Information: A dance.

Translation: A fado ("fate") called "Whitey"

Pronunciation: FA-due blahn-KEE-tah

Other names: Several dances other than various versions of Fado Blanquita have been presented to records by that name:

Region: Portugal

Fado (pronounced FA-due) means "fate" and describes a genre of "blues" derived from Brazilian, Portuguese, and African sources. In Portuguese or Brazilian tourist night clubs, the mournful, solo song is usually followed by a dance that is never happy enough to dispel the underlying melancholy of the song. Other countries accepted this song genre and this particular melody. Interestingly, the Fado as a dance form does not seem to exist in folklore.

Fado Blanquita was introduced to California folk dancers by the famous Cesare "Vani" Vanoni in the mid-1940s and was popular through the early 1950s. He derived it from a theatrical form of the Fado from Brazil. Many, many of our "folk" dances came from theatrical sources.

All instructions call it Fado Blanquita, except for two that obviously are derivative copies of the standard notes. A few sets of instructions refer to recordings of Fado Blanquito, but they are in the minority and usually corrected in reprints.

My guess is that the true name is: Fado – Blanquita (a Fado, entitled little white female something). One source refers to that something as a pony, but we would have to listen to the song to determine this for certain.