SARDANA

communal dance intimately bound up with Catalan national consciousness. It is danced by men and women who join hands alternately in a closed circle. As they dance to the music of tenores and tabales (shawms and small drums), their faces remain solemn and dignified. The basic pattern of the sardana is a series of long (llarg) and short (curt) steps; the precise combination is determined by the leader, who signals the steps with a hand squeeze that is passed around the circle. The music is first slow, then rapid. The sardana developed in the 19th century from the contraps, a similar dance with a broken circle.