Dances in classical music: waltz, minuet, march, and more

A great deal of classical music began as music for dancing. A minuet, a waltz, and a polka are each a dance with its own beat and speed. Once you know the beat, you can name the dance by ear. This page covers fourteen dances, with a piece to hear for each.

The dances at a glance

Dance	Beats	Speed	From
Minuet	3	Medium and stately	France
Waltz	3	Medium to fast, and turning	Austria and Germany
Mazurka	3	Medium, with a lean on beat 2 or 3	Poland
Polonaise	3	Stately and proud	Poland
Sarabande	3	Slow	Spain
Bolero	3	Medium, with a rhythm that repeats	Spain
March	2 or 4	A walking speed	Many countries
Polka	2	Fast and bouncy	Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic
Gavotte	2	Medium	France
Galop and can-can	2	Fast and wild	France
Gigue	6, felt in two	Fast and skipping	The British Isles
Tarantella	6, felt in two	Fast and whirling	Southern Italy
Habanera and tango	2	Slow and swaying	Cuba and Argentina
Czardas	2	Slow, and then fast	Hungary

Dances in three

Minuet. A court dance with small, neat steps. Count a steady “1, 2, 3.” Haydn and Mozart put a minuet in most of their symphonies, as the third movement. Hear: the Minuet from Eine kleine Nachtmusik, by Mozart. See the guide. For a minuet that students play, read who wrote the Minuet in G.

Waltz. Couples turn around the floor. Beat 1 is strong, and beats 2 and 3 are light: “OOM-pah-pah.” Vienna made it famous in the 1800s. Hear: The Blue Danube, by Johann Strauss II, and “Waltz of the Flowers,” by Tchaikovsky. Read Johann Strauss II for kids. See The Blue Danube guide.

Mazurka. A Polish country dance. The lean falls on beat 2 or beat 3, which gives it a hop. Chopin wrote dozens for piano. Hear: the Mazurka from Coppélia, by Delibes.

Polonaise. A grand Polish walking dance for the opening of a ball. Hear: the “Military” Polonaise, by Chopin. Read Chopin for kids.

Sarabande. A slow, grave dance with weight on beat 2. It is the slow movement of a Baroque suite. Hear: the Sarabande from a cello suite by Bach.

Bolero. A Spanish dance in three. In Ravel’s piece, a snare drum repeats one rhythm from start to finish. Hear: Boléro, by Ravel. See the guide.

Dances in two and four

March. Music for walking in step: “left, right, left, right.” Hear: The Stars and Stripes Forever, by Sousa, and the Radetzky March, by Johann Strauss I. See the guide to the Sousa march.

Polka. A quick dance with a hop. It began in Bohemia in the 1830s and spread across Europe. Hear: the Pizzicato Polka, by Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss.

Gavotte. A French dance at a medium speed. Each phrase starts in the middle of the bar, with two light beats before the strong one. Hear: the Gavotte from the “Classical” Symphony, by Prokofiev.

Galop and can-can. Fast dances for the end of a ball or a show. Hear: the can-can from Orpheus in the Underworld, by Offenbach. Read Offenbach for kids. See the Can-can for kids.

Habanera and tango. The habanera came from Cuba. Its rhythm goes long, short, long, long. The tango grew up later in Argentina. Hear: the Habanera from Carmen, by Bizet.

Czardas. A Hungarian dance in two parts: slow and sad, and then fast and wild. Hear: Csárdás, by Monti, and Hungarian Dance No. 5, by Brahms. See the Hungarian Dance No. 5 guide.

Dances in six

Gigue. A fast, skipping dance that grew from the jig of the British Isles. It is the last dance of a Baroque suite. Hear: the Gigue from Orchestral Suite No. 3, by Bach.

Tarantella. A whirling dance from the south of Italy. A legend says that dancing it cured the bite of a spider. Hear: “La Danza,” by Rossini, and the Tarantella by Burgmüller that piano students play.

Where dances turn up

• In suites. A Baroque suite is a set of dances. Read what is a suite in music?
• In symphonies. The third movement is often a minuet.
• In ballets. The Nutcracker has a march, a waltz, and dances named for Spain, Arabia, China, and Russia.
• In piano music. Chopin wrote waltzes, mazurkas, and polonaises for the piano.
• In beginner books. First pieces are often minuets, marches, and gavottes.

Things to do together

March or waltz? Play a piece. Your child marches if it is in two and sways if it is in three.

Count it. Clap the beat, and say “1, 2” or “1, 2, 3” until one of them fits.

Slow to fast. Play Monti’s Csárdás. Sit for the slow part, and dance for the fast part.

Dance the minuet. Take small steps in threes, and bow at the end.

Around the world. Mark each dance’s home on a map.

Find one in the book. Look through your child’s lesson book for a piece named after a dance.

Print and play

Read time signatures explained for beats in a bar, and classical music for kids to dance to for more to move to. Keep the beat with the metronome for kids.