Assumption Festival

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People in Cuzco celebrate the Assumption Festival on August 15 every year. Gathering at the image of Santa Maria, people in colorful Peruvian folk costumes and in a variety of dance through the town center and along the stone-paved streets. This collaboration seems

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Inti Raymi Festival

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The whole city of Cuzco comes to life during the week leading up to Inti Raymi. There are parades of celebration, performances by musicians in traditional ethnic costume, and dancing. There is different entertainment on each day. On this day, primary and junior high school boys and girls performed old-fashioned dances that have been passed from generation to generation since ancient times. Around the central square, filled with sightseers, young boys and girls in various ethnic costumes of blue, red, and white perform lively dances. If I say that this week is more enjoyable than the actual Inti Raymi itself, I might offend some people.

2 http://www.boliviacontact.com/en/sugerencia/carnaval/kullawada.php

The return of the Pachacuti Incas

The Inca dance has been asserted itself with originality, despite the incongruencies applied to the costumes, such as the mixing of Tihuanacu culture icons with the classical terraced sign of the Inca nobility. However it is interesting to observe closely the old "wanka" (tragedy - telling) of this dance, told in Quechua and Spanish and possibly presented since 1871. On Sunday Carnival, under a splendid Inti (Sun) the sons of the sun do a recall of the "Tragedy of the end of Atahuallpa". As Jesus Lara stated, this expression does not show "any interest in adjusting to the historic reality". On his turn, the ethno-historian watched states that with this dance it is looked for a return of a happy scatological Pachacuti.

The Trauma of the Conquest

The dance, in fact, describes the trauma of the conquest; previous encounters, an intelligible dialog, death of Atahuallpa and victory of Pizarro and then an unexpected end sentence of Pizarro in Spain, a malediction of the Europeans and a messianic. And rebellic message of the defeated people. After the conquest, for the indigenousness, the Spaniards are the ones who caused the rupture of the economical and cosmological equilibrium of the Inca State. The idea that the arrival of the "auqasunk'akuna" (atrange foreign people) would also mean the destructuration an "Upside down World", it would promote in the multitude unconscious mind and the myth of the hope of a new age in which the times of the Inca would regenerate. The destructuration had happened but not the total destruction. It is interesting to see the coexistence of two ways of thinking, that of the Spaniard and of the indigenous, in which two ways of understanding vis a vis history are held. Myth is the first try that people do to explain the world and his place in it. The people create it and speak it out. In the case of the telling of the Incas, the acted "Wuanca" and the myth have founded on the speech to subside up to this day.

Without a writing of their own:

The Incas did not have a writing system of their own and this is the reason why the sources were written by priests, Spanish colonists and Conquistadors. The voice and speech were the only means by which this vision would pass from generation to generation. According to the myth of Inkarri, after the conquest, the Inca turns into an under ground being and he prevails in the "uk'u"Pacha (the world below). The millennium will arrive when he will have left his kingdom to assert his power in "kay pacha" (the world over here). The be settled in the power said that the virtual practices were "idolatries" and it organized a religious repression. Watched suggests that the conquest was an aggression and that it caused a trauma in the multitude mentality, which survives in the dance of the Incas, because it is re-performed as a way of violent aculturization or the struggle against oppression from the indigenous side. The progressive actualization of the myth of the "Return of the Inca's associated in the Andean towns, to other triumphant phenomena of the peasant movement. Therefore, there survives the looking forward to another Pachacuti, of turning this world to another reality, to a Pachacuti that, according to the myth, suggests a transformation and not a mere change. May be the fiction is finished, the rest is history.

3 Pre-Columbian Dance Forms

The Mexican Folkloric Dance Company's opening has always been related to the magnificent Mexica (meh shee kah) culture, known as the Aztecs. dance was an integral part of pre-Columbian religion. Dances were choreographed to reflect the four cardinal points or the movement of stars. It was also believed that, because dance and music were gifts from the , the gods wanted men to honor them by dancing and singing. Foot stomping was believed to fertilize the soil just like raindrops do, so dancing was vigorous. both men and women danced but they never danced with each other. The concept of social dance was introduced with the arrival of the Spaniards in 1519.

