12th Coast Festival of Dance

In Mexico dance has been crucial to preserving its cultural traditions. And nowhere is the tradition of dance stronger or more diverse than on the Oaxacan coast.

The Coast Festival of Dance is a showcase for the vigorous and enduring traditions of this area's cultural mosaic of Indigenous, European and African peoples. This Afro-Mestizo heritage is a diverse patchwork of semi-mystical, semi-religious, profane and satirical performance rituals.

Traditional dances mean more than a few hours of amusement to people from the Oaxacan coast. They are an important social event and moreover are infused with profoundly magical and religious meaning. A dancer does not take part for his or the public's entertainment, but as a prayer to the powers above, to seek their approval, to show them devotion and respect.

Many of the region's traditional dances share common characteristics that set them apart. One is that only men can dance even when there are female characters. This is believed to derive from African cultural influences. Another is the recurrent appearance of two characters, a couple, Pancho and Minga. Even though their origins or characteristics may differ they always appear under the same guise, as a rich cattle farmer and his wife.

Although the program for the 12th edition of the festival had not be announced at our press time, you can expect to see the Dance of the Devils (Danza de los Diablos). Originally a ritual dedicated to the African god Ruja, it has come to be associated with paying homage to the dead and is generally only performed during Day of the Dead festivities.

The devils usually wear brown tasseled costumes that are worn and torn with red cotton squares round one hand, waist, neck or head. They also have a wooden mask with horns and a horsehair beard and the head devil wears leather trousers. La Minga wears a hand-woven blouse and a skirt that that is decorated with lace and has a fringed waist. She always carries a doll which is supposed to be her daughter and wears a shawl over her shoulders.

During the dance the head devil and Minga dance back and forth between two rows of devils. The steps are quick and very energetic with the two dancers crouching down, springing up, spinning round and crouching down time and time again. At other times they spin round, stamping the floor faster and faster to the rhythm of the music.

The clothes worn, combined with the back dancers height and energy make this dance an amazing and frightening sight to behold. So much so, that in the area where the dance is still performed, mothers take extra care of their children as the devils go through the streets, lest they should take them.

The Dance of the Badger (La Danza del Tej¢rones) is a pre-Lenten Carnival dance. It is elaborately costumed with a cast of characters that include the Badger, his Woman, the evil Tiger, the unfortunate Cow, the Dog and the Hunter. Since it is a Carnival dance, it is exuberant and bawdy and has strong elements of pantomime. It normally ends with the dancers selecting audience members to join them on stage. The Dance of the Turtle (Danza de la Tortuga), as danced on the coast, ridicules Spanish rule and remembers how black slaves were exploited during the Colonial Period. A whip carried by Don Pancho symbolizes the harsh treatment the slaves suffered. In this dance, Pancho is a black foreman who is mistrusted by his master and who ill-treats his fellow slaves.

La Minga, his wife, is a light-hearted and coquettish woman who is constantly paid flirtatious compliments by the other men on the hacienda. This drives her husband mad with anger and he beats both his wife and anyone who dares kiss or cuddle her.

The turtle dances around the other characters and at the end pretends to lay eggs. Having put the eggs on the floor Pancho picks them up and gives them to an important guest at the dance.

The Artesa is a percussion instrument, made from the hollowed-out trunk of the Parota tree. It's like an upturned canoe, its extremities fashioned into the head and tail of a bull and it's an essential part of this popular Afro-Mestizo son dance. Couples take turns dancing on the log, their feet beating out a counterpoint rhythm to the music, while the female dancers wait their turn standing to one side.

Most common to the region are the chilenas, lively dances of courtship and wooing. The dancers rarely touch in this boisterous display of playful flirtation as they dance, waving kerchiefs above their heads. The lyrics are about love and generally risque and are greeted with whoops of joy and approval.