Bouree

T

he bourrée originates in Auvergne in France. It is sometimes called the "French clog dance" or a "branle of the sabots". First mentioned as a popular dance in 1665 in Clermont-Ferrand, it still survives in Auvergne in the Massif Central and in the department of Ariège and is danced during bals folk in France and in other countries. The present-day dance in lower Auvergne, also called Montagnarde (Montanhardas), is in triple time while that of high Auvergne called Auvergnate (Auvernhatas) is in double time. Modern variants termed bourrées are danced as partner dances, circle dances, square dances and line dances.

However bourrées have been composed as abstract musical pieces since the mid-16th century. Michael Praetorius mentions it in his Syntagma musicum and it is one of the dances arranged for his collection Terpsichore. However, there is no early dance notation and it is difficult to assess the early interaction of the folk dance and the courtly dance. Musically, the bourrée took on the common binary form of classical dance movements, sometimes extended by a second bourée, the two to be played in a grand ternary form A–(A)–B–A.