A German dance is a dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

 of German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 origin. German dance is an example of the exchange and the relationship among the Courtly Dance

Historical dance

Historical dance is a collective term covering a wide variety of dance types from the past as they are danced in the present....

, the social dance

Social dance

Social dance is a major category or classification of danceforms or dance styles, where sociability and socializing are the primary focuses of the dancing...

, and the folk dance

Folk dance

The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....

.

Origins

It has its origins in the Allemande

Allemande

An allemande is one of the most popular instrumental dance forms in Baroque music, and a standard element of a suite...

 (French for "German"). This was a dance popular from the 16th to the 18th centuries, consisting of a calm part in 4/4 time followed by a quick part in triple time.