French Dances

French traditional dancing encompases a huge range of geographically and culturally separate groups. At first glance there is little common ground between the hypnotic circle dances of Brittany, the graceful couple dances of central France and the wild Fandangos of the Basque Country. However, they all form part of the larger group of European dances, all of which have developed from simple circle dances with frequent contacts between the different regions. For a review of the recent history of French traditional music and dance see the excellent article by Guillaume Veillet. For more info on French traditional dance, see our links page.

Dance regions

French dance can be roughly divided into the following cultural and regional boundaries:

Central France, including Bourrées in 2 and 3-time, Mazurkas, Waltzes, Branles and Scottisches
Brittany, Further split into Eastern, French and Gallo-speaking 'Haute Bretagne' (rond de St. Vincent, etc) and the Western, Breton-speaking 'Basse Bretagne' (An Dro, Hanter Dro, Laridé, Gavotte, Plinn, Kost ar C'Hoat).For descriptions of many of the more common dances see Peter Harvey's Breton dance crib sheet
Béarn, in the South-west, home of the Branle d'Ossau, Sauts and rondeaux in chains and in couples.
Basque Country, Just next door, straddling the spanish border, featuring more Sauts, fandangos and more.
Alps, Home of the lively rigodons, with their links to english country dancing.
Alsace, on the German border, featuring 5 and 8-time waltzes, zwiefachers from Germany and contredanses.

Thanks for help in preparing these pages go, in no particular order, to Helena Reynolds, Kathy Oakwood, Chris Shaw and Laurel de Vietri. More info and comments are always very welcome: please contact me on graham@frenchdanceleeds.co.uk. If you would like to write an entire section on a dance or dance style then that would be particularly welcome and you will, of course, be fully credited on these pages. Non-copyright music, video clips, maps, photos and diagrams could also be included - lets build something really useful here!