Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean - Temple University
Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean - Temple University
Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean - Temple University
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46 Peter Manuel<br />
n<strong>in</strong>e, <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> sense of be<strong>in</strong>g gentle, docile, and languid. As Pedreira wrote, “The<br />
danza, like our landscape, is of a fem<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>e condition, soft and romantic.” Such<br />
an essentializ<strong>in</strong>g conceit, Aparicio notes, does justice nei<strong>the</strong>r to women nor to<br />
<strong>the</strong> danza, as illustrated by <strong>the</strong> fiery revolutionary lyrics written by Lola Rodríguez<br />
de Tió for “La bor<strong>in</strong>queña.” Nor would it accommodate a 1981 danza,<br />
“Lolita,” written by Vitín Calderón <strong>in</strong> honor of pro<strong>in</strong>dependence militant Lolita<br />
Lebrón, jailed for attempt<strong>in</strong>g to assass<strong>in</strong>ate President Harry Truman. Meanwhile,<br />
although <strong>the</strong> heyday of <strong>the</strong> danza is long past, a bucolic vocal danza of<br />
Antonio “El Topo” Cabán Cale, “Verde luz,” became an unofficial an<strong>the</strong>m of<br />
<strong>the</strong> island’s progressive left (Aparicio 1998: chap. 1).<br />
The conflict<strong>in</strong>g and sometimes chang<strong>in</strong>g conceptions of local identity are<br />
manifest <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir own way <strong>in</strong> attitudes toward <strong>the</strong> quadrille variants <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
French <strong>Caribbean</strong>. As we have seen, many French Antillean quadrille dancers,<br />
like contredanse enthusiasts of <strong>the</strong> late 1700s, may take some pride today<br />
<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> image of decency and propriety expressed <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir dance, <strong>in</strong> contrast, for<br />
example, to more rowdy Afro-<strong>Caribbean</strong> dances like bèlè. However, this same<br />
European character of <strong>the</strong> dance stigmatizes it <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> view of those whose sensibilities<br />
have been <strong>in</strong>formed by <strong>the</strong> Afrocentric negritude movement and who<br />
see dances like haute-taille and pastourelle as reflect<strong>in</strong>g capitulation to colonial<br />
European aes<strong>the</strong>tics.<br />
Just as <strong>the</strong> affective significations of <strong>the</strong> contradance and quadrille have<br />
varied over time and place, so have its constitutive elements tended to submerge<br />
and resurface throughout <strong>the</strong> <strong>Caribbean</strong> over <strong>the</strong> generations. Thus a<br />
syncopated form of <strong>the</strong> habanera rhythm re-emerged <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1970s as <strong>the</strong> heartbeat<br />
of Tr<strong>in</strong>idadian soca and aga<strong>in</strong> <strong>in</strong> 1992 as <strong>the</strong> “riddim” of <strong>the</strong> Jamaica<br />
dancehall song “Dem Bow,” which went on to form <strong>the</strong> rhythmic template of<br />
reggaetón. Similarly, <strong>the</strong> stentorian chant<strong>in</strong>g of <strong>the</strong> Mart<strong>in</strong>ican quadrille commandeur<br />
reappears <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> syncopated declamation of dancehall deejays, and (as<br />
<strong>the</strong> next chapter discusses) <strong>the</strong> rhythms, forms, and melodies of 1850s Cuban<br />
contradanzas resurface <strong>in</strong> twentieth-century son and salsa. In <strong>the</strong>se correspondences<br />
<strong>the</strong> contradance and quadrille have served ei<strong>the</strong>r as sem<strong>in</strong>al orig<strong>in</strong>al<br />
sources or as media for <strong>the</strong> transmission of elements from one genre or locale<br />
to ano<strong>the</strong>r. Remote <strong>in</strong> time as <strong>the</strong> contradance and quadrille heyday grows,<br />
its legacy cont<strong>in</strong>ues to animate <strong>Caribbean</strong> music, often <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> most unanticipated<br />
ways.<br />
Notes<br />
1. A short and prelim<strong>in</strong>ary but significant pan-<strong>Caribbean</strong> study is John Szwed and<br />
Morton Marks’s “The Afro-American Transformation of European Set Dances and<br />
Dance Suites” (1988).<br />
2. Regard<strong>in</strong>g contradanza and quadrille traditions elsewhere <strong>in</strong> Lat<strong>in</strong> America, see<br />
entries <strong>in</strong> Diccionario de la Música Española e Hispanoamericana (Casares 1999–