''Cachua'' (''qachwa'', ''qhaswa'', ''kashua'', ''kaswa'', ''kachura'') ( or , diminutive form ''cachuita'') is a term from Quechua language ''qhachwa'', meaning "round dance," that is the Spanish name for a Latin-American

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

dance form found mainly in Peru. It still exists today as a

circle dance Circle dance, or chain dance, is a style of social dance done in a circle, semicircle or a curved line to musical accompaniment, such as rhythm instruments and singing, and is a type of dance where anyone can join in without the need of part ...

. The term was also applied to some villancicos to Spanish texts with cachua rhythm, such as two examples in a report submitted to

Charles IV of Spain , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles III of Spain , mother =Maria Amalia of Saxony , birth_date =11 November 1748 , birth_place =Palace of Portici, Portici, Naples , death_date = , death_place = ...

c.1788-1790.Appel "A report sent to Charles IV of Spain between 1788 and 1790 includes a collection of melodies from northern Peru, which is headed by two Christmas songs subtitled cachua. The present-day cachua is also a circle dance, performed by ......" It is in rapid unsyncopated 2/4 time.

References

{{Circle dance Peruvian dances Circle dances