Quadrilhas - typical dance rhytm

Quadrilha is a dance of European origin. Its first records, which mentioned old rural dances from Normandie and England, got lost in time. The group of aristocractic dances that spread across Europe in centuries 18 and 19 arrived in Brazil along with the Portuguese colonizers.

The dance we nowadays know as "quadrilha" harbored in Brazil better known as "Pas de Dance", a kind of French ballroom pair dance. The word "Quadrilha" derives from French "Quadrille" and from Italian "Squadro", which means a group of soldiers standing on a square.

According to researcher Câmara Cascudo, during the time when Brazil was a Portuguese colony, there was a strong identity with everything coming from Europe. Thus, it was very easy to adapt the term "quadrille" into "quadrilha".

The dance comprised five parts, each with a name in French:
1 - La chaîme continue des dames (continuous chain of ladies)
2 - La nouvelle traîne (the new chain)
3 - La corbeille (The flower basket)
4 - Double pastorelle (double little lady shepherd)
5 - Boulangere (Lady baker) e casse-croisé (broken, crossed), executed at the sound of allegro and allegreto and ended with an em avant (general) that, little by little, changed into polka, mazurka and waltz.

Source: Website of the city of Recife.