Clog Dance

Ferdinand Herold, Arranged by John Bryant

Instrumentation: Brass Band

Length: 4 Minutes

Difficulty: C Grade

La Fille Mal Gardée is a comic ballet presented in two acts, inspired by Choffart's engraving of Pierre Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting Le Reprimande/Une Jeune Fille Querellée par sa Mère. Originally produced and choreographed by the Ballet Master Jean Dauberval to a pastiche score adapted from 55 French airs by an unknown hand. The ballet was first presented under the title Le Ballet de la paille, ou Il n'est Qu'un pas du mal au bien (The Ballet of Straw, or There is Only One Step from Bad to Good) by the Ballet of the Grand Théâtre, Bordeaux, France on 1 July 1789.

The oldest, and one of the most important works in the modern ballet repertory, La Fille Mal Gardée has been kept alive throughout its long and complex performance history by way of many revivals for well over two centuries. The work has had over eight changes of title, and no fewer than six scores—two of which were adaptations of older music.

Today the ballet is normally presented in one of two different versions: many ballet companies in Russia, Europe, the Caribbean and South America, retain productions of La Fille Mal Gardée derived from the 1903 revival of Alexander Gorsky set to the 1864 score of Peter Ludwig Hertel, which is itself based on the 1884/1894 revivals of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov (it is Gorsky's staging that gave rise to the famous La Fille Mal Gardée Pas de deux, which is set to the music of Peter Ludwig Hertel and Riccardo Drigo). Modern audiences are perhaps most familiar with the production staged by Sir Frederick Ashton for the Royal Ballet in 1960, set to music adapted by John Lanchbery from the 1828 score of Ferdinand Hérold and the original pastiche music used for the 1789 premiere.

The appealing simplicity and the naïve familiarity of the action of La Fille Mal Gardée have lent it a popularity that has established it in the repertory of many ballet companies all over the world.

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