The dance, which is most often choreographed for a single couple, has been characterized as "a fiery wooing dance" with either Canary origins or at least a Canary flavor from its "rapid heel-and-toe stamps" and distinctive music. It was also called
frogs legs, because it was an energetic dance that featured jumps, stamping of the feet and violent movement, accompanied by music with syncopated rhythms. While there are choreographies for the canario as a stand-alone dance in the dancing manuals of Fabritio Caroso, Cesare Negri, and Thoinot Arbeau, it most frequently appears as a section of a larger dance or suite of dances. Several Baroque composers (notably
J.S. Bach) used the distinctive rhythm of the canary in a few pieces, such as the gigue of the
French Suite in C Minor, and it also appears in one of the
Goldberg Variations (Variation 7). ==References==