Dances of Cuzco

The dance is a cultural expression with great vitality in present-day Cusco and there is almost no celebration without dancers, especially the patron saint festivities, of high religious hue, those of the production cycle, carnivals, anniversaries and private parties.

There are dozens of Cuzco dances, many of which are also performed in other departments of Peru. Each has stable groups or gangs, whose members usually belong to them by devotion to some virgin or saint. Each gang has a caporal that organizes the activities of the group.

In many cases these are dances performed only by men, sometimes with a woman accompanying the caporal. However, women are being incorporated more and more, especially in cases such as school dance groups.

Some of the dances that are practiced today come from many centuries ago and have been renewed with time, like the chunchus, the ukukus, the kachampa. Others have been emerging from the colony as expressions of mestizo art and sometimes taking, ironically, some European elements, such as collas, chujchu, majeño, negritos, zambitos, erectitos, etc.

Among the dances of greater presence in the festivals are:

Some other dances are rather satirical, like the chujchus, with respect to malaria sufferers and other contemporary diseases; the majeños, who represent the traffickers of wine and aguardiente of the colony .; the sajras, who parody playful devils; the sieges, the mismanagement of justice, and the contradictions, to colonial hall dances.

The festivals of the Mamacha Carmen in Paucartambo, the Quyllur Rit'i, the Inti Raymi and the carnivals are important occasions to observe these dances and many more, that previously were also executed in Corpus Christi. It should be noted that in the official celebrations of Cuzco the dances performed in the parades must be clearly Cusco, since there are popular festivals where usually dances are used for high-altitude dances for young people today. folklore.

wiki