A dance documented since 1862, of great importance and frequent in nearly all local festivities in Llanes and its surrounding area. It is danced in groups of three, one man and two women, accompanied by tambourine, drum and singing (usually romances or “coplas”).

For a time, it went by other names such as “válame” or “el contrapaso” but in the end “pericote” stuck .

Many factors have influenced the changes which the pericote has undergone to arrive at the form we know nowadays. Firstly the geographical expansion of the dance introduced music and choreographical alterations from different areas, next the lack of “pericos” (the name given to the women who took the role of men in the “pericote of Cue”) meant that the initial groups of three sometimes became mixed couples and in the second decade of the nineteenth century it began to be accompanied by the bag pipes and not by the tambourine, drum and singing as in the beginning.

Nowadays there are four recognized versions of the pericote: of San Roque, La Magdalena, La Guía y Cué.

What is certain and common to them all is that the “pericote” is one of the most archaic dance and music forms surviving in Asturias and together with the “Corri-corri” is one of the most important dances which we boast.