CONTREDANSE, PATRON SAINT FESTIVITIES IN HON-OUR OF SAINT JOHN LAWRENCE

The Dance and Contredanse of Cetina are the most representative elements of the tra-ditional culture and popular theatricality of this Aragonese village with approximately 600 inhabitants, situated in the valley of the Jalón River. Both dances are performed during the celebrations dedicated to the local patron, Saint John Lawrence, whose saint´s day is celebrated on the 19 of May.

The Contredanse is a traditional performance in which nine young dancers appear: eight contredanseurs and a devil who leads the spectacle. The ensemble is composed of about thirty choreographic figures developed at ground level or raising human towers or pyramids, most of them crowned by the devil. The Contredanse is performed on the main square of the village on Saint John Lawrence´s day when dusk falls. In the after-noon the Contredanseurs dress costumes which are made for the occasion. A proces-sion formed by the Contredanseurs and their companions moves from the “house of devil” looking for axes, long torches or firelighters produced for this purpose that will lat-er light the performance.

Once the group has reached the square, the spectators form a broad rectangle on the open area in front of the entry of the ancient castle-palace of Cetina, in order to serve as a stage. When silence and darkness reign in the square the musicians start to per-form a repetitive melody that can be heart continuously until the performance ends, ex-cept for the interlude, known as “el escuche”, which marks the change of the dance fig-ures and help the dancers to arrange the dance in sequence. During one and a half hour approximately, the dancers perform a series of human castles with intermissions of vig-orous movements, under the indications of the devil. The performance ends with the pantomime of the devil´s shaving, in which he dies and revives again with even more strength in order to make the renewal of the festive cycle possible.

The Contredanseurs wear trimmed and decorated costumes with different geometric motifs: chains, plaits, flowers, animals, stars and handwritten letters. The devil wears a kind of red overalls finished off with white lace edging. The figures that adorn his suit are also white and all of them wear espadrilles. The eight Contredanseurs cover their heads with a headscarf and their face with a white mask touched up with black, which highlight their exaggerated features. The devil covers his head with a red beret and blackens, his face with stylized characteristics as well as a false moustache.

Etymologically the term Contredanse is used to be related to the French word Contre-danse and the English country dance, dances that became very popular in Europe and America from the beginning of the XVII century until the XIX century. Even though in different forms, they have been cultivated in aristocratic environments as well as in the urban and rural context in which the mask and the carnival conditions seem to have a clear differential component. The symbols that contains the Contredanse have been in-terpreted in different and sometimes inconsistent ways, like the ones that involve Celti-berian roots. Its spectacular structure and the existence of similar performances, clearly link it to the baroque mummery of the popular style, which is proved by documentary sources.

The Government of Aragon proclaimed the celebrations of Saint John Lawrence of Cetina Festivities of Regional Tourist Interest in 1996. The Contredanse of Cetina, in turn, was declared as an Intangible Good of Cultural Interest in 2012.

Raül Sanchis Francés
Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona