A minuet is a slow, elegant dance that was popular in European royal courts during the 1600s and 1700s. Picture dancers in elaborate gowns and powdered wigs taking small, precise steps in time to graceful music, bowing and curtsying to each other as they move. The minuet was considered the height of sophistication: at grand balls in palaces like Versailles, nobles learned its intricate steps to show their refinement and good breeding.

The word also refers to the music written for this dance. Composers like Mozart and Haydn wrote minuets as movements in their symphonies and sonatas. Even though people rarely dance the minuet anymore, the musical form survived: you might hear a minuet in a classical concert today, its gentle rhythm still carrying an echo of those glittering ballrooms from centuries ago.

Unlike livelier dances, the minuet valued grace and control more than speed and energy.