Scissors Dance – Danza de las Tijeras

The “Danza de las Tijeras” (Scissors Dance) is an ancient dance from Peru, in which two or more dancers dance in turns, challenging each other with complex steps  such as dancing with just one foot.

The dancers were considered wizards, shamans, magical beings who were able to calm the fury of the Apus (Gods). They were the intermediaries between the Andean divinities and the mortal beings.  During the colony, Spanish Catholic priest used to say that the dance obeyed to a pact with the devil, due to the surprising moves or tests that they execute in the dance. Because of this, the dancers were object of persecution during Spanish evangelization at the colonial time. As the Spaniards did not manage to erase the Cosmo vision and Andean mythology, they accepted them with the condition that they would only dance in honor of the western God and for the rituals of the Catholic Church.

 To the Andean man the dance represents a complex ritual, it is a pact, a relation between the dancers and the natural forces that surround them (hills, lakes, snow peaks, mother  earth), dancers take energy from all of them and give energy back to them through dancing; a series of mysteries stalk around the dancers who do the ritual, who, in a surge of force and elasticity, test their skills with the gymnastics-like jumps at the sound of a harp and a violin, while they cut the air with their scissors (one in each hand).

The dancers wear outfits embroidered with golden fringes, multicolored sequins and small mirrors, but while wearing costume they are forbidden from entering churches because of the tradition that their abilities are the result of a pact with the devil. Regardless, the scissors dance has become a popular part of Catholic festivities. The physical and spiritual knowledge implicit in the dance is passed on orally from master to student, with each cuadrilla of dancers and musicians giving pride to its village of origin.

RITUAL

“Before leaving to a competition we do a `pagapu’ (payment) to the pachamama (mother earth), to the Apus (Gods) and to the lakes because they are the Gods of the dancers”, a dancer says. In this ceremony the dancer offers wine, coca leaves, cigarettes and a carnation flower.  According to the dancers these elements represent the vigor that they hope to obtain and to share with the divinities that govern the Andean world.

I have seen Scissors dancers in Ayacucho (south Andes – Peru) and I have always being impressed not only because of their availability for dance difficult steps while moving the scissors but also because of the faith they show, faith in their beliefs.  

Not everybody can be a Scissors dancer, and there are not many, there is no school for this and, as I see it, to be a real good scissors dance you have to be born as one, in the Andes, understand their vision, being connected with the nature that gives you power, and that in today’s world is really not easy at all.

The Scissors Dance has been declared Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Unesco.

Sources: El Comercio.com.pe , Unesco.org. Photos : Unesco.org