Galop
Also known as: Galopade
History & Cultural Context
The galop (also Galopade; earlier German names Hopser and Rutscher) is a fast couple dance in 2/4 time, named after the galloping gait of a horse. It appears in Hungarian sources as Kalupada from the 1790s and was introduced to Parisian society in the late 1820s by the Duchesse de Berry; H.M. Ball brought it to St. James Palace in 1829 as the final figure of a quadrille. Through the mid- and late-nineteenth century it commonly served as the closing dance of a ball in England, France, and the German-speaking territories. Period dance manuals notate it in 2/4 with tempos roughly between 132 and 152 beats per minute; Allen Dodworth (1885) marks it at MM 76, one beat to the bar. The galop fell out of fashion in the early twentieth century as ballroom repertoire reorganized around the modern smooth dances.
Cultural Significance
The galop epitomized Victorian excitement and energy, typically serving as the energetic finale to ballroom events.
Peak Popularity
Signature Figures
- Gallop
- Turn
Notable Codifiers
- European tradition
Dance Lineage
Galop 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 →
Galop Music & Tempo
Drawn from 25 Galop tracks in the LODance music library.
Example tracks at practice tempo
- Unter Donner und Blitz (Thunder and Lightning) Galop — Johann Strauss II216 BPM
- Galop Infernal from Orpheus in the Underworld — Jacques Offenbach220 BPM
- Vergnügungszug (Pleasure Train) Galop — Johann Strauss II208 BPM
- Seufzer Galop — Johann Strauss I200 BPM
- Champagne Galop — Hans Christian Lumbye212 BPM
- Salut for August Bournonville, Galop (1869) — Tivoli Symphony Orchestra; Giordano Bellincampi
Legends of Galop
Dancers, choreographers and teachers whose work shaped this style.
Galop in performance
8 staged works in the Limelight catalogue contain Galop, 1842–1940 — 7 of them in a named act or number.
- Napoli1842Ballet · August BournonvilleAct III · The Wedding
Act III, the closing number after the tarantella — A social-dance galop composed by Lumbye to close the wedding act, following on immediately from the tarantella as the ballet's final dance number. Source: "provide the music for the concluding galop that fo…
- Ballet · August BournonvilleFinal galop
The closing ensemble finale, after the condemned brothers are released — A fast communal ensemble galop closing the ballet, the standard joyful group finale form Paulli regularly wrote for Bournonville productions of this period. Source: "the obligatory fin…
- A Folk Tale1854Ballet · August BournonvilleAct II
Act II, troll wedding feast — A festive galop performed by the drunken troll ensemble at Hilda and Diderik's wedding feast. Source: "festive galop for the drunken trolls"
- L'Île Enchantée1864BalletGalop
No. 3, Galop — A named galop number, the fast duple-time social dance form used here as a bravura set piece within the divertissement. Source: "No. 3 Galop No. 4 Storm - Entrance of the Gnomes - Entrance of Fairy Queen"
- Ballet · Marius PetipaAct II · Quadrille des merveilleuses et galop final
Act II, No. 11, the closing number of the ballet — The finale is explicitly titled as a galop, the fast couple/ensemble dance used to close the ballet at speed Source: "No. 11 Quadrille des merveilleuses et galop final ("Marlborough s'en va-t-en fuerre", vi…
- BalletLe cheval de Ferme-l'œil
Le cheval de Ferme-l'œil, the third movement of the suite/ballet — Explicitly titled as a galop, the fast duple-metre 19th-century chase dance, depicting the horse's pursuit of the stork. Source: "Le cheval de Ferme-l'œil: galop à la poursuite de la cigogne"
- The Golden Age1930Ballet · Leonid Yakobson, Vasili VainonenAct II · Scene 3 · A Street in the Same City
Act II, Scene 3, A Street in the Same City — A galop accompanies the mimed provocation and arrest scene, a single named social-dance number within the sequence rather than the ballet's general idiom. Source: "Act II, Scene 3, A Street in the Same City: Mime…
- Graduation Ball1940Ballet
Grand finale galop — The full company performs a fast group galop as the ball's climactic dance number. Source: "Everyone dances a high-spirited galop, bringing the evening to a grand finale"
Every claim above is quoted from a cited source and names where in the work the style appears. Claims we could not place or could not quote are held back from this list and shown on the work’s own page instead. Browse the full performance catalogue →
What to Wear
Attire guidance for Galop and other Historic Gilded Age Ballroom 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
Regular practice wear with smooth-soled shoes.
Social Dancing
Victorian/Edwardian ball events: women in corseted gowns with trains, men in white tie or period suits. Some events are less strict and welcome Edwardian-inspired modern formalwear.
Competition
Not competed; performed at Victorian balls and historical society events in period costume.
Shoes
Women: pointed-toe shoes with French heels (2"). Men: patent leather shoes or period boots. The era bridged between flat dancing and the heeled Latin shoes of the 20th century.
In Practice
Many Gilded Age groups practice corset-management — modern dancers underestimate how much the corset changes posture and breath.
Price Range
- Budget: Repurposed modern formalwear with period-adjacent silhouette; entry French-heel shoes $80–140.
- Mid: Reproduction Gilded Age gowns and white-tie pieces $400–1,500.
- Premium: Hand-tailored Edwardian costume $2,000–8,000+.
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.
Recommended Gear for Galop
Essential equipment and apparel selected for dancers learning Galop.
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Sources & Further Reading
Where This Dance Is Documented
Thoinot Arbeau – Orchésographie (1589); Cesare Negri – Le Gratie d'Amore (1602)
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
Galop emerged from Hungary/France during the 1820s—1880s. 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:
European tradition
Signature Movement Vocabulary:
Gallop, 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 Gilded Age Ballroom
Polka
The Polka was a lively, bouncy couple dance from Bohemia that became enormously popular across Europe and America during the 19th century, featuring characteristic hop and turn.
