contredanse

[ kon-truh-dans, -dahns; French kawn-truh-dahns ]

noun

, plural con·tre·dans·es [kon, -tr, uh, -dan-siz, -dahn-, kaw, n, -, truhdahns].

1. a variation of the quadrille in which the dancers face each other.
2. a piece of music suitable for such a dance.

contredanse

/ ˈkɒntrəˌdɑːns /

noun

1. a courtly Continental version of the English country dance, similar to the quadrille
2. music written for or in the rhythm of this dance

Word History and Origins

Origin of contredanse¹

1795–1805; < French, equivalent to contre- counter- + danse dance, misrendering of English country-dance, by association with the characteristic arrangement of dancers in rows facing each other

Word History and Origins

Origin of contredanse¹

C19: from French, changed from English country dance; country altered to French contre (opposite) by folk etymology (because the dancers face each other)

Example Sentences

Many sections resemble contredanse or quadrille: ballroom arrangements of circles, lines, stars; dancers holding hands as they pass.

From New York Times

This leads into the final number, a contredanse, the French version of English country dancing.

From New York Times

A footnote to the riotously successful triplet shuffle of swing is that the one style it did not fully colonise was - perhaps ironically - the family tree of dance forms that began with the contredanse and habanera.

From Literature

The habanera had been imported by Spain to various of its colonies but the Spanish had inherited it from the earlier French contredanse - and the French had in turn inherited it from an even earlier English country dance pattern.

From Literature

The habanera and its contredanse antecedents had a highly distinctive accompanying rhythm of four beats, which in musical notation - as in the opening of the Bizet song - looks like this.

From Literature