The Origins of the Bolero School (Studies in Dance History)

by Javier Suárez-Pajares, Lynn Garafola (Editor), Xoan M. Carreira (Editor)

Edited by Spanish musicologists Javier Suárez-Pajares and Xoán M. Carreira, The Origins of the Bolero School examines the social, artistic, and political contexts that led to the birth of "Spanish dance." The Bolero School arose from the encounter of popular forms of Spanish origin and elite forms of French and Italian origin in the last third of the eighteenth century. The subsequent occupation of Spain by the French during the Napoleonic Wars called a halt to this process of cultural hybridization, resulting in a dance idiom with a strong eighteenth-century, Spanish flavor. This complex story is told with grace and acumen in a book that exemplifies the best kind of multidisciplinary scholarship. Generously illustrated with period material, the volume is augmented by primary texts reproduced in their original Spanish, French, and English. The volume contains two source lists—of the "exotic" or foreign dancers active in Spain from 1750 to 1800, the other of ballets performed at Madrid’s principal theaters in the 1780s and 1790s.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993