Pasodoble
PasoDoble's Ballroom adaptation is in 2/4 time, 120 beats per minute.
Paso Doble in Spanish means two step.
It came from France in the late eighteenth century evolving from military marches .
It was an American John Philip Sousa that made it into what it is today.
He added the brass section to this music.
In Paso Doble the dancers reenact a Bullfight.
The man is the matador and the lady plays the Cape or the Bull.
Bullfighting has always fascinated me.
I've given college lectures on the Greek bull-cultus. (Ancient Greek Bullfight Cults)
But my Paso Doble performances never made the cut.
Even my partners say, my dancing looks jerky and my rhythm is off.
See, I prefer authentisity.
So I went to the running of the Bull in Pamplona, Spain to learn Paso Doble.
Every year in July the civic minded citizens of Pamplona run Bulls through the center of town.
People line up to taunt and run away from the Bulls. This tradition goes back thousands of years.
I tried it once and it didn't go so well.
Today I tell all my Paso Doble partners, " I may not look good but I get out
of the way. "
Lord M