This ancient dance form born in Cuba, traces its origins back to the contradanse introduced into the island by the French toward the end of the 18th Century. In the early 19th Century, the dance changed due to the influence of the Island's black population, where it became contradanza. The dance is made up of four movements: paseo, cadena, sostenido and cedazo. The first two are slow while the sostenido and the cedazo have a faster tempo. In time the contradanza lost its group characteristic and became a dance for partners.
