Beguine

[serg_juv]

Hi,

does anybody know about the dance called "beguine"? The famous song "Bésame mucho" is a beguine, according to my ballroom cd music. Any ideas about the timing, rhythm,..., or where to find information about that?

Thanks in advance

[pygmalion]

My best guess, based on the definitions I found at thefreedictionary.com, is a dance in the rumba/bolero family. No idea about the steps, etc. I bet, if there's info on it anywhere, dancelessons.net has a video! That's an amzing source of info.



Definitions
2. beguine - music written in the bolero rhythm of the beguine dance
3. beguine - a ballroom dance that originated in the French West Indies; similar to the rumba

[Spitfire]

Originally Posted by serg_juv

Hi,

does anybody know about the dance called "beguine"?

I've never heard of it; be interested in knowing myself.

[pygmalion]

Here's a little more verbiage I found at word-detective.com. Not a lot of description. And, incidentally, Begin the Beguine, the Cole Porter song, is a foxtrot! And, btw, no luck on finding a video. I'll keep looing though. The dancelessons web page is cool, but it has no search engine, so you have to page through everything.


The "Beguine" referred to in the title of Porter's hit song of the 1930s is, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, "a kind of popular dance, originally associated with Martinique; also applied to a kind of syncopated dance rhythm." Of course, anyone attempting to actually learn to dance from that definition is going to have serious social problems, but I understand the beguine is a ballroom dance similar to the rumba. The name "beguine" comes from "beguin," French slang for "infatuation." (Martinique, a West Indian island, was once a French colony.)

For a word that became associated with a highly romantic dance step, "beguin" had a remarkable beginning. The Sisters of Beguine were a 12th century Catholic lay order founded in the Netherlands by Lambert Begue. While the Beguines were suitably pious, their vows were not as strict as many other orders, and the Sisters were allowed to leave the order to marry if they wished. Perhaps because of this freedom, "beguine" came to be used as a slang term for "flirtation" or "infatuation." The Sisters of Beguine still exist in small communities in the Netherlands, but, to my knowledge, they do not dance the beguine.

[pygmalion]

More stuff on the beguine. Apparently, Katherine Dunham, and anthropologist who studied in the West Indies, introduced the beguine and several other dances to the US in her stage show La'Ag' Ya in New York in 1938.

Here's a link with more info about that. Still no step patterns to be found.

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

This from AMI's dance dictionary:
BEGUINE: A type of Rumba in which the accent is on the second eighth note of the first beat. Origins spring from Martinique and Cuba.

And this from webref.org/dance
Popular ballroom dance of the island of St. Lucia and Martinique. It is characterized by the rocking back and forth of the hips while the girl throws her arms around her partner's neck. His arms loosely clasp her about the waist. The steps have been incorporated in both the Haitian Merengue and Calypso.

And this from projectdrum.com, about the dance's rhythm.
BEGUINE (BIGUINE) - From Santa Lucia and Martinique, named after the French word for "flirtation" or "darling." Possible roots in the Ghanaian rhythm known as La Sinimowa.

[Pacion]

Originally Posted by pygmalion

Here's a little more verbiage I found at word-detective.com. Not a lot of description. And, incidentally, Begin the Beguine, the Cole Porter song, is a foxtrot!

Can the foxtrotters here please comment Does it work for the foxtrot as you know it or am I thinking of the Julio Ingelesis version