Through almost all of the eighteenth century and the first decades of the nineteenth, the two basic types of contredanse music were the gavotte (I wrote about that here: link) in cut time or 2/2 (though after mid-century often in 2/4), and the gigue, written early on in 6/4 but later almost always in 6/8. Strains in published dances were almost always period themes in eight bars -- as in the contredanse gigue in the post linked above.
Here are two additional examples from the Noferi collection. These treat the formal design differently, which would be unlikely in music meant for amateurs but is by no means unusual in numbers for professional dancers. In the first strain of the gavotte, the consequent phrase is transposed and recognizable as a consequent only through the head motive. The second strain combines a contrasting middle (Caplin's term: here a phrase that closes on a half cadence) followed by a reprise of the beginning with a full cadence to end. In every instance, the two-bar units of the gavotte are consistently maintained.
In the gigue, the first strain is a textbook period, the second an equally typical sentence (a two-bar idea followed by a transposed repetition, then by a phrase that breaks up into smaller motives).
