Noticias históricas sobre la presencia de la danza en Santo Domingo de la Calzada

Abstract

The historical news of the dance in our town run in parallel to the history of the dance in Spain. In the Golden Centuries the processional dance adorns the Corpus Christi processions in our country. The first date in Santo Domingo is from the year 1575. From that date on, there are numerous references to the dance in our town. It is the golden age of the dance in Spain. Juan Blanco was the city’s dance teacher for more than thirty years. He also taught in other towns and organized a semi-professional group of dancers who were called to perform in cities as important as Burgos. Juan Blanco’s group came to perform a considerable variety of dances, but two types of dances which are currently the most common in La Rioja were already becoming popular in his time: the castanet dance and the stick dance. Professional Valencian dancers were very present in the town during the 18th century. At the end of this century and the beginning of the 19th century there were prohibitions from the bishops, and the kings as well as the wars against France. After this traumatic period, the town of Santo Domingo decided to recover the art of dancing and chose new protagonists, child dancers, to accompany the processions of its patron saint festivities.