Beautiful costumes covering dancers head to toe.
Skit of ancient King.
Not the greatest picture but I am the one in the middle in blue.
I don't know about you but I am definitely not the world's greatest dancer, nor would I consider myself even an okay dance, but in Peru I would consider myself a horrible dancer. Why would I make such a comment, well growing up in the United States there are not many cultural dances that are being taught to my generation so in general I would say people my age are not that great at dancing and in Peru I am even farther separated from the dancing elite because there are so many intricate cultural dances. I do however make an exception to my assumption of my general of Americans being bad dancers if you consider "dirty dancing" to be an impressive style of dance. While I think many people my age have lost their dancing sense I am totally blown away by people who can step dance, break dance, and do other sorts of modern dances that I could never fathom of being good at. That being said it has been refreshing for me to see the different culture of dance here in Peru.
This past weekend I got to attend a folklore show that included skits and cultural dances native to Peru. Throughout the evening we were able to see a variety of different dances, with names that I cannot recall, that highlighted many different cultures across Peru. My favorite of all the dances was the Alcatraz Dance, which "is danced in couples with a paper tied at the back of the waist. The dancers play with a lit candle trying to ignite the paper. Agile waist movements are used that draw loving encounters." I was going to follow up the description of this dance by saying I really want to learn it, but I want to clarify that I want to learn it as a style of dance...I have not at this point found a "Peruvian Princess" that I am looking to "draw loving encounters" with. Anyways, this dance was very hysterical because the man and woman would go back in forth trying to ignite each other on fire. I do have some videos of these dances I will put together soon but as of now you can look at these descriptions if you want to learn more about the cultural dances.
While I went into the night expecting a fabulous dinner and some great entertainment, I was gradually warmed up to the idea of making a fool of myself in front of the whole audience. After watching a number of dances a few people in our group had the idea of trying to jump up on stage and since I was at the right place at the wrong time I was one of the people who got volunteered to get up on stage. Just minutes after we got the go ahead that we were going to dance I had a pretty "Peruvian Princess" come grab me from my seat and bring me up onto the stage. Since I am not a dancer she graciously showed me what to do and we were able to have a fun time dancing around for the rest of the audience.
Now that I have experienced firsthand the fun that can be had to dance traditional Peruvian dances I will definitely need to get some more lessons and see if I can go back to the US a little more cultured in the dance department.
If any dance savvy Peruvian is reading this and can teach me to do the Alcatraz dance please let me know!
