The gato is a cheerful couple dance in 6/8 that was danced all over Argentina in the 19th century. Like the chacarera, it has a sequence of figures — advance, turns, zapateo and zarandeo — but it is shorter and quicker, with a flirtatious, teasing spirit. Regional variants include the gato cordobés, gato polqueado and gato con relaciones, in which partners exchange spoken verses.
The gato’s name (‘cat’) may refer to the playful, cat-like chase between partners. It was one of the most popular dances of the gaucho countryside and of urban dance halls in the 1800s, and travellers of the time described it at every celebration. Today the gato is taught in folk-dance schools across Argentina and danced at peñas and festivals such as Cosquín. In the ‘gato con relaciones’, the music stops so that the man and woman can recite humorous rhyming couplets — a small duel of wit inside the dance.
