OCR Text |
Show RISE AND PROGRESS OF DANCING. 29 fluenced by Africa in dancing ; for, from the Moors it was that Spain first received that dance now so peculiar to it, the Fandango, which is nothing else than the Chica, under a more decent form, the climate and other circumstances not permitting the performance of this latter with all its native concomitants. The origin of this dance it is very difficult to discover; but every thing in it seems to be the effect of a burning climate, and ardent constitutions. The Chica is danced to the sound of any instrument whatever, but to one certain kind of tune, which is in a manner consecrated to it, and of which the movement is extremely rapid. The woman holds one end of a handkerchief, or the two sides of her apron, and the chief art on her part consists in agitating the lower part of the loins, whilst the rest of the body remains almost motionless. A dancer now approaches her with a rapid bound, flies to her, retires, darts forward a-fresh, and appears to conjure her to yield to the emotions which she seems so forcibly to feel. W h e n the Chica is danced in its most expressive character, there is in the gestures and movements of the two dancers, a certain appearance more easily understood than described. The scene offers to the eye, all that is lascivious, all that is voluptuous. It is a kind of contest, wherein every trick of love, and every means of its triumph, are set in action. Fear, hope, disdain, tenderness, caprice, pleasure, refusals, flight, delirium, despair, all is there expressed, and the inhabitants of Paphos, would have honoured the inventor of it as a divinity. I will not attempt to say what impressions the sight of this dance must occasion, when executed with all the voluptuousness of which it is susceptible. It animates every feature, it awakens every sensibility, and would even fire the imagination of old age. |