It is Sevillanas whose easier movements are among the first undertaken by every well-reared Andalusian child, whose adequate execution is half the fame of most great Spanish dancers. Of all the dances, Otero calls it “the most Spanish.” Yet it gives the spectator few detached pictures to carry away in memory. Its merit is in its cumulative choreographic argument.
Very broadly speaking, the prevailing foot-work of the Seguidillas family is the pas de Basque—or, in Spanish, paso de Vasco. Turns, advances and retreats are almost incessant. Variety of step is secured by frequent fouettés and fouetté tours (figures 43 to 46); the leg sweep in the latter being usually “inward,” the foot, with most performers (at present) raised more than waist-high. Swinging steps, it will be noticed; choppy elements such as battements, entrechats and the like are, by distinction, the elements of the sharper work of the North. Sevillanas makes the feet less important than the hands and arms. These, however bewildering they are made to appear, follow a simple theme of opposition, as for instance: (1) left arm horizontally extended to the side, right arm across the chest; (2) right arm extended upward, left forearm across the back. As the simplest movement of club-swinging is incomprehensible to the person to whom it never has been explained, so with the arms in Sevillanas, with the bewilderment multiplied by the play of line effected by the arms of a couple.
The body is held with a combination of erectness and suppleness that is Spain’s own; sympathetic to every move of hand or foot, yet always controlled and always majestic. The essence of this queen of dances is not in step or movement, but in its traditional style plus a steadily increasing enrichment through the successive coplas—an enrichment that depends principally on the perfection of team work at a rapid tempo, and one that adds greatly to the subtle difficulties. Many performers will inform you that a sixth copla does not exist. Of those who can execute it adequately, the majority reserve it for competitions to present as a surprise.
The scope of moods from beginning to end of Sevillanas gives play to the lyric and the epic; allurement and threat; coquetry and triumph. It is a blend of the wine
