Contradanza Salon – Dance
Contradanza is the earliest Cuban salon dance: a European group dance that, in early 19th-century Cuba, picked up a rhythm of its own with African colouring.
Origins in brief
By way of England, France and Spain, the contredanse reached Cuba in the 18th century. In the 1820s–1840s it was the favourite dance of the well-to-do in Havana and Matanzas. The story of the music, the composers and the habanera rhythm is on the history page about contradanza, together with listening examples. The music itself has its own music page.
How was it danced?
According to EcuRed, couples danced separately, in figures, in the salons of the creole bourgeoisie. A bastonero called the order of the figures; ordinary people meanwhile danced at the bailes de cuna and in dance academies.
- The hold: the man takes the woman's right hand in his left; they stand side by side, the other hands free.
- The figures: paseo, cadena, sostenido and cedazo; the first two are calm, the others livelier.
- The formation: double rows of couples, like a street, but also circles, quartets, trios and duos.
- The basic step: forward or back, alternating feet. On the first three beats the whole foot rests on the floor, on the fourth only the heel taps. According to EcuRed this step is the contradanza's most important contribution to Cuban salon dance.
Watch: contradanza from Cecilia Valdés
The contradanza from Gonzalo Roig's zarzuela Cecilia Valdés (1932), set in early 19th-century Havana. Andrés Trujillo, Grupo Habanera and the Habanera Dance Ensemble show how the couples dance figures together.
What made it Cuban
According to EcuRed, the contradanza came to Cuba in 1789 with French immigrants, white, Black and mulatto, from Haiti, and later from Louisiana and New Orleans. In the early 19th century it became creole: the accompaniment took on habanera rhythms, and the second parts included fragments of guarachas and songs from the theatre. Many composers and musicians were Black or mulatto, and they gave the music its own rhythmic layering. The oldest known Cuban contradanza, San Pascual Bailón, was published in 1803.
Transition to danza
From the 1840s–1850s the group figures gradually gave way to couples dancing on their own. The danza began that step; the danzón completed it. Today contradanza is mostly seen in historical and folkloric performances.
Legacy
Contradanza laid the foundation of Cuban salon dance and brought African rhythmic feel into the ballroom for the first time. Through danza and danzón that line runs on to son, mambo and timba.