In many usages in the Spanish language, what is originally an adjective becomes a noun, and the orginal noun forgotten. So it is here; the original phrase was las seguidillas sevillanas ... the seguidillas as they are danced in Sevilla. Now it is just las sevillanas.

The seguidillas is one of the original folk dances of Iberia, and goes way back in history. Dance anthropologists say that it is the original source of much of Spanish dance, and we know that it is more than four hundred years old.

When Miguel de Cervantes wrote his novella La Gitanilla, he describes his protaganist Preciosa dancing for money in the streets of Madrid. She is dancing, he tells us, las seguidillas. This would not have been las seguidillas sevillanas, but las seguidillas manchegas. The seguidillas now survives as an archival dance, remembered only by specialists, while las sevillanas are danced all over Spain. It was said that in 1990 the Basque city of Bilbao had one hundred Sevillanas Clubs. And, of course, for a hundred and fifty years the Sevillanas have been the iconic dance of the Feria de Sevilla.

Las sevillanas is a social dance and in order for a dance to be accessible to whoever shows up, the rhythmic structure and the choreography have to be stable. This is the case, and if you learn sevillanas in California, and you go to Sevilla and someone asks you to dance the sevillanas you will be able to do it. The senorito sevillano will usually have embellished the choreography to show off how cool, he is, but it will still fit with the academic form. (If it doesn't, just tell him to get lost.). Thus, sevillanas differs from all flamenco forms which are subject to shortening and lengthening of passages at the discretion of the dancer and the singer.

Sevillanas are danced in the form of four verses, or coplas. There used to be seven or eight, but the last three or four have been forgotten. The rhythmic structure is simple in the extreme, being a six count phrase, and each step in the dance then occupies those six counts. (A musician would say that this was two bars of 3/4 rhythm.) Six of these steps constitutes one section of the copla, the last step involving changing places with the partner. Each of these sections begins with a particular step, the paso sevillana. Three of these sections complete the copla, which terminates in a vuelta (turn) to a sudden stop (parado) at the end.

The lyrics (letra) of the Sevillanas are in general lighthearted, and speak of love, of the beauties of Sevilla, or of nature and of the annual Sevillano pilgrimage to Rocio. The beginning of the dance is preceded by a musical phrase and a line of song which serves to warn the dancers to prepare to begin. During this, some dancers execute a turn (vuelta) to the left, others remain facing each other doing palmas.

Here is one version of the letra:

Rosa de pitimini(1)
Rosa de pitimini
Cuatro o cinco en un ramito
Cuatro o cinco en un ramito
Rosa de pitimini
Ole ole ole ole ole
Rosa de pitimini
Cuatro o cinco en un ramito
Cuatro o cinco en un ramito
Se las tengo que poner
Ole ole ole ole
Se las tengo que poner
A San Antonio bendito
Con el vele vele vele
Manojito de claveles
Que me dió a mi un sevillano
Que bonito y a bien huele
Por la mañana temprano.

 

Little roses
Four or five in a bunch
Four or five in a bunch
Little roses
Ole ole ole ole ole
Little roses
Four or five in a bunch
Four or five in a bunch
If I had them to put
Ole ole ole ole
If I had them to put
As an offering to blessed San Antonio
With the vele, vele, vele
A little bunch of carnations
That a sevillano gave to me
So pretty and sweet smelling
Early in the morning.

 

(1) Rosa de pitimini; miniature rose, from the french petit