Las danzas o bailes de jaleo y su relación con el baile flamenco

Abstract

This article is an attempt to summarize several years of research, focused on some of the popular and theatrical dances that were performed in Spain (particularly in Andalusia) before the flamenco dance school began to surface. Its purpose is to identify which of these dances influenced more directly in the configuration of flamenco dance. We will focus on a tradition of solo dances, mainly female, performed both in popular and theatrical environments, and that we will call jaleo dances. At the parties they were danced along with the couple dances, seguidillas or fandangos. In theatrical environments, they coincided from 1780 onwards and for decades with the boleros, the most orthodox and stylized academic couple dances. In addition to claiming the importance of this dances as an specific tradition, with its own entity in the Spanish dance, we intend to contribute to its definition and to argue that these were the dances that more directly influenced the emergence of the new flamenco dance school. We also argue that the definition of tiranas should be made in conjunction with these dances: Tiranas can be definid as the sung part of the theatrical jaleos.