I promised that I would put up review information on each of the folk dances we have learned this month, and I am finally getting around to it! Sorry it took so long.
As we saw in a class taught by two people, learning a folk tradition can be difficult because there are so many variations in a dance. As we joke in Balkan dancing, "What village are YOU from??!!" when someone dances a dance differently from what we learned.
As a long-time folk dancer, I can attest to the fact that many good folk dancers who teach, learned by doing, and don't have a well-defined teaching plan. I cannot count the number of times I've been told to "Do this!" Usually, the teacher has been doing the dancing since childhood, and has a deeply ingrained kinesthetic knowledge of the dance. This kind of teacher offers invaluable insight into the folk tradition, and how dance and music have been taught for hundreds of years, or more.
Sole will be teaching escondido this coming Thursday, which I have never officially learned, so this will be more in the folk tradition of teaching. Should be fun!
Chart of dance step order
Here is a chart of the chacarera doble steps:
http://www.portaldesalta.gov.ar/imagen/chaca2.jpg
Here, you can see that there are variations right away: both Sole and I were taught to do 2 rombos, instead of advance and retreat and then one rombo.
Videos of chacarera doble
If you watch two or three videos, you will already see how varied performance of each dance is. Here, I've chosen videos for a nice connection between the couple and/or flashy zapateo so that you can learn extra moves :-)
Video one: Nice, clear, easy to see how it fits with the music, etc.
Video two: You can dance this with two couples. This one seems to be a mom and her three boys. VERY cute, especially this littlest, who obviously likes to do this!
Video three: 10 ways to do the sarandeo (zarandeo is a variant spelling).
Video four: zapateo by a bunch of kiddos who are way better than we are :-) There are tons with more impressive zapateo, but this gives you an idea the we could learn these.
Music to dance chacarera doble
We danced to two kinds of songs for chacarera doble: ones with 8 counts for the vuelta entera, and ones with 6 counts for the vuelta entera (the one that felt like a race to the finish!). Here are the ones we did in class so far:
8-count vueltas:
- La Sachapera (Los Manseros Santiagueños)
- El Olvidao (a bunch of different people do this one, but this video is Raly Barrionuevo)
- Entre a mi pago sin golpear (Los Manseros Santiagueños)
6-count vueltas:
- Añoranzas (Los Chalchaleros)--the video is Peteco Carabajal and others
- El embrujo de mi tierra (Peteco Carabajal)
- Flor de Cenizas
Also, I found a list online of good chacarera dobles, although you will need to figure out which are 8- and 6-count vueltas on your own.
CHACARERA DOBLE
Amor en las trincheras - Chacarera doble (Vicky Castiñeira/Carlos Carabajal)
Bajo las sombras de un árbol - Chacarera doble (Peteco Carabajal)
Cuando me abandone mi alma - Chacarera doble (Raul Trullenque/Cuti Carabajal)
Donde ha quedado el cielo - Chacarera doble (Peteco Carabajal)
El embrujo de mi tierra - Chacarera doble (Carlos y Peteco Carabajal)
El nuevo amor que yo tengo - Chacarera doble (J. L. Carabajal/M. Medina)
En pampa de los guanacos - Chacarera doble
La calle alegre - Chacarera doble (Cuti Carabajal/Oscar Valles)
La oriunda - Chacarera doble
La sachapera - Chacarera doble (Oscar Valles/Carlos Carabajal)
Pampa de los guanacos - Chacarera doble (Cristóforo Juarez/Agustín Carabajal)
Para qué me habrás mirado - Chacarera doble
Qué pena chacarera - Chacarera doble (C. Carabajal)
Tiene sentido la vida - Chacarera doble (Mario Alvarez Quiroga)
Tierra madre chacarera - Chacarera doble (Peteco Carabajal)
There are tons of other songs that work, and I will be asking Sole to tell me her favorites to add here.