Music & Dance

Music and dancing
Costa Ricans, like the vast majority of Latin Americans, simply love to dance. When the sun goes down, San José gets into the mood with disco clubs hotter than the tropical night. On weekends, rural folk flock to small-town dance halls and the locals’ celebrated reserve gives way to outrageously flirtatious dancing. Therefore, if you find yourself settling down in your real estate home, be it in the capital, near the beaches or among the mountains, you will never lack for any entertainment in the form of dancing.

Outside the communal dance halls, however, the younger generations prefer to listen to Anglo-American rock, just like their equivalents the world over. Despite this fact, they simply cannot ignore their roots, so when it comes to dancing, they prefer the hypnotic Latin and rhythmic Caribbean beats and bewildering cadences of cumbia, lambada, marcado, merengue, salsa, soca and the Costa Rican swing, danced with sure-footed erotic style.

On the Caribbean coast, music is profoundly Afro-Caribbean in spirit and rhythm, with plentiful drums and banjos, a local rhythm called sinkit and the cuadrille, a maypole dance in which each dancer holds one of many ribbons tied to the top of a pole: as they dance they braid their brightly colored ribbons.

The Caribbean, though, is really the domain of calypso and reggae. The Music Festival of the South Caribbean Coast, which debuted in 1999, features artists from around the country, from saxophonist Sonsax to national piano virtuoso Manuel Obregon.

When it comes to folkloric music and dancing, Guanacaste is the heartland of Costa Rican. Here, even such pre-Columbian instruments as the chirimia (oboe) and quijongo (a single-string bow with gourd resonator) popularized by the Chorotega natives are still used as backing for traditional Chorotega dances such as the ‘Danza del Sol’ (Dance of the Sun) and ‘Danza de la Luna’ (Dance of the moon). The more familiar Cambute and Botijuela Tamborito are usually performed on behalf of tourists rather than at native turnos (fiestas); nonetheless, the outfits of these dances include blurring flurries of colorful, frilly satin skirts along with the tossing of scarves, a fanning of hats and loud lusty yelps from the male participants. The dances usually deal with the issues of enchanted lovers (usually legendary coffee pickers) and are mostly based on the Spanish paseo, with pretty maidens in white bodices and dazzlingly bright skirts circled by men in white suits and cowboy hats.

There are a few folkloric dance troupes that dedicate themselves to touring the country, while others perform year-round at such venues as the Melico Sálazar Theater, the Aduana Theater and the National Dance Workshop headquarters in San José.

Even though remnants of the indigenous folk dancing tradition do not prevail in most places, they can be found in certain areas of the country. The Borucas still perform their ‘Danza de los Diablitos’ (Dance of the Little Devils). But the drums and flutes, including the curious dru mugata, an ocarina, (a small potato-shaped instrument with a mouthpiece and finger holes which yields soft, sonorous notes) made of beeswax, are being replaced by guitars and accordions. Even the solemn indigenous music is basically Spanish in origin and hints at the typically slow and languid Spanish canción (song) which gives full rein to the romantic, sentimental aspect of the Latin spirit.

Costa Rica stepped onto the world stage in classical music with the creation, in 1970, of the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the American, Gerald Brown. The orchestra, which performs in the Teatro Nacional, often features world-renowned guest soloists and conductors, such as violinist José Castillo and classical guitarist Pablo Ortíz, who often play together. There are performances from April through to November, with concerts on Thursday and Friday evenings, plus Saturday matinees. Costa Rica also claims the only state-subsidized youth orchestra in the Western world. The Sura Chamber Choir, founded in 1989 with musicians and vocalists from the country's two state universities, was the first professional choir in Central America, with a repertoire from sacred through Renaissance to contemporary styles.