Venezuela,
as country pluricultural, possesses an immense flow of
dances and interesting
dances
in its content and rich in variability. These dances and
dances, representatives of
each
cultural and social area, are part of a great complex of
relationships that they are
constantly
manifested between the men and groups in the society; of
there that jointly with
the
language, they define the social and cultural entity clearly
to which you/they belong. In
such
a sense, we verify a first group of indigenous dances that,
for their characteristics, they
are
distinguished in the mosaic cultural Venezuelan for their
enraizamiento to their
millennial
origin, enriched with becoming of the time through an own
dynamics in constant
interculturación;
they point out an evolutionary process, seemingly of
exogenous character,
since
the nucleus of this manifestations is characterized by a
slow rhythm of modification
with
relationship to the movement patterns and the trajectory in
its choreographic ways
that,
although they seem similar, they have subtle variations. The
indicators of similarity in
the
nucleus around which you/they are carried out these
manifestations lean on in the
sacred
or profane reason, causal of the mobilization toward this
activity. The participation
can
be massive on the part of the community. On the other hand
the movement patterns are
susceptible
of variability for the constant interrelation of traditional
elements with those of
recent
acquisition, as consequence of the cultural dynamics that
the towns develop. From
the
point of view of the composition, they possess an unit among
songs, instruments and
movements,
with binary rhythms in the musical outline, you form
choreographic circular or
lineal
and slight differences in the used basic step; everything
it, for oneself end: the social,
economic
or religious interest, historically established values in
this society. The second
group
of dances and dances afrovenezolanos will arise soon after
the contact with the
European
culture whose central nucleus comes, generally, of
interrelated elements of
Christian
character with elements characteristic of the African
continent. This second group
offers
a rich musical literary content; its nucleus is correlated
with the calendar calendar in
such
a way that each festivity has, in its majority, a pattern or
clearly identified saint around
which
will develop a series of activities that you/they conclude
the day traditionally fixed
for
the celebration. The indexes of likeness can be configured
on some such elements as:
cooperative,
brotherhoods, societies; social activity in the exchange for
the preparations
that
precede to the celebration; passive or active relationship
with the representatives of the
Church;
and preparations of foods and special drinks for the
occasion. Among the
movement
patterns she/he is a great diversity, as much in the style
as in the expression
form,
result of the creative wealth and spontaneity in the
corporal language, attributed
essentially
to the easiness of improvising as much in the song as in the
movement. The
choreographic
forms can be procesionales, where the population
participates massively, or
singular,
where she originates the interrelation spontaneous man-woman
and freely. So
much
the songs, rich in rhythmic and melodic content, as the
percussion instruments, they
are
the essential factors for the happiness and characteristic
amusement of this
manifestation
type. A third group of dances and dances will associate, as
the previous one,
to
European and American elements or of the 3 basic cultures
that conform the system
sociocultural
Venezuelan. This group possesses a nucleus diversified
according to the
acquired
influences through the time of the 3 cultural systems, in
which one of them can or
to
not have bigger traditional weight, as well as she/he can
offer a symbiosis of
differentiated
elements that they make them only and original. These they
are distinguished
for
an acceleration in the change in ways and ways, in the
presentation of their essential
elements,
for the constant enrichment in the variety of styles, for
their geographical
mobility
and for a sample of musical instruments of extensive
diversity. The literature, the
music,
the songs and the movements differ substantially among each
manifestation. The
same
thing doesn't happen especially to the nucleus that unifies
them, in the dates fixed or
movable
calendáricas, which can originate employer parties or
calendars not what implies
the
presentation, in all the occasions, of the dances or the
traditional dances of the region.
Their
organization settles down in the modifications of its
movement patterns, which
spread
to the variation for multiple exogenous factors that impact
in the behavior grupal or
singular.
On the other hand the nucleus, although it can also vary, it
makes it to a much
slower
rhythm. The characteristics that identify this manifestation
type rest fundamentally
in
the system party, the one that is subdivided in the
subsystems: religious ceremony, crafts,
social,
economic relationships, I exchange, typical foods, dance or
dances, artificial fires,
etc.
The musical and choreographic outlines offer a rich variety
for their study, as much the
musical
rhythms as the basic steps of each one of them spread to be
quite similar in the unit
of
the in agreement movement with the musical time, not so much
their variants which rest
in
the accent or the emphasis that it is given to certain step
personalized by each performer.
The
fourth group understands the popular dances or you form non
traditional dancísticas
that
settle down in the society for indefinite time and they
spread to disappear in the
measure
in that another style displaces them slowly; it is
identified, generally, in urban
areas
by means of one of its fundamental characteristics, like it
is the derived social
cohesion
when she/he is carried out the activity. One could say that
the nucleus stays in the
non
formal learning during the moment in that it is in full
popularity. With relationship to
their
movement patterns, it lacks choreographic outline, it
possesses a basic step preset with
slight
variants; the dances are made in even or individually and
the music in its majority is
of
strange origin. The social media influences powerfully in
the stimulus toward the
dependence
of this musical style and danzario. And lastly, a fifth
group that is limited to
execute
the dances of academic type exists or learned by established
outlines with a specific
language
to each style. The activity is developed by means of a
system of formal learning.
