To the untrained eye the dance known as Sevillanas probably looks like flamenco. And while the gitanos do have their own version of Sevillanas which can be considered “flamenco”, the traditional Sevillanas are in fact a folk dance of the Andalusian people.

The Sevillanas dance is usually danced in pairs between a man an a woman, but it can also be danced between two or more women. The women traditionally wear a traje gitana, the long, colorful, often polka-dotted and ruffled dress that is an inseparable part of the image of Andalusia. The men traditionally wear what I consider to be the vestige of the clothing once worn by the Spanish nobility; tight pants with the waist above the hips and a bright shirt worn under a short vest.

In Granada, we dance the Sevillanas at the spring fair la feria, on the Día de la Cruz, as well as for weddings and pretty much every celebration. Most of us granaínos learned the dance just by growing up with it as part of our culture.

If you’d like to learn to dance Sevillanas, we can set you up with some classes. You’ll deepen your experience of Spanish culture and take home a really cool skill that’s guaranteed to impress your friends and family. You’ll also impress the Andalusians and really get their attention and gain their admiration.