La Cueca

Chile's traditional dance is called the Cueca. It is a super simple dance where the girl is flirting with the boy and the boy is trying to get the girl. The dance always starts with the pair clapping and then once the singing starts, they start dancing with a white handkerchief, passing in a figure eight or half moon movement towards the partner. When the song finishes, the girl hooks her arm with her partner's and they walk off the dance floor. During the Fiestas Patrias, EVERYONE dances the Cueca. I learned by watching however, not by doing. But here are different times when I had a chance to learn...at school, at a fonda/concert with a Folkloric group singing cueca songs, and at my friend Lorena's house - her parents and her daughter danced a little diddy for us.