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Under the rule of >Ferdinand (1452-1516) and>Isabella
(1451-1504) was born the Spanish drama and included dancing in
the theater. As a choreography it found its way into the church
it included the Pavane,
Sarabande,
and Pasacalle as well as other court
dances of the time.
- Today the Spanish
Sevillida
is the national dance of Spain , grown
from the Seguidilla Manchegras. Originally
it was danced to bells and castanets, wild mannerisms, and only
the women danced. The French smoothed it out and was done solo
by male or female with three distinct styles southern, northern
and Flamenco. Spain has 47 provinces
and they each have their own style of dance.
*T he
Spanish dances consisted of many types of dances ....
01) - Basque
Dances (thirty)
02) - Bolero
- 1700s - (couple or couples folk dance, could be done like
Quadrille, 5 patterns [passo,
final],
---- performed to a Sequidilla
(dance or Song.) Bolero viejo o parado:
A style derived from the Seguidilla. The Valldemosa
bolero (Majorca, Spain) is the most popular in the
Balearic Islands. The name parado (stopped) comes from the abrupt
end of the dance.
03) - Cachucha
(Spanish solo dance, better done by a lady than a male which
is danced to the Andalusan national Anthem. Fanny
Elssler made this dance popular at the time. The word Cachucha
means a term of endearment or a kind of cap. Castanets are also
used in this dance.)
04) - Cascaron (Mexican)
- (Egg dance, filled with cologne,
powder etc.)
05) - Chacona
- exotic - (Guatemala) about 1560s
06) - Dansas hablados
- (Pantomimic chants)
07) - Danse aux petits grelots
- (Bell/Ring dance)
08) - Danse de espadas
- (Sword type dance, clothed in
white).
09) - Danza Prima
(from Asturias)
10) - 'El Zapateado
- (3/8, same as Guaracha, steps are struck, making noise. Similar
to Anglaise & Sabottiere'...aka Heel Taps).
11) - 'El Zorango
- (named after a head dress or hair ribbon.) Which in Spain
is composed of ribbons, mingled with the hair. Its steps are simple,
following a very sprightly movement, and are practiced
backwards and forwards; while sometimes the hands are clapped
to the time.
12) - Folia - (north of the Pyrenees around 1565)
13) - Fandango
- (basically a Chica dance,
usually a solo male or preferably female dance.) Also Malaguena
14) - Flamenco (originated
with the Gypsies of southern Spain, some say India.)
15) - Jaleo
de Jerez - (a passionate female only impromptu
dance.)
16) - Jota
- National dance of Aragon. Also a Valencia version. (Quick
Spanish dance in 3/8 time).
17) - Guaracha -
(3/8, one person dance, accompanied by guitar, Movement grows
progressively quicker.)
18) - Gittana -
A Spanish Dance ?
19) - Malaguena
- (school dance from Valencia.)
20) - Milote (Mexican)
- Danced in May, animated mask type dance.
21) - Minuet
Afandangado - (Minuet
& Fandango mix.)
22) - Minuet Allmandado
- (Minuet & Allemande mix.)
23) - Morris
Dances
24) - Pasacalle
(around 1560s)
25) - Pie
De Jibao - (Spanish couples Court dance of
1560, maybe from Jibado [hunchback])
26) - Sarabande
- 1100s - (3/4) - (Main Spanish
dance - erotic, gliding steps - Around
1560s.)
27) - Sardana -
(from Cataluna)
28) - Seguidilla
- (Spanish dance having many varieties in all provinces and
country Hispanic. a.k.a.: Paso de Vasco, Sevillana) from Castile.
29) - Seguidillas Boleras
- (Paseo, Estribillo). When singing to a Bolero
dancing to a guitar.
30) - Seguidillas Taleadas
- (part Bolero part Cachucha.)
31) - Seguidillas Manchegras
- Moriscan - (Spawned the Sevillanas)
from La Moncha
32) - Sevillana
- Spanish dance with many varieties, known as Coplas, closely
related to the Seguidilla (the Seguidilla is often called...
the Sevillana in Andalusia.)
33) - Tango (originally
from Andalucia, later modified
in Buenos Aires.)
34) - Zambra is
a Spanish Flamenco
dance with direct Moorish
origin, done entirely by women.
35) - Zapateado, El
- (form of Flamenco,) This is the same sort of movement
as the Guaracha, and is in the time of 3/8. There is in this dance
a considerable noise made by the feet. Its steps are struck, as
it were, similar to the >Anglaise
and the >Sabottière.
36) - Zarandeo -
a Lascivious movement of the of the hips, dancing in ecstasy,
sexual power.
- The
Agitanado is heel work used in non-Flamenco
type Spanish dances while >Taconeo
is Gypsy. The Castanets is Spanish but not Flamenco!.
Good Castanets are tuned to the left being 1/3 higher in tone
than the right. In the Ballet "'El
Amour Brujo," one of the routines called ">Ritual
Fire
Dance" is a favorite among Spanish Dancers.
- The
Cachucha , danced either by a man or a woman alone,
though better suited to the latter, is admirably calculated to
accompany the medley of music peculiar to this dance; which is
sometimes sprightly, and sometimes impassioned. It seems expressly
designed to display the elegance's of ones posture and attitude.
- The
Danzas : There were many and varied danzas. Most
Danza's were executed only by the men:
Danzas de espadas :
in which the dancers clothed in white cloth and armed with a sword,
flutter to the sound of instruments.
