Extemporaneous comedies were no longer played in the great cities, and Odo listened with surprise to the swift thrust and parry, the inexhaustible flow of jest and repartee, the readiness with which the comedians caught up each other's leads, like dancers whirling without a false step through the mazes of some rapid contradance.
"The Valley of Decision"
Edith Wharton
"Spare me, I pray, the honor of figuring in this equestrian contradance.
"Zibeline, Complete"
Phillipe de Massa Last Updated: March 2, 2009
Again a harmless tune which in its time was perverted to a horrible use; a lively little contradance which graced many a cotillion in its early days, but which was roared and howled by the mob as it carried the beauteous head of the Lamballe through the streets of Paris on a pike and thrust it almost into the face of Marie Antoinette.
"A Second Book of Operas"
Henry Edward Krehbiel