance featured a distinctive rhythmic characteristic—beginning on the third beat of a duple-metered measure—that created a unique musical feel. The gavotte included hopping steps (caper) and turning figures performed with refined posture. It was slightly faster and more energetic than the minuet while maintaining Baroque elegance. Famous composers including Bach and Handel wrote gavottes, and the dance became central to Baroque instrumental suites.
Cultural Significance
The Gavotte represented Baroque elegance while allowing more movement than the formal minuet. Its popularity in instrumental suites elevated it to high artistic status. The dance's eventual decline reflected changing musical and social tastes in the Classical period.
Peak Popularity
Signature Figures
- Double
- Hop
- Turn
Notable Codifiers
- Pierre Beauchamp
- Pierre Rameau
Dance Lineage
Track Your Gavotte Progress
Practice Gavotte figures between lessons with Figure Focus — step-by-step breakdowns, floor diagrams, and progress tracking. Free to use.
Gavotte Playlists
Curated collections on the LODance YouTube channel — performances to watch, lessons to learn from, and the right music to practice with. Tap a collection to play.
▶ Performances · Open on YouTube →
Gavotte Music & Tempo
Drawn from 25 Gavotte tracks in the LODance music library.
Example tracks at practice tempo
- Gavotte in D — François-Joseph Gossec112 BPM
- Gavotte en Rondeau from Partita No. 3 in E Major — Johann Sebastian Bach100 BPM
- Gavotte from Suite in G Minor — Jean-Philippe Rameau92 BPM
- Gavotte from Classical Symphony — Sergei Prokofiev108 BPM
- Gavotte in F — Giovanni Battista Martini112 BPM
- Gavotte en Rondeau TWV 55:G2 — G.P. Telemann112 BPM
What to Wear
Attire guidance for Gavotte and other Historic Baroque Court dances. Each card below is sized to the moment — class, practice, social, or competition — because the wardrobe shifts as the stakes do.
Reading the cards
In Class
Comfortable clothing with period-appropriate character shoes if available. Many historical dance classes welcome modern practice wear.
Social Dancing
Period recreation events call for Baroque-era costumes: women in corsets and full skirts, men in breeches and frock coats. Social historical dance events range from costumed to smart casual.
Competition
Rarely competed; performance events typically expect full period costume authentic to the 17th–18th century.
Shoes
Character shoes with a low (1–1.5") shaped heel. Historically accurate shoes have buckles and a Louis heel. For class: any low-heeled shoe with a smooth sole.
In Practice
Modern practice wear is welcome in most academic Baroque classes; serious reconstruction groups practice in period-appropriate footwear so the body learns the geometry the dances were designed for.
Price Range
- Budget: Modern character shoes $40–80; loose historically-styled clothing from costume retailers.
- Mid: Replica Louis-heel shoes $150–300; commissioned period-styled garments $200–800.
- Premium: Hand-stitched 18th-century reproduction costume $1,500–5,000+; bespoke buckle shoes $400–900.
Quick Tips
- •Suede-soled shoes allow controlled sliding and pivoting — essential for most partner dances.
- •Avoid rubber soles on dance floors; they grip too much and can cause knee injuries.
- •Bring a separate pair of clean shoes for the dance floor to keep it in good condition.
Sources & Further Reading
Where This Dance Is Documented
Feuillet notation; Rameau (1725)
An editor's note on where the technique for this dance is actually written down — sometimes a named book, sometimes the fact that no such book exists. A judgement, not a count of what we hold.
Cultural & Historical Context
Gavotte emerged from France during the 1650s—1750s. Understanding the cultural roots, musical traditions, and social circumstances of this era enriches appreciation for the dance's characteristics and significance.
Formative Influences
Codifiers & Standardizers:
Pierre Beauchamp, Pierre Rameau
Signature Movement Vocabulary:
Double, Hop, Turn
Primary Source Documents
The Library of Dance contains public-domain primary sources for dance history. Copyrighted modern syllabi are indexed with purchase links to their respective copyright owners. Search by dance name or codifier to discover primary source documents.
Last reviewed: August 2026 — This dance profile synthesizes historical research, cultural documentation, and contemporary practice knowledge to provide authoritative context.
Related Dances
More in Historic Baroque Court
Minuet
The Minuet was a stately Baroque couple dance with small, delicate steps and refined posture. It became the quintessential court dance of the 17th-18th centuries, symbolizing aristocratic elegance.
Bourrée
The Bourrée was a brisk Baroque couple dance featuring quick steps and a bouncy character. It was typically performed as part of dance suites and appeared in instrumental compositions by major composers.
Sarabande
The Sarabande was a slow, dignified Baroque couple dance of Spanish and Spanish-colonial origin, featuring stately movement. In the standard Baroque instrumental suite it formed the slow third movement, after the allemande and courante. It was one of the most widely used Baroque dance forms.
Courante
The Courante was a running Renaissance/Baroque couple dance featuring rapid, flowing steps and turning figures. It was one of the most popular dances of the 16th-17th centuries.
Canarie
A fast dance in dotted triple or compound time, current at Italian and French courts from the late sixteenth century and named for the Atlantic islands from which Europeans believed it came. Its signature is percussive footwork — heels and toes struck audibly against the floor — over a driving dotted rhythm. It survived into the Baroque mainly as a theatrical dance and as one of the quickest members of the gigue family.
Chaconne
A continuous set of variations in triple time over a short repeating bass, which entered Europe around 1600 as a fast, disreputable song-dance and left it a century later as the grandest form in the French court and theatre. At the Paris Opéra it commonly closed the work, gathering soloists and corps through a long chain of couplets. Its scale and cumulative build made it the most ambitious dance a Baroque performer could be given.
Furlana
A quick couple dance in compound time from Friuli that became strongly identified with Venice, where it was danced at Carnival and in the streets as well as in polite rooms. Around the turn of the eighteenth century it was briefly taken up in Paris, where its Venetian associations were part of the point. Unlike most court dances of the period it never stopped being a folk dance in its home region.
Passacaille
A slow to moderate set of variations in triple time over a repeating bass, closely bound up with the chaconne and often indistinguishable from it. In the French theatre it supplied the long, weighty dance number — frequently a vehicle for a single star performer — and tends toward the minor mode and a grave sustained manner. Its name comes from Spanish instrumental practice rather than from any Spanish choreography.
Passepied
A quick dance in 3/8 beginning on an upbeat, taken from Breton popular tradition into the Paris ballroom and theatre in the seventeenth century. At court it used essentially the same footwork as the minuet, carried at markedly higher speed, which gave it a light, skimming quality rather than a stately one. It was a staple of the danced suite and of French opera-ballet through the first half of the eighteenth century.
Rigaudon
A brisk duple-time dance of Provençal popular origin that entered the French court repertory in the later seventeenth century and became equally popular in England. It begins on an upbeat, runs in clear four-bar phrases, and is characterised by springing steps that keep it lighter and more direct than the courtlier dances around it. It remained in ballroom and theatre use through the first half of the eighteenth century.
What did dancers wear?
Gavotte belongs to the Baroque Era (1600s–1700s) era. See how attire shaped the choreography — and the other way around.
Explore Baroque Era attire →Gavotte in art
Browse the gallery →Public-domain works our catalogue identifies as depicting gavotte.
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