pavane, (probably from Italian padovana, “Paduan”), majestic processional dance of the 16th- and 17th-century European aristocracy. Until about 1650 the pavane opened ceremonial balls and was used as a display of elegant dress. Adapted from the basse danse, an earlier court dance, the pavane presumably traveled from Italy to France and England by way of Spain; in southern Spain it was performed in churches on solemn occasions.
The pavane’s basic movement, to music in 2/2 or 4/4 time, consisted of forward and backward steps; the dancers rose onto the balls of their feet and swayed from side to side. A column of couples circled the ballroom, and the dancers occasionally sang. By about 1600, livelier steps like the fleuret (a brief lift of each foot before a step) made the dance less pompous. The pavane was customarily followed by its afterdance, the vigorous galliard. The passamezzo was a livelier Italian contemporary of the pavane.
The paired dances, pavane and galliard, were a forerunner of the instrumental dance suites of the 17th century, and pavanes appear in a few early suites—e.g., the padouanas in some suites of Johann Hermann Schein. Later composers occasionally used the pavane as an instrumental piece; e.g., Fauré (Pavane for Orchestra) and Ravel (Pavane for a Dead Princess).