Their
main nucleus is centered in the code of movements invented
to stylize the body like a
creation
instrument. It is the dance taken to the scene as a result
of a process in which the
acquisition
intervenes of technical, to express intellectual, aesthetic
forms and of poetic
recreation.
You can point out a secondary nucleus that settles down once
overcome the first
period
of systematic learning; this will be the creation object
that will derive in a magic and
theatrical
show. Their movement pattern is rich and complex since it
involves the thought
and
the imagination toward the search in new interpretive ways
that you/they force to solve
the
problem from the selection of appropriate exercises to the
interests of each group. The
creative
art is characterized to be minority, that is to say, very
few people arrive to the last
learning
stage and much less to be expressed artistically in this
environment. The 5 groups
analyzed
previously are activities that are given simultaneously in
the context social and
cultural
Venezuelan. Their learning methods differ broadly so much in
their content as in
the
respective movement patterns that distinguish them. For
their origins and forms, they
are a
constant in the time and in the space, what influences
vastly in the quantity of
participant
people. Venezuela like country pluricultural have the
privilege of possessing a
beautiful
patrimony, bequeathed by their history and acquired with
approval for all those
that
feel in diverse ways the call of the aesthetic feeling that
through the dances and the
dances
can enjoy.
Dance
and indigenous dances
The
current indigenous societies possess a great variety of
manifestations where the dance
is
practiced as a factor socializante. Among the different
elements that compose the
aesthetic
universe of these cultures, it is in a first plane the
literature and the poetry that
jointly
with the music they will form a binomial of which derives
the dance. The contents
of
the literary texts are vast and diverse among those that
highlight the relatives to myths,
free
narrations, humorous songs, testimonies and historical
descriptions, those that are
transmitted
to the community by means of the song or the word. In such a
way that the
womb
that propitiates a manifestation originates for multiple
reasons; its relationship with
the
life is of capital importance, so much in the aspect
magic-religious as in the secular, as
well
as its integrative function and participativa in each
estamento vivencial of the
community.
The birth, the puberty, the marriage and the death, they are
fundamental factors
to
organize a manifestation, also the work and the amusement,
which motivate the dance in
their
list of primacy. These customs of the indigenous towns were
forged along millennia
and
they ended up being differentiated cultures, adapted to
ecological systems inside which
created
their own ways of economic, social, cultural production,
aesthetics and artistic. In
the
case of the wayúu that you/they inhabit the Peasant's
region (Zulia), they were farmers
at
one time, when it existed in the area bigger precipitation
of rains, combining these
activities
with shepherding works. In that first time it is where the
origin of the yonna,
dance
is located that one of the most important aesthetic and
utilitarian manifestations in
the
culture wayúu expresses. This celebration was carried out
when the gathering of the
crops
concluded, during a night of full moon as symbol of
abundance and fertility; the
touch
of the kaashi (drum) it was transmitted until the Peasant's
more distant corner, to
achieve
the massive concentration of the community and to narrow
even more the bond of
the
characteristic family plans that continues defining the
system of relationship of the
ethnos
wayúu. The yonna, dance of agrarian origin, is at the
present time one of the most
important
popular expressions that is carried out for diverse reasons,
among which it is
necessary
to highlight: when one makes the presentation of the majayut
(young peasant
beginner),
after it leaves the paut (orientation place and teaching of
the woman wayúu, in
the
initiation stage for their future paper in the society). To
celebrate the visit of friends and
relatives
of other dispersed communities, or also when the seyuu
(protective spirit) she/he
makes
the indications to a member of the community through the
dream, so that she/he
carries
out a yonna in their honor. During the yonna songs are not
intoned, except for the
exclamations
or the dancer's screams before beginning the movement, fair
when the man
turns
and with a defiant voice he exclaims toward the woman
wo-sei!, so that she moves
with
a turn on itself and begin the dance. The trajectory is to
circulate and for even
interdependent,
the dancer opening its blanket pursues the man with quick
step and
intertwined
with the intention of knocking down it, being observed a
slight competition of
agility
and dexterity between both. Warao. In Yruara-Akojo, like in
other villages where
members
of the ethnos warao inhabit, near the pipe Winikina, toward
the outlet of the river
Orinoco,
in the state Delta Amacuro, takes place the ritual of the
najanamu. This ceremony
is
requested by the wisidatú (chamán) when she/he receives in
dreams the command of
Kanobo
(deity warao). The celebration understands a sacred part
(she/he dances of the
jatabu),
a festival one (she/he dances of the jabisanuka) and a lúbrica
(naji-saji game and
other).
Among the preparations that are made with a lot of advance
to the celebration date,
she/he
is the search of the tuétano of the palm moriche of which
obtain flour after a
laborious
process, for the making of the yuruma cakes. Enough hunt,
fishes and ocumo to
assure
the maintenance of the companies for several days. Leaves of
tobacco in branch for
the
production of the cigarettes güina, fundamental element in
the moments to share
socially.
Chinchorros