Latin American dance
Latin American dance, dance traditions of Mexico, Central America, and the portions of South America and the Caribbean colonized by the Spanish and the Portuguese. These traditions reflect the distinctive mixtures of indigenous (Amerindian), African, and European influences that have shifted throughout the region over time.
This article surveys selected genres of dance across the vast and diverse region of Latin America. After a brief consideration of dance in preconquest cultures (for further treatment, see Native American dance), the narrative turns to the profound influence on dance practice of the European-imposed Roman Catholic Church and its calendar of festivals and commemorations. At the same time, imported elite dance practices became part of the colonial cultures and were in turn infused with local and regional flavours. From the 19th century on, national variations have asserted themselves throughout dance practice in Latin America and in the Latino cultures of North America. (Latin American music shows a similar path of development; a great deal of the region’s nonclassical music, both vocal and instrumental, accompanies or shares a history with dance.)
Although the article discusses theatrical derivatives of traditional dance (which are often grouped under the name folklórico) because of their visibility and importance in the region, not included are international forms of concert dance, such as ballet and modern dance. After a chronological survey of broad trends, with examples, the article focuses on individual countries. Haiti, which was colonized by the French, is included in this article because it shares important African-derived ritual practices with Brazil and Cuba and because its history is entwined with that of the Dominican Republic. Perhaps needless to say, this article can only skim the surface of such a vast topic.
From encounter to independence
The indigenous heritage
On their arrival in the Western Hemisphere in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, explorers from the Iberian kingdoms of Portugal and Castile (Spain) encountered peoples—even entire empires—previously unknown to Europeans. A few of the Europeans wrote about the music and dance practices they observed during ritual festivals among the local populations. The indigenous populations were decimated by disease, forced labour, and warfare, and their history was disrupted. In the Caribbean very few indigenous people survived, but on the mainland significant populations managed to preserve their communities.
Some early dance history can be inferred from the archives and from what seem to be continuous practices. For example, creation stories were a common aspect of indigenous spiritual practice, and their telling often incorporated dance as a vital element. Natural forces (i.e., gods and goddesses) and animal spirits were honoured or represented as dramatic actors; dance rituals were often meant to forestall or explain cataclysmic events. The great civilizations of the Aztec and Inca (like the Roman Catholic Church of their conquerors) organized time according to complex ritual calendars, and dance was essential in their communal ritual life.
The dances of the Aztec were precisely structured and executed. Priests trained young people in the movements of the ritual dances and organized the ceremonies into massive arrangements of dancers who moved in symbolic geometric patterns. Combat was a major theme that featured male dancers: weapons in hand, individuals or groups of dancers enacted struggles between gods or between military units such as eagle warriors and jaguar warriors. Dances could last more than a day to test the warrior-dancers’ endurance and commitment. In some ceremonies dancers moved in columns to represent revolving astral bodies in their annual and millennial circuits; in others they represented planters working in looping zurcos (furrows). In the danza de los voladores (“dance of the fliers”), one of the few surviving preconquest dances of Mesoamerica, traditionally four fliers (dancers) who are suspended upside down from the top of a tall pole make 13 revolutions for a combined total of 52; in the Nahuatl belief system of the Aztec and Toltec peoples, 52 years make a “year-binding,” or xiuhmolpilli.
Ritual contexts
The institution of the Roman Catholic Church—with its rituals, doctrines, and ways of looking at the world—accompanied the Iberians to the New World and was integral to the functioning of the viceroyalties in New Spain (based in Mexico; 1535–1821) and Peru (1542–1824), which between them administered the colonial territories of the Spanish. After the military conquest, religious music, dance, processions, and festivals became tools of cultural transformation and social control. Catholic priests and monks—Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Augustinians—allowed, even encouraged, indigenous dancers to continue their rituals, modified to incorporate Catholic saints and ideas in place of their own. The indigenous peoples adapted their own rich calendar of public festivals to new uses and new places. Into the present day, ancient ritual dances echo in the yearly observances that take place in front of churches and at other sacred sites, especially as part of the patronal fiestas, the festivals in honour of a town’s (or country’s) patron saint.
In Roman Catholic countries around the world, nonliturgical Carnival celebrations mark the last-chance merrymaking that occurs during the weeks before Ash Wednesday, the day that begins the austere 40-day period of Lent; in many parts of Latin America, Carnival parades feature exuberant group dances. As in the religious pageants, fantasy and elaborate costuming allow the Carnival dancers to become the “other” and to use dance as a means of escaping the anxieties of everyday life.
