Dance for Burgess is a lesser-known composition for chamber orchestra and percussion written by French composer Edgard Varèse.
In 1947, however, after a public performance of a reduction for two pianos of the Étude, Varèse decided to discard the project altogether and focus on a new idea, which would later become Déserts and would include much of the unused material from Espace.
Even though this project would also never get off the ground, Meredith commissioned a different small piece for the musical Happy as Larry, which he was set to direct and act in.
This composition, as well as other Varèse works republished in 1998, were all commissioned jointly by Casa Ricordi, the Decca Record Company, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
It is score for a chamber orchestra consisting of a piccolo, a clarinet in E-flat, a clarinet in B-flat, a bass clarinet in B, a French horn in F, two trumpets in C, a trombone, a tuba, an optional string section consisting of an unspecified number of first and second violins, violas, celli, and double basses, and a prominent percussion section made up of three percussionists, playing two sets of three Chinese blocks each, a tambourine, a snare drum, a tenor drum, a bass drum, sleigh bells, a cowbell, a high suspended cymbal, a Chinese crash cymbal, a deep rim gong without a dome, two timpani (one of them pitched to C and the other one to be 30'' to 32'', tuned below its lowest register to produce a strong yet pitchless tone), a güiro, claves, and a string drum.