1/14/2024 0 Comments The minuetThe dancers approached and withdrew from each other in a display of courtship, grace, skill, and power. The dance demanded focus, control, and spatial awareness of both the partner and the onlookers, all to achieve an air of unaffected ease and nonchalance. Good dancers were also encouraged to make figures NOT fit perfectly with the eight-bar sections of the music. There was a step vocabulary particular to the Minuet, but the steps chosen and the number of steps used to complete each figure could vary. There were sections that had to be performed, alternating with “S” patterns, where the couple exchanged places, that could be repeated at will. The unique quality of the Minuet was that unlike other choreographed Ballroom dances of the time, where certain steps went to certain parts of the music, it allowed for improvisation and spontaneity within a framework. In keeping with its highly ceremonial quality, the Minuet began and ended with formal bows and curtsies called “honors” to partner and to the company. The highest-ranking or most honored couple would lead off the first one. More “ Dancing With the Stars” than a leisure activity, it was performed by one couple at a time while the rest of the assembly looked on. 18th-century dance manuals give detailed descriptions of the form and steps of the minuet. The Ballroom MinuetThe 18th-century ballroom Minuet began every formal ball. Under the watchful eye of Louis XIV, France had come to dominate European, and therefore American, fashions in clothing, food, art, music, and dance, and it would maintain that cultural dominance for several hundred years. The dance steps and musical form of the Minuet had originated in France in the 1660s. OriginThe name Minuet was adapted under the influence of the Italian "Minuetto" and from the French "Menuet", meaning small, pretty, and delicate, most likely referring to the very small and short steps, pas menus, taken in the dance.Īt the period when it was most fashionable, the Minuet was slow, ceremonious, and graceful.
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