Las Mudanzas del diablo

Since repetition is the essence of festive rites, each year, the people of Cetina participate in their fiestas - the series of celebrations in honor of their patron saint - with renewed excitement and hoping to repeat the same thrills. Their ritual dances combine religiosity with Baroque artifice, sanctity with laughter. The memories and testimonies of the danzantes and contradanceros - the dancers from various different generations who have participated in these two dances -, offer an inside look at this celebration. The dance - pronounced "dan-thai"—and the contradanza are the day and night of the local fiestas in Cetina (Zaragoza), a village of some 700 inhabitants that has managed to preserve these two unique dances.