Danses aux petits grelots :
rings adorned with little round bells, which the dancers carry
on hamstrings. Shoe
Danzas : The dancers
mark the measure by striking their shoes with their hand.
Danzas habladas :
expressive dances, kind of pantomimes intermingled with dances
and recited chants.
- The
Folies d'Espagne was almost universally practiced
by the Spaniards. It was first sung, then played on instruments,
and finally danced. Any kind of step was adapted to it, every
one forming for himself a measure, according to his own peculiar
taste and style.
- The
Guaracha , the music of which is in 3/8 time, is
danced by one person, accompanied by the guitar. Its movement,
which should grow progressively quick, renders it rather difficult.
It is now but seldom danced, and never except at the Theaters.
- The
Menuet Afandangado is partly composed of the Minuet
and Fandango.
- The
Menuet Allmandado is intermixed with steps from
the Minuet and Allemande.
- TheSarabande
- is said to be originally from Asia,
then Spain. It is sometimes spelt Zarabanda
or Sarabanda, a graceful dance traced to the twelfth century,
which, according to >Padre Mariana,
received its name at Seville from a devil in a woman's form. These
dances gave great scandal, and in 1621 they were modified. The
name Zarabanda means noise, and is of Arabic-Moorish
origin. It may well have been a survival of the licentious Greek
Cordax. It is danced to alternating 3/4 and 3/8 time, using
castanets and tambourines. Among other theatrical dances of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were the Chaconne
and the Escarraman; these, together
with the Zorongo, are similar to
the Zarabanda, which >Miguel de Cervantes
(1547-1616) denouncement of the dance spread throughout
Europe and would be suppressed at the end of the reign of>Philip II (1556-1598.) The
Gallarda, a merry dance with five steps--hence
cinque-pas--and the Pasacalle,
were of the same type.
- The
S'a llarga y S'a curta : These are the two most
typical dances from the island of Ibiza, Spain. Depending on the
beat of the music "S' a llarga" stands for long and
"S' a Curta" for short. The woman dances slowly, barely
moving while the man dances vigorously trying to prove his manhood
and strength. The S'escandalari is another dance
from Ibiza and is a peasant dance celebrating planting and harvesting.
- The
Seguidillas Boleras is a name which was given
when the Boleros were sung, and accompanied
by a guitar. The great difficulty of this dance consists in resuming
the part called the Paseo, which is immediately after the first
part of the tune in the prelude of the accompaniment, which precedes
the Estribillo. The Estribillo is that part of the couplet, not
indeed where the moral is found, but which contains the epigrammatic
point or turn.
- The
Seguidillas Manchegras which are danced by four,
six, eight, or nine persons, are far more rapid in their movements,
beginning without the Paseo. The traversias of it is shorter,
and its bien parado is without gesture. This dance is very sprightly
in its motions, and a great favorite with the lower orders, who
give themselves up to it with a peculiar zest. It is of Moriscan
origin.
- The
Seguidillas Taleadas is a species of the Bolero,
mingled with some measures of the Cachucha.
- The
Tripili Trapola is nearly similar to the Zorongo, excepting that
it finishes with three demi-tours or half turns.
- The
Zorongo has given name to a headdress for women,
which in Spain is composed of ribbons mingled with the hair. Its
steps are simple, following a very sprightly movement, and are
practiced backward and forward; while sometimes the hands are
clapped to the time.
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The Zapateado is the same
sort of movement as the Guaracha , and is in the
time of 3/8. There is in this dance a considerable noise made
by the feet. Its steps are struck, as it were, similar to the
Anglaise and the Sabottière .
-
Portuguese Dance
- Portugal is closely allied to Spain by its geographical position
and by the common origin of the race, so expect in some respects
to find the two countries resembling each other in their dances.
But as North Spain differs from South Spain, so does Portugal
differ from her sister country; and, moreover, Portugal was not
one province, but a group of provinces, each one of which has
to some extent dances and dance-music peculiar to itself (like
the FofaorFado dance). In this
southwestern corner of Europe we find many remains of old >Moorish
civilization, and the traces of >Saracen
culture are greater in Portugal than even in Southern Spain;
it is stated that the Saracens taught the >Portuguese
Cymons "all the sweet civilities of life," and
among these the dance were prominent. These dances were said not
to be specially graceful; they were slow in movement, and similar
toOriental dances,
similar to the East because they consisted mostly of movements
of the body and arms, and because they had no steps worth mentioning.
- They were simple and expressive,
and were often performed as a rest after labor; the threshing-floor
was generally the scene of the dance, and its season is mostly
that of harvest or vintage. The dances are generally innocent
and decorous; they resembled Quadrilles,
with hops and skips, but without much spirit, and the faces of
the performers maintained a solemn gravity. Castanets were seldom
used in >Portugal, and the dance is
accompanied by the guitar, or by songs, the theme of which is
usually the bright-eyed maids or the brave sons of >Lusitania.
The name of the principal dance of a Romaria is the Fofa.
Portugal is famous for its Ballets
ambulatories, which are religious processions with dances, in
imitation of the Tuscan pomp, and such as we meet with all over
Italy. The canonization of >Cardinal
C. Borromée (c.1700s) was celebrated by a ballet of
this kind. There is also a well-known dance called the Fado.
Portugal really consists of two distinct parts -- the north is
Celtic in character, while the south
is >Arab.
In contemporary Spain the word Danza implies a dance performance
at public festivals, and ordinary dances are called Bailes.
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