Cueca

Cueca is a couple dance and song form of the Southern Cone, declared the national dance of Chile in 1979 and also practised in Bolivia, Argentina and Peru. A man and a woman, each holding a white handkerchief, circle and approach one another in a stylised courtship derived from the colonial zamacueca, accompanied by guitars, harp, piano or accordion and sung verses in a sesquialtera metre that layers 6/8 against 3/4. Chilean variants include the rural cueca centrina, the nortina of the mining north and the urban cueca brava of Santiago's bars. Its verses range from patriotic praise to picaresque humour.