Perhaps the most widespread dance ritual of Latin America derives from the dance of Moors and Christians (la danza de Moros y Cristianos), which was performed at major religious festivals in medieval Spain. The dance was based on an older form of religious street theatre, autos sacramentales (“mystery plays”), portrayals of the competition of forces of good and evil. In the 8th century Moors had brought Islam to Spain from North Africa, and Christians in Spain fought to regain ground until 1492, when the houses of Aragon and Castile expelled the remaining Muslims. (For more on that period, see Spain: Christian Spain from the Muslim invasion to about 1260.) After the dance-drama was imported to Mesoamerica and Peru in the 16th century, the oppositional forces in it were refashioned to cast the Spanish (good) against the Indians (bad). Although the danza de los Moros y Cristianos exists throughout Latin America, it is known by a variety of names, including danza de la conquista, danza de los Moros, marujada (in Brazil), and danza de Santiago.
Blended rituals such as la danza de la conquista became part of colonial religious festivals. Theatrical enactments of the conquest, or farsas de guerra (“war farces”), played a prominent role in entertaining and enculturating colonial populations. In Mexico the entertainments became known as mitotes (from the Nahuatl mitotia, “to make dances”). Mitotes drew upon both Spanish dramatic action, which featured lengthy sections of dialogue, and the Aztec and Chichimec Indian tradition of using divided bands of enemies to represent the central theme of battle.
The conquest dances were taken to Spain and performed for elite audiences. Although their popularity faded in Spain during the 17th century, these spectacles became models for further ritual dances in the New World. July 25 marks the feast day of St. James (Santiago, Spain’s patron saint) throughout Spanish-speaking Latin America. For this major festival, many local traditions included dances to commemorate ancient battles between opposing forces. Dances of los vejigantes in Puerto Rico and los tastoanes in Mexico are prominent examples. In both festivals there are representations of Spanish horsemen and masked figures representing African slaves or members of the indigenous resistance.
Social dances
Upper-class immigrants from Europe brought with them their fashionable social dances (los bailes de salón). The aristocracy of the viceroyalties kept up with a succession of popular European dances. These included open-couple dances, in which couples generally did not touch—such as minuet, allemande, sarabande (zarabande in Spanish), chaconne, galliard, pavane, and volta. The interdependent-couple contredanse (contradanza in Spanish) and its variations (quadrille, lancer, and cotillion) were developing during the 17th century. Such choreographed dances of intricate geometries originated in Europe before sweeping quickly through Latin American ballrooms and dance salons during the 18th century. The fashion caught on across the social spectrum; for example, indigenous dancers in northeast Mexico adopted the contradanza into their ritual expression of the matlachines dance.
Contradanzas and quadrilles remained common throughout Latin America and the Caribbean in the early 21st century. Their characteristic interlacing lines, bridges, circles, and grand right-and-left patterns are easily recognized in hundreds of dances. In the Caribbean, contradanzas and quadrilles included the bélè, belair, and belén, as well as kadril and numerous other variants of quadrille. In northeastern Brazil they became quadrilhas, the traditional dances for the festival of St. John the Baptist (São João) on June 24; the dances remained popular in the Northeast, and into the 21st century quadrilha competitions occurred on the state and national level.
As struggles for independence roiled Latin America during the 19th century, closed-couple dances, specifically the waltz, schottische, and polka, became fashionable in elite society. In closed-couple dances the partners touch most of the time; as a result, these dances were considered rebellious acts of sexual immorality. In addition the new couple dances were distinctive because each couple could choose steps from a range of possibilities. With the passage of time, these social dances became commonplace and their intimacy more accepted. The dances migrated to the countryside, where most of the people of African heritage lived. African-influenced hip movements—which could be seen as sexually suggestive—were incorporated into the dances, and they again transgressed the Roman Catholic Church’s standards of morality.
Folk and popular dances
Latin America developed rich and varied local and national repertoires of secular dances. Many of the region’s traditional dances were derived from two Spanish folk dances, the fandango and the seguidilla, which reached their peak of popularity in the 18th century. Both were couple dances in which partners were arranged in scattered formation on the dance floor, often an outdoor patio. Strict social codes prevented the dance partners from touching; they remained at a distance of about 2 feet (0.6 metres) apart and maintained their connection by moving together and apart, changing places, and keeping eye contact. The opening, or introduction, often included a paseo de salida (a side-by-side promenade of the space) with a vuelta y colocación (a turn and getting into position). The next section consisted of an adorno (an improvisation of the dancers’ favourite steps). The final phase of the dances was the exaltación, which included spins and turns by the dancers, who remained separate. The Spanish seguidilla ended with a turn and a bien parado (final pose) with the couple side-by-side or facing each other.
Soldiers, merchants, and performers attached to traveling musical theatre companies introduced these dances of the middle and lower classes to Latin America. Narrative themes in the dances included entertaining tales and vignettes of courtship. Because couples were not allowed to touch while dancing, they communicated through facial expressions and eye contact. Handkerchiefs, fans, and long, full skirts were used to embellish courtship rituals and add expressive gestures.
The body posture for fandango and seguidilla was described as asentado, or seated: dancers maintained a bit of flexion in the legs while keeping the torso upright. In the Americas the quality of weight, or grounding, that this position gave the man’s body as he danced was amplified as he mimed motifs from daily work in agriculture and ranching. The word fandango was retained in the Americas, but it changed meaning over time and was eventually used to refer to a dance party or social gathering. Seguidilla was changed in Latin America to bailes de tierra (“dances of the land”) or sonecitos del país (“little country dances”).
The rhythms of the fandangos and sonecitos del país were based on either a step in 3/4 time (i.e., a triple metre, having three beats to the musical measure), called the paseo, or a quick 6/8 cadence (i.e., a compound metre having two three-part beats to the measure), called the zapateado (rhythmic stamping). The flexed hips and knees of the asentado body position made zapateado easier to do. The dance opened with a brief promenade around the dance floor. Then couples faced, with partners acknowledging each other as they waited for the music to signal the first figure. Throughout the dance, couples alternated between paseo and zapateado, embellishing the movements with occasional turns. The couples danced in one spot until the music signaled an exchange of places, a crossing during which couples could pass face-to-face so closely that it appeared they could exchange a kiss. At the close of the dance, couples would spin, turn, and end in a pose, with partners side by side or facing each other. The dance form was highly structured, but there was room for improvisation—which might have included rhythmic embellishments of the zapateados, twists and angles of the body, and communication through expression in the eyes, a tilt of the head, a swish of the skirt, or gestures with a handkerchief.
The Spanish jota is the last form to be identified as a major contributor to the folk dances of the viceroyalties of the New World. This dance was performed in a triple metre, with arms held high. Dancers would snap their fingers or play castanets, and the steps included lively hops interspersed with vivacious turns. Although the castanets were not used in the Americas, the jota is clearly the foundation of many couple dances in the Americas, such as the jaranas of Yucatán (Mexico), the tiranas of Argentina, and the jota Tapatío of Jalisco (Mexico).
Regional developments
Importation of African cultures
Millions of sub-Saharan Africans—chiefly from western and central regions—were captured and shipped as slaves to Latin America between the 16th and 19th centuries. Over time, elements of their dance infused the fledgling bailes de salón and bailes de tierra, both nontouching fandango-based popular social dances. Enslaved Africans made up a significant proportion of the population throughout the Caribbean and in other regions with plantation-based economies (especially sugarcane and coffee); their impact was smaller in Mexico and the Andes. The African-derived cultures in such cosmopolitan ports as Havana and Rio de Janeiro spread to influence the national identities of Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and other countries. African dance had easily recognizable traits: flexion of the hips and knees; movement that originated in the central core of the body and undulated out to the arms and legs; isolated movements of shoulders, rib cage, or hips; a forward tilt of the upper torso; use of the flat foot rather than the heel or toe; polyrhythmic movement of different body parts (i.e., simultaneous contrasting patterns); and inventive spontaneity. West African dancing focused on a “downward” and relaxed body (i.e., having the appearance of giving in to gravity, having flexed knees, a forward-tilted upper torso, and so on) in contrast to the upright and more rigid style of dance forms from the Iberian Peninsula.
The African influence extended to the burgeoning couple dances of Latin America, especially in the addition of hip movements and more sexual suggestion. Percussion instruments were added to the harp, violin, and guitar ensembles that accompanied bailes de tierra. African polyrhythms and syncopation pushed the dances’ rhythmic complexity, and more of the body was engaged as dancers incorporated hip rolls, shoulder shimmies, leg lifts, and squats. The social dances gained humour and more-explicit flirtation.
Within the African-derived communities, ritual dances were mechanisms for survival in the face of oppression, brutality, and racism. The dances invoked spiritual guides to provide strength for people’s enduring struggles. In certain Afro-Latino practices—especially with Santería in Cuba, Candomblé in Brazil, and Vodou in Haiti—dance developed special meaning. Dance was a mechanism for escape from emotional stress and one way to restore the emotional and physical well-being of the individual and community.
