rigaudon

Rigaudon appeared in French around the 1690s. The standard etymology, given by the dance historian Pierre Rameau in 1725, claims it was invented by a dancing master named Rigaud from Marseille or Provence. No independent evidence of this Rigaud has been found. The alternative theory links the word to an older Provençal or Occitan term. The dance, regardless of its name's origin, was a lively Baroque dance in duple time, featuring hopping, jumping steps.

The rigaudon was a country dance that moved into the court. Unlike the minuet or the courante, which were refined from the start, the rigaudon kept its peasant energy even in aristocratic settings. It was danced at the court of Louis XIV but was always considered less formal than the minuet. This made it useful: when the court wanted to signal relaxation and informality, they danced a rigaudon. The dance was social engineering through choreography.

Rameau, Purcell, and Handel all wrote rigaudons. In Baroque opera, the rigaudon was the festive finale — the dance that celebrated the happy ending. Rameau's opera-ballets use rigaudons to close acts with a burst of communal energy. The form survived in music long after the dance itself stopped being performed.

The rigaudon is now exclusively a musical term, a Baroque movement heading in a score. The possibility that it was named after a man who may not have existed gives it an unusual status among dance words: it might be an eponym, or it might be a folk etymology attached to an opaque regional word. The dance is certain. The name is not.