"It's an S, It's a Z, It's... an L!": The Extra-ordinary 'Menuet ordinaire'

The menuet ordinaire is hardly a procrustean composition. Its protean variety can best be appreciated by subdividing it on the basis of various parameters, one such being the shape of its principal figure (or Hauptfigur in German). The principal figure was commonly described - and choreographically "read" - as originally a reversed S that morphed into a Z. It was also described and depicted by some as a 2 - i.e., a shape of the Hauptfigur, a widely used variant of the Z: a two-thirds Z or italic L. The L-figure was taught more than the other shapes, and in fact totally replaced them (at least in German sources) by the late eighteenth century.