-treats Guyanese to snippets of its rich folklore
FROM THE beginning of time, dance has always played an integral role in every nation’s politics, history, culture and social life. It was little wonder therefore that one of the highlights of Mexico’s 200th independence anniversary celebrations here was a stunning presentation of folk dances recently at the Umana Yana.
At the event, dances from the Oaxaca, Veracruz and Jalisco regions of Mexico were performed by Ballet Folklorico de Mexicos dancers, Juan Carlos Valencia and Julieta Garcia.
The stunning pair, who entranced their audience with their good looks as well as dancing skills, opened with a riveting performance from the Oaxaca region which told of the Nahua legend of the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes located in the Valley of Mexico, a highland plateau in central Mexico. The story behind ‘Popocatépetl (The Smoking Mountain) and Iztaccíhuatl (Sleeping Woman)   is a romantic one.
According to the legend, which Valencia and Garcia sensually portrayed in dance, Iztaccíhuatl’s father sent Popocatepetl to war in Oaxaca, promising him his daughter as his wife when he returned, believing that he would not. He then lied to Iztaccíhuatl, telling her that her lover had died in battle, which caused her to die of grief. Popocatépetl committed suicide by plunging a dagger through his heart, when he returned and learnt of her death.
Taking pity on them, God changed them into volcanoes so they could be together forever. The Iztaccíhuatl mountain became known as the ‘The Sleeping Woman (Dormida Mujer in Spanish)’ because it bears a striking resemblance to a woman sleeping on her back, while Popocatépetl, the  volcano, became known by that name for raining fire on Earth in blind rage at the loss of his beloved.
Made of rich fabrics like velvet and silk and weighed down with gilt adornment, the costumes used to execute the dance were almost as captivating as the dance itself with Popocatepetl’s costume featuring a giant elaborate headpiece made of real peacock feathers.
The next dance item, also from the Oaxaca region and performed by Garcia, told of ‘La Llorona (Crying Woman)’. The story, which originated in Mexico, is also popular in Spanish-speaking cultures in the Americas. The main element of the tale is that ‘La Llorona’ was a beautiful woman who killed her children by drowning them so as to be with the man she loved, but was subsequently spurned by him.
In despair, she killed herself and has since been doomed to wander for eternity, vainly searching for her children. Her constant weeping is the reason for her name.
One of the most anticipated dances, and one which some in the audience had seen in a preview was ‘La Bamba’, a dance from Veracruz.
While performing this dance, it is traditional for the woman to wear a white dress and sometimes a black apron. She wears a flower in her hair, on the right if she is single and on the left if she is married. The man wears white as well, accentuating his outfit with a red handkerchief and red sash around his waist.
Valencia and Garcia stuck strictly to tradition, with Valencia even donning a Guayabera, a shirt that is not only worn as a costume but is commonly worn in warmer climates daily. A special feature of the Guayabera was the two rows of alforzas (vertical pleats) which run on the front of the shirt, over the pockets, and the back of it that could be seen on his Guyabera if looking for it. 
This dance traditionally climaxes with the couple attempting to tie a red belt into a bow with their feet.  This was achieved by the dancers who displayed Valencia’s red sash, now tied into a perfect bow, at the end of the dance.
Valencia, in his role in ‘Potpourri del pato, el zopilote, y la iguana (Potpourri of the duck, vulture and the iguana)’, caused a sensation, eliciting peals of laughter and exclamations of amazement with his spot-on impersonation of the slithering movements of the iguana.
The dancer, who gracefully slithered off the quite high stage, worked his way over to where local government officials and foreign diplomats sat, all the while undulating his body and flickering his tongue in a most reptilian manner to their surprise and delight.
He concluded the performance by mounting the stage in the same manner he left it, and with equal grace.
Dances from Jalisco followed. Though last on the programme, these were certainly not least, as these dances may have been some of the most recognizable to many in the audience.
The first dance was to ‘El Son de La Negra (The Dark One)’, a dance named for one of the most popular Mariachi songs of all time.
The song, known worldwide, was originally composed in 1926 by two brothers — Fidencio and Alberto Lomelí Gutiérrez, and originally dedicated to lbina Luna Pérez (1911–2000), referred as ‘La Negra (The Dark One), and described as a beautiful, eternally happy, headstrong woman with waist-long braided hair and a dark complexion, and with a particular predilection for beer.
Fidencio fell in love in the mid-1920s with Albina, who would merely smile and dismiss his approaches. The music was written to the son and inspired by Albina, while his brother, Alberto, a mariachi musician, wrote the music.
Concluding the fabulous evening was ‘El Jarabe Tapatio’, known popularly as ‘The Mexican Hat Dance’.  Often referred to as ‘The National Dance of Mexico’, the dance in its standardised form was first choreographed in the early 20th Century by Mexicans to commemorate the successful end of the Mexican Revolution.
In the dance, which was perfectly executed by Valencia and Garcia, a Charro — as the male dancer is called — is dressed in the traditional charro suit, a three-piece suit composed of a vest, jacket, and pants bearing silver buttons down the seam. He makes courtship gestures to the female or la china who wears a China Poblana outfit.
The couple flirts throughout the beginning of the dance, during which time the man attempts to woo the woman with his zapateado (stamping and tapping) and his machismo.   According to the dictates of the dance, just as he has impressed the woman, he will become drunk with glory, and chased away by the woman as a borra
cho (a drunken person).
Eventually, he conquers the ‘China’ by throwing his hat to the ground and kicking his leg over his partner’s head as she bends down to pick it up. Concluding the dance, the pair does a triumphant march to a military tune called a Diana, and the dance ends with a romantic turn or the couple hiding their faces behind the man’s sombrero in a feigned kiss.
Mexican ‘Chinas’ have some more interesting history behind them. The China Poblana outfit was the female servant outfit of the early to mid 1800s. According to one legend about where the China (pronounced Cheena) outfit came from, an oriental princess, who was sold as a slave in the city of Puebmla, fell in love with a Creole and made her gown based on the local fashions there, but decorated them with oriental motifs.
However, another legend, and one which is thought by many to be “the truth,” has it that every three months, a ship carrying goods from the Philippines and known as ‘Nao de China (Ship from China) would anchor in Acapulco.
The aristocratic ladies would purchase a textile known as castor to make skirts called ‘chinita’ or ‘china’ for their female servants. Because the length of this fabric was not enough to reach the ground and a band of silk was sewn across the top to extend the length.
Valencia and Garcia ended the dance stunningly and traditionally with a Valencia on bended knee and one outstretched hand, while the other hand was holding one of Garcia who leaned far back with his sombrero now in hand.
The event, which was open to the public free of cost, was one of many on the packed independence centenary itinerary.