SOURCE: McGinniss, Cheryl Folkins. “The Dance: A Metamorphic Symbol in Gil Vicente's Auto de la sibila Casandra.” Hispanic Review 52, no. 2 (spring, 1984): 163-68.

In the following essay, McGinniss discusses Vicente's use of dance to signal changes in scene and characterization in Auto de la sibila Casandra.

An outstanding feature of the Vicentine theater is the dance, with which, it has been felt, the dramatist beautifies his work. The element of dance interpolation, however, surpasses mere theatrical ornamentation and contributes more specifically to the structural and conceptual coherence of the work.¹ In effect, Vicente's Auto de la sibila Casandra is composed within a choreographic architecture, and the execution of dance is repeatedly and consistently rooted to a process of metamorphosis.² That is to say, changes from contemporary to biblical action, from the pastoral to the courtly, from the impertinent to the moral are all confirmed by the performance of a...