As was common practice during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, much of this text was borrowed from other writers. The author begins with a general history of dance and proceeds with an explanation of terms found in dance, such as les grands battements and ronds de jambes. The manual contains directions for many Renaissance and Baroque dances including La Pavane, and, although the author quotes from Thoinot Arbeau's Orchesographie of 1588, the directions for performance are strictly a nineteenth-century interpretation. Bourgeois's manual also covers nineteenth-century social dances, and he provides the history and directions for dances such as the waltz, polka, mazurka, and quadrille.