Yvonne Daniel
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252036538
- eISBN:
- 9780252093579
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252036538.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, Dance
This chapter examines the varied meanings attached to social dance, with particular emphasis on contredanse-derived practices in the Caribbean islands. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2005–2006, it ...
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This chapter examines the varied meanings attached to social dance, with particular emphasis on contredanse-derived practices in the Caribbean islands. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2005–2006, it considers how Caribbean bodies dance sovereignty in front of world powers and the ways that they affirm island and regional integrity in the nonverbal communication of dance performance. After providing an overview of the historical patterns of Caribbean set dancing and the history of the Caribbean from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the chapter turns to practices such as Cuban contradanza and tumba francesa, Puerto rican contradanza and los seises, and Dominican sarandunga. It then discusses dance movement and dance categories; King and Queen pageantry that typically accompanies quadrille practices; and Queen performance. The chapter suggests that historical contredanse forms represent important values that have influenced past and present performers.Less
This chapter examines the varied meanings attached to social dance, with particular emphasis on contredanse-derived practices in the Caribbean islands. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in 2005–2006, it considers how Caribbean bodies dance sovereignty in front of world powers and the ways that they affirm island and regional integrity in the nonverbal communication of dance performance. After providing an overview of the historical patterns of Caribbean set dancing and the history of the Caribbean from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the chapter turns to practices such as Cuban contradanza and tumba francesa, Puerto rican contradanza and los seises, and Dominican sarandunga. It then discusses dance movement and dance categories; King and Queen pageantry that typically accompanies quadrille practices; and Queen performance. The chapter suggests that historical contredanse forms represent important values that have influenced past and present performers.