MFDC's dance repertoire includes several dance suites that reflect this momentous period:

• La Primera Evolución - 1982 • Cuadro Náhuatl - 1983 • Ritual dedicado al Sol - 1986 • Los Concheros - 1990 • Suite Pre-Colombina - 1997

4 http://www.calacademy.org/research/anthropology/tap/ARCHIVE/2005/2005. html

(two pages)

Aztec Dances In Pre-Hispanic times, Central Mexico was one of many cacao-growing areas of Mesoamerica, and the Aztecs used bitter chocolate drinks in many of their ritual ceremonies. To mark the opening of the Academy's new exhibit Chocolate, Ernesto Hernandez Olmos and the Xaguia Gura Ensemble perform Aztec Indian dances that pay homage to the ancient Nahuatl-speaking cultures of Pre-Columbian Mexico. Wearing colorful outfits, masks, and spectacular plumed headdresses inspired by the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, the dancers move to the rhythm of indigenous instruments such as ankle rattles, hollowed log drums, conch shell trumpets, bamboo flutes, and clay whistles -- many designed to imitate the sounds of nature. (June 11, 2005) PHOTO: June Anderson

The Mayan Gift of Chocolate In a program especially for kids, Zoe Harris focuses on the role of chocolate in Mayan culture. You will hear the story of how Two Wind Deer and his monkey brought chocolate to his people, and learn about the Cacao God and how to write the Mayan glyph for cacao, as well as sing a chocolate chant in Spanish. You can take home a coloring book about chocolate and taste a delicious Mexican chocolate drink. (June 18, 2005)

5 Dia de los Muertos (November 5, 2005)

Many Central American countries celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) on November 1st. It is a time to remember and honor deceased relatives, with visits to the cemeteries and the making of home altars. The Academy presents a day of programs that highlight Day of the Dead customs.

Acrylic painting by Ernesto Hernandez Olmos

Pan de Muerto Pan de muerto is a traditional bread baked especially for Day of the Dead in Mexico. Often, the bread is formed into skull and skeleton shapes and placed on home altars (called ofrendas) to welcome back the spirits of deceased family members. Come and sample pan de muerto, served with Mexican hot chocolate. (November 5, 2005)

Pre-Columbian Dance Wearing colorful feathered headdresses and ceremonial regalia, the Grupo Xaguia ensemble performs ancient Pre-Hispanic dances associated with death in Aztec times. (November 5, 2005)

Offerings to the Dead Members of the audience will participate in the construction of a typical Day of the Dead altar (ofrenda). Help us assemble the altar with customary foods and offerings, including the traditional zempoalxochitl flowers -- marigolds known in Mexico as "flowers of the dead." (November 5, 2005)

Mascaras Mexican artist Ruben Guzman will explain the art of papel picado (paper-cutting) -- a form of decoration popular for Day of the Dead festivities and other Mexican observances. Make your own papel picado to take home. Supplies provided. (November 5, 2005)

6 Pre-Columbian Maya dance

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In pre-Columbian , ritual dance had great importance. However, since dance is a transient art, it is inherently difficult for archeologists to find and evaluate evidence of its role. There is little material information left behind, beyond a few paintings on murals and vases. This poverty of facts causes a wide range of interpretions by different archeologists.

Dance was a central component of social, religious, and political endeavors for the ancient Maya. The entire community danced, including kings, nobles, and common people. Dance served many functions such as creating sacred space, closing the gap between here and the otherworld, and releasing the dead from the grasp of the Xibalbans.

Contents

• 1 Research • 2 Technique • 3 Overview • 4 Meanings within dances

Research

In 1966, Micheal Coe and Elizabeth Benson recognized the depiction of important lords standing with one heel raised was indicative of dancing. Even after this pose meaning was identified, most of the examples were either dismissed or not understood in the larger context of Maya history and religion.

In the spring of 1990, deciphered the glyph for “dance” (read as ak’ot) in Maya hieroglyphics. After this decipherment, it was clear that dance was one of the public actions most often depicted by Maya court artisans. The many representations of dancing people in the artwork show that the Maya kings and their courts were public performers. All of theses discoveries let archeologists know that dance was central to most of the public of the ancient Maya.

Some interesting depictions of Maya dance of the Classic era are found on and in the famous murals of .

