Based on 50 years of research, the lavishly illustrated book comes with three CDs and a DVD revealing the beauty and the passion behind the popular dance.
Two leading experts in the area of Chilean folklore have published a colorful and accessible book on their country's national dance: cueca.In La cueca: danza de la vida y la muerte (Cueca: Dance of Life and Death), Margot Loyola and Osvaldo Cádiz explore the history of the folkloric dance.The 300 page book contains beautiful illustrations, a technical analysis of the dance and lyrics to popular cueca tunes.Complementing the book are three CDs and a DVD containing close to 150 phonographic recordings that reveal the varied interpretations of the dance throughout Chile.“I wanted to use the best words I could to explain the story of the cueca, which I have been learning all my life,” said Loyola, a folk singer and musician who won Chile's coveted National Art Prize in 1994 and holds an honorary doctorate from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaíso.“This book is a snippet of the life of the cueca that I have experienced so deeply.”Assembled over the course of five years by authors with a century of combined experience in researching Chilean history, the book will be published as a joint project between the Chilean Copyright Society (SCD) and the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center (GAM).It was launched at a ceremony at the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center in Santiago with a special performance by folkloric dance group, Palomar.
Cueca is Chile's historic national dance. (Photo: Clare Bevis)