a) Familiarize yourself with this site about late eighteenth-century contradanses:

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/diessay5.html

Look at the samples of published illustrations of the dance: was there more than one national style of contradanse? Could an illiterate peasant from 18th century Europe have learned how to dance it? Was training and familiarity with the dance necessary to perform it at a social gathering?

b) Listen to the Contredanse In G-Flat Major by Chopin written in the 19th century.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000003CXS/sonnywatsonsstre/ref%3Dno-sim/104-6729694-1547129

Compare Chopin’s contredanse with a harpsichord version of Greensleeves from the 16 century:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000002C0U/qid=1077921955/sr=1-22/ref=sr_1_22/104-6729694-1547129?v=glance&s=classical

Do these two excerpts share any similarities? If so, can you articulate what they are?

c) Remember what it was said above: “because most people dance to the rhythm in music, it is the rhythm in the music that suggests the kind of physical movements and expressions that the dancers may adopt.” Listen to Three Contredanses by the 19th century Viennese composer Johann I Strauss:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000023EM/sonnywatsonsstre/ref%3Dno-sim/104-6729694-1547129

Try to imagine people dancing to this music. Imagine the body motions these rhythms might induce in the dancers.

These next examples are of popular dances from Argentina that share a clear influence of African polyrhythms (specifically a “two against three” rhythmic motive), especially example two. Once again try to imagine people dancing to this music and find the main differences with the previous example.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000001HAA/qid=1077751104/sr=1-99/ref=sr_1_99/104-6729694-1547129?v=glance&s=music