Caracolillo
Who is Caracolillo?
Federico Casado Algrenti, known as “Caracolillo”, was born on March 10, 1932 in Cádiz, into a family lineage of bailaores from Cádiz; the nickname, inherited from his grandfather, referred to the very curly hair that characterized the family. He began his professional career at eighteen, forming an artistic partnership with the Italian dancer Minerva, with whom he toured the United States and Europe.
Career
At twenty-three he became lead dancer of Pilar López’s company, with which he spent a year, and he also collaborated with Mariemma and other leading figures of Spanish dance of the era. His career took him to landmark stages in the United States, such as Radio City Music Hall and the Bijou Theatre on Broadway in New York, as well as the Waldorf Astoria, and he even appeared on Ed Sullivan’s television show and at the Florida Park in Madrid.
In 1964 he married the tonadillera Juanita Reina, and from 1958 he took charge of the artistic direction of his wife’s shows, among them “Sevilla, trono y tronío”. In 1976 he founded the Estudio de Danza Caracolillo in Seville, the first school dedicated to teaching sevillanas, which he directed until his retirement in 2002 and where, among other students, the Argentine singer Nacha Guevara trained. He combined teaching with his own businesses, a restaurant in Madrid and an academy in Seville.
Style
A staunch defender of classical technique against more sensual readings of the dance, he considered sevillanas a complex dance, rooted in the 17th century, that should be danced “neither fast nor slow, but joyfully”, with the playful flirtation between man and woman as its hallmark rather than eroticism. He was also a promoter of the use of castanets and the flamenco dress in sevillanas competitions.
Legacy
He married Juanita Reina on June 15, 1964 at the Basílica de la Macarena in Seville; they had a son, Federico, born in 1965. He was widowed in 1999 and made a decisive contribution to the rise of sevillanas in Spain across several generations of students. He died in Seville on March 3, 2012, a week before turning eighty.