At Phoenix International Folk Dancers we recently had a guest teacher, the remarkable Karen Faust, who taught us this French Folk Dance (so much fun!). Branle Gai Alsacien:

Which made me wonder, what other French dances do I know?

An Dro Retourne:

Le Laridé. I remember this music, but I don’t think I ever actually learned the steps. Apparently, there are several versions of this dance, and it’s done to several different pieces of music.

Bannielou Lambaol is often taught to children because it is quite simple:

Branle Normand. I suspect this might have been filmed at a Dutch Orff Shulwerk class. I’m basing this guess solely on the fact that the instructor is keeping time with a tone block, a typical elementary general music class instrument.

I am not sure if Bourée å deux temps is the name of the dance or of the band which is playing:

This video shows beautiful performances of several French folk dances, but I don’t know the names of any of them:

The last three dances are actually French Canadian, but I’m including them with the French dances.

Les Salut is another dance commonly taught to children.

Le Brandy:

La Bastringue: