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Cultural Dances Around the World

Let's Dance

Tarantella (by Macvane, Edith)
Dancing at Home and Abroad (by Cleveland, C. H., Jr)
A Complete Practical Guide to the Art of... (by Hillgrove, Thomas)
Dancing (by Frazer, Lilly Grove, Lady)

Celebration often includes dancing. Dancing’s also a great way to unwind, have some fun, and shake off some stress. Many cultures have their own dances, which carry aesthetic and symbolic value. They can be social, ceremonial, religious, liturgical, or competitive. Dances can also be erotic.

In Dancing at Home and Abroad, C.H Cleveland, Jr. writes,

I consider dancing not the least among the fine arts—the intellectual agents that have so wonderfully developed the feeling, sympathy, and all sensibility of mankind, ever since the dispersion of tongues at Babel; that a knowledge of dancing with its collateral advantages should be acquired by those who are qualified with taste, intelligence, and means, just as necessarily as music, painting, poetry, sculpture, and letters; or, to be even more practical and explicit, just as necessarily as the rules of commerce, the laws of mathematics, or the syntax of language. (p. 6)

In A Complete Practical Guide to the Art of Dancing, Thomas Hillgrove writes,

Dancing is, of all the fine arts, that which seems peculiarly devoted to cheerfulness and joy. It is the lively expression of these emotions by gestures and attitudes. It seems to have nothing but pleasure in view, yet, like music, its sweet accompaniment, it tends to refine the manners; and to give health, activity, and vigor, as well as graceful ease and elegance to the human frame. (p.14)

In Dancing, Lady Lilly Grove Frazer writes, “Everyone dances in Spain, and everywhere the dance is seen—in streets or on mountains; in courts or by gutters; in squares or narrow lanes; in churches or theatres; by sunlight, by moonlight, by candlelight” (p. 317) .

The tango and fandango are among the most popular cultural dances in Spain. The tango traces its history back to the 1880s to the port areas along the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The dance emerged from impoverished regions where natives mingled with slave and European immigrant populations. The dance fuses elements from the German waltz, Czech polka, Polish mazurka, and Bohemian schottische with the Spanish-Cuban habanera, African candombe, and Argentine milonga.

The fandango is a courtship dance and expression of passion that historians credit to Moorish origin. Popular in Europe in the 18th century, the fandango remains a folk dance in Spain, Portugal, southern France, and Latin America.

Fast upbeat tempos and light, quick steps characterize Italy’s Tarantella folk dances. During these dances, partners often engage in flirtatious behavior. The dances’ origins are linked with tarantism, a psychological illness or hysteric behavior that was prevalent in Italy during the 15th to 17th centuries. The dance was associated with the bite of a tarantula spider. At the time, people believed that frenzied dancing cured bite victims.

In Tarantella, Edith Macvane writes,

But her feet, practiced by many rehearsals, swept her along in the current of music. Her companion, dancing with a perfect equanimity, upheld her both by his example and his hand. She stole a timid look at him; his dark eyes were fixed serenely, unconsciously on the shadowy wall above her head. (p.148)

By Regina Molaro