Styles and epochs - a short overview
Baroque
Simultaneously, contradances became increasingly popular all over Europe. In 1651, John Playford
published his "English Dancing master", a first compendium of these "country dances". The
relatively simple, lively dances for many couples in a row remained favourites of all social
classes for more than 200 years and
are still popular in the English speaking world.
The special step technique and elaborate choreographies of Baroque dance,
created by famous dancing masters at the French court, showed impact on the dancing scene of
whole Europe. A practical dance notation, developed by Pierre Beauchamp and edited by Raoul-Auger
Feuillet, helped to propagate dances for ballroom and stage like the courante and sarabande, the
minuet and bourrée, the jig and passacaille and enables us to read
and dance these choreographies quite easily today.
