The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1894-12-28
ORIGIN or DANCES.

... I,y the Country Dance. the Lam
GERS and Others Came Into iseing.
our national pride should To some
.x,ent be satisfied by the admission, In
,yhich all foreign exponentsc the code
:, .rerpischore are unanimous. that tho
rr.pch .contredanse" is an Importation
from England. and Is a corruption Oh
our country dance, an old Enghsh
rural exercitation belonging To May
pole times. .-.s
With equal frankness our neighoors
acknowledge that they owe the jig 20
John Bull. although their ctymoloyy oil
III. word is somewhat eccentric. lhey
smell il '.giguc" for the reason thh' thc
rapid bounding movements OF the dance
aritatc the top OF the calf OF the leg or
..,ri,o,:- but although ''jigot'' is wei
Lnown Scotticisrn for n leg OF mutton,
.yi,ruc' is synonymous with the ola
rnplish word gig" which means
fiddle. a little thing which IS wniric"
around in play. top. romp' long
narrow rowing boat. "A one-horse cniiiae
and short dart or harpoon Accoro-
;nr 10 old Tusser. in his Five Hundred
Points Of llusbandry,' h>gig or
"ishrir" was a onmon name f"r
dos and ID is tolerably clear that the
verb ITO gigglc." meaning to laugh IN
n rand and inclegant manner, Is also
derived from gig"
The ravotte is French dance racy
80 The soil and derives its name from
the Gavots. a race of mountalneers IN
,ne environs of Gap: while "lsracls
ri..adoon." the meaning OF whlca 80
snrelv puzzled English eighteen'A-ceh,
turv critics. is simply a dance cai.eu
the rirodon. invented by one klSana'
dancing master OF Marseillcs.
The saraband. So often written ABOUT
md so little understood. was a grave
and noble dance of Spanish origin n
which Ninon de lEnclos was charm
inr proficient. accompanying herseai IN
she did with the castanets; while ths
c,rantn In which Charles III. excciled
i only an adoption of the Spaniai
s.rridillo. When the allied armie, IN
vadcd France in 1914. they found ina
IN, favorite dances. both in the mos
nristocratic salons and the hninoi
vile guingucttcs. were the coil're
danse." which is an English pa>tiihe
and the qnadrill~. the deyeiopneht
,h. country dance. the five figures Q
which-namcly. the ''poulc, the par
talon the ..ete," the '.pastoureile,
and the ..trenisc." or "trenitz tn
last possibly the name OF 'erma
dancing masterl-havc long been u
despair Of philologists; nor agail
should il be forgotten that under u
restoration this now almost non-dah
;,y ENGLAND Of ours favored Franc
with a delightful dance called the Ia
GERS. probably SO called because IL W;
favored by the officers OF BRUSH i'e'
cavalry regiments !,
For some incxplicable reason U
lancer. were hung mp early in the VI
forian era. hut some twenty years "
or so the lancers. TO the intense graf.
cation Of all lovers 81 a most graccl
rhythmical exercise. were revived 4
allied armies BROUGHT with them '
waltz. which prior to lsli had DC
danced nj AlmaclS's and bitterly sat
izci hy Byron.
Modern French experts. however,
sevcrate that the waltz i very
provcncafdance. which 50 far back
the twelfth century was known ~
.vol.a:'- but. however that may be
xeoms undcniablc that the world
,rors polxa. which the dancing mas
fo,lon introduced into France alb
1874. and which owed much OF IT 20
iaritv to It's figures being illustrated
The brilliant pencil of Gavarnl- orig
allv came from Poland or hungary
<-on some remote district OF son
eastern Europe. London Telegraph