#8: Thoughts on Gavottes
Nov 20, 2019Those of you teachers who get to teach the infamous pas de bourree step are likely to be familiar with, at least partially, the traditional dance music called the gavotte.. if not, today is your lucky day! Read on if you're curious..
The gavotte is thought to originate from the peasants living in the French Alps (the gavots) and was considered the kissing dance of these French peasant people from the province of Dauphiné. It was most popular in the courts during the 17 and 18th century. At the time, it was fondly called the kissing dance because the couple dancing it would kiss at the end of the improvised dance. As the dance style and music became more formal, it became habit to exchange flowers rather than kisses.
Musically, the gavotte is a 4/4 with a bright, quicker tempo. What is super interesting about it, rhythmically, is that the melody typically starts on beat 3 rather than 1 (or 4, a typical pick up or anacrusis). If you were to look at the music while you counted it, you'd see 3 4 | 1 2 as a phrase of this music. If you don't look at the music and strictly listen to it, it sounds like it starts on a 1. 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4. Technically though, for a musician, the music is written starting on beat 3. 3 4 1 2, 3 4 1 2, 3 4 1 2, is the actual musical phrasing.
COUNTING OPTIONS
A) The gavotte could be counted as the musician counts it, 3 4 1 2, 3 4 1 2
Doing so, your exercise will need to be designed in 4 counts per bar of music so, 32 counts is 8 bars of music. If I were you, I'd be tempted to design my exercise in sections of 8 counts. 4 sections gives you your 8 bars of music.
OR,
B) You could count it as you would count any other duple music, 1 & 2 &, 3 & 4 &, etc.
Either way will work.. So how do you know which way you should count it?
You will want to choose how you count it based on your exercise. If you have a very articulate exercise with specific movements or positions on each pulse, you'll want to use the musician counts. This will make it easier to demand exact precision from your dancers as it's extremely clear if you have a numbered count to each movement or position. On the other hand, if you're using the gavotte for walking on pointe across the floor, than a simple 1 & 2 &, etc will do.
I hope that helps clear the muddy gavotte waters for you to use them in your teaching in the near future while the music structure is fresh!
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