Mazurka
The Mazurka was a lively Polish couple dance with syncopated rhythm and characteristic accent patterns, becoming popular in European ballrooms during the 19th century.
Schottische
The Schottische was a moderate-tempo couple dance with a distinctive step-hop pattern, becoming popular in Victorian ballrooms and remaining part of folk traditions.
Victorian Waltz
Victorian waltz variations including the Redowa combined elements of waltz and polka with elaborate choreography, representing Gilded Age innovation in ballroom dancing.
Laendler
The Laendler was an Austrian peasant couple dance with turning action that influenced the development of the modern waltz and remains part of Alpine folk traditions.
Breakdown
A fast solo percussive dance created by enslaved African Americans, danced to fiddle and banjo tunes in quick duple time and often performed as a challenge between dancers. It carries one of the core movement vocabularies from which buck dancing, flatfooting and American tap descend. Its commercial spread in the 1840s and after ran through blackface minstrelsy, which took the material from Black dancers and sold it as caricature.
Clog
A percussive step dance performed in wooden-soled clogs, developed among mill and mine workers in northern England and built largely on hornpipe rhythms. It moved onto the music-hall stage as a championship solo turn in the nineteenth century and crossed to North America, where it fed both Appalachian step traditions and the variety stage. With African American percussive dance it is one of the two roots of American tap.
Hornpipe
A solo percussive dance in duple time, closely tied to a tune type of the same name and strongly associated with sailors through its long life on the theatrical stage. It is one of the three principal hard-shoe dances in Irish step dancing and the rhythmic basis of English clog. Its dotted, swung rhythm gives it a distinctly heavier and more deliberate feel than a reel.
Jig
A lively step dance in compound time, the central solo form of Irish dancing and a staple of Scottish and English fiddle repertoire. It exists in several distinct meters and shoe types, from the light 6/8 double jig to the slow, heavily percussive treble jig in hard shoes. The word has also served, in England and America, as a loose and sometimes derogatory label for percussive dance generally.
Reel
A fast dance in even duple time built on an alternation between an interweaving travelling figure and setting steps danced on the spot. It is one of the oldest continuously danced forms in the British Isles and the structural ancestor of a great deal of Scottish, Irish and North American social dance. The name refers at once to a tune type, a floor figure and a whole family of dances.
Strathspey
A Scottish dance and tune type in 4/4 distinguished by the Scotch snap, a short note on the beat followed by a longer dotted one, which gives it a jagged rhythm and a stately, sustained movement quality. It takes its name from the strath, or broad valley, of the River Spey. In both Highland and country dance it is conventionally paired with a reel, the slower dance setting up the faster one.
Country Dance
A figured set dance for groups of couples, worked through a repeating sequence of figures with the couples progressing to a new neighbour each time through the tune. It was the dominant social dance form in England for well over a century, and it is the root stock from which the French contredanse, the Cuban contradanza, the quadrille and the American contra dance all grew.
Habanera
A slow duple-time couple dance from Cuba, and the rhythmic cell that carries its name — a dotted first beat pulling against an even bass. It was made by Black and mixed-race Cuban musicians and dancers out of the imported contradanza, and it travelled back across the Atlantic into Spanish salons and stage music while also feeding Argentine tango and Brazilian maxixe.
Maxixe
A fast, syncopated close-hold couple dance from working-class Rio de Janeiro, built by Afro-Brazilian musicians and dancers who put the syncopation and body movement of lundu into the step patterns of the polka and the Cuban habanera. It was the first urban popular dance Brazil made for itself, and its rhythmic language runs directly into samba.
One Step
One step to each beat of a brisk two-four, with nothing else that has to be memorised. That simplicity made it the entry point for the social dance boom of the 1910s, and it is the direct ancestor of the American Peabody as well as one of the strands feeding the foxtrot and the quickstep.
Redowa
A turning couple dance in three-four from the Czech lands, taken up in Paris ballrooms in the mid-1840s on the back of the polka craze. Its step leaps rather than glides, which gives it a springing, pursuing quality quite unlike the smooth continuous swing of the waltz.
Varsovienne
A slow triple-time couple dance in the mazurka family that appeared in Parisian ballrooms in the early 1850s and took its name from Warsaw. It is recognisable by the pause: the couple glides, then holds a pointed foot on an accented beat, so the dance alternates between travel and arrest.
Viennese Waltz
The rotary couple dance of nineteenth-century ballrooms: continuous turning in a closed hold at speed, danced socially and improvised rather than assembled from a syllabus. It emerged from alpine Ländler and Deutscher turning dances in the 1780s and defined social dancing through the Strauss era, and the modern competition dance of the same name is a twentieth-century codification of it rather than the same thing.
Historic Gilded Age Ballroom in art
Browse the gallery →Works from the wider Historic Gilded Age Ballroom tradition — we have not yet identified enough that depict Galop specifically.
Dance at Bougival
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Dance in the City
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Dance in the Country
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Bal du moulin de la Galette
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Dancing Couple
Jan Steen
The Country Dance
William Hogarth
The drawing-room dances
Unknown artist · 1847
Beadle's dime ball-room companion and guide to dancing. Comprising rules of etiquette, hints on priv
Unknown artist · 1868
Offenbach's dancing without a master; and ball-room manual. A complete self-instructor in the art of
Unknown artist · 1876
Dancing and prompting, etiquette and deportment of society and ball room
Unknown artist · 1884
Antidance Literature | Western Social Dance: An Overview of the Collection | Articles and Essays | A
Unknown artist
Wehman Bros.' book on the way to dance : a book which teaches the art of dancing without a master
Unknown artist · 1900
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