Pavanes are interesting things. They started out as a processional type dance and dates back 500 or so years. Done in pairs and in long lines (think conga line dancing in pairs - side by side) but really slow and in 2/4 time like a march. I suppose our 50s dance "the stroll" is kinda like it...where the partners meet up and then "stroll" down the center. If the stroll and the conga line are outside your experience, think of the hesitation step used for processions (pavanes) down the aisle at weddings...you know...step together step....
On occasion societies and artist communities go through a renaissance revival thing and dances and dance forms populate the output. France had one at the turn of the last century and a look back at classic forms was afoot and taken as inspiration.
Ravel wrote Pavane pour une infante défunte (a pavane for a dead princess or a processional not a funeral procession but a processional dance for princesses long remembered or forgotten and therefore dead who were possibly part of it one upon a time) in 1899. He was a student then of Gabriel Faure who also wrote a Pavane about the same time. Here they are and are very peaceful and nostalgic bits of music. You might note, if you listen to each, that there is a lot alike even though they were the products of two very different minds.
Things don't have to be complex to be of interest.