7 Technique

Ancient Maya dance is characterized by transformations of human beings into beings by means of visionary trance. Some think that hallucinogenic drugs or entheogenic medicines were used to put the performer into an altered state of mind. Once in this state of mind the participants were transformed into their wayob or companions. These soul companions were depicted through the masks and the costumes people wore in the dance. Some scenes are painted on pottery such as that from the myriad ritual meals of Classic festivals. These vessels depict humans, both kings and nobles, dressed in costumes. Their human faces are shown in cutaway view inside the costumes of the fantastic creatures they have become through the transformation of the dance. Some of these wayob are recognizable as animals like and birds of prey, but others just look like strange monsters.

For the Maya, dance was a very public affair. It induced visionary trances where either individuals or groups went into an altered state of mind that allowed them to communicate with the other world. Those who were strong enough to travel there, told stories about how the land had things like rivers and trees in this world. Some of the great Maya lords even depicted themselves dancing out over the abyss that leads into the otherworld.

One of the problems researchers have encountered is that the boundaries between humans dancing as supernatural beings and supernatural beings materializing in human rituals. The distinction between the two was never sharply made. Through dance, people became gods and gods became people even if it were only for a moment. It is important to note that these were more than just acts of civic pride or piety. They were considered to be direct connections to the otherworld.

Overview

Dance in Pre-Columbian Maya culture still exists in various altered forms today. However, dancing in the ancient world carried a much deeper significance in their sophisticated culture. Records of these dances have come to light through various murals, codices, and especially the Spanish who first recorded their observations.

Spirits of the super-natural world and their relationship with Maya culture played an important role in ritual dance. Just as well, animals and beasts usually were the mimicked in ceremonial dance. The attire worn to some dances as depicted in various murals show the links Maya dancers make to the natural world and to their worshipped gods who often took the form of animals. This is evident especially in the frescoes of Bonampak.

The elements as well were worshipped through Maya dance. In the Tzutujil Maya culture, it was believed that a spirit controlled the power of volcanoes. When the mountain began to grumble and shake, the Tzutujil priests would pick young women and girls who would partake in a large dance ceremony before being sacrificed into the burning mountain. Maya dance rituals often included . For instance, the Tun- 8 teleche¬ dance included victims whose hearts were removed before they died as a gift to underworld demons. On the other hand, some public ritual dances were even erotic in nature. Common throughout most all dances though was the importance of and the relationship between man and god.

In the book of creation, Popul Vuh, it is recounted that the dances of the Twin Brothers were part of a miracle ceremony. Just as well, the dances of ‘The Armadillo,’ ‘the Poorwill,’ and ‘the Weasel’ pleased the lords of death immensely.

Dance in Maya culture has also acted as a bridge between the ancient and post- Columbian eras. Spanish missionaries and lords as late as the 18th century were trying to eliminate the practice of ancient dance; however, natives maintained roots with their ancestors by practicing in secret. Even after the relatively complete conversion to Catholicism after the Spanish influence arrived, Maya people still respect their ancient deities through ceremonial dance, which has persisted through the generations since the golden age of ancient Maya.

Meanings within dances

One particular dance that has been discovered is called the Snake Dance. It was depicted on a panel that was looted from an unknown site. It depicted King Bird- of dancing with a snake. It also depicted the ruler of the town participating in important rituals with his king. Both men are wearing elaborate headdresses, personified wings, long feathers that arched behind them and they danced with snakes. The Snake Dance was also celebrated by the lords of . This time the dance was done with a male who has an ax in one hand and a serpent in the other, and a women who is grasping the lower body of the snake. These dancers wore costumes of First Father and First Mother, the deities whose actions enabled the final Creation and the birth of all the gods. This depiction is thought to point toward the role of dance in the story of Creation.

The importance of dance in the story of Creation is crucial because of its capacity to regenerate life. The story of the exhibits examples of this idea. After the Hero Twins are killed they come back to life as vagabonds and quickly enchant the people of with their dancing and magic. The Twins danced such dances as the Dance of the Poorwill, the Weasel and the Armadillo and they are able to bring things back to life. All of this fame caught the attention of the Lords of Death who command the Twins to perform. As the twins perform, the Lords are amazed by their powers and finally ask the Twins to sacrifice them. The Twins do, but this time they do not bring them back to life, limits the Xibalbans power over humans forever.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_Maya_dance"

Categories: | Arts in Mesoamerica | Ritual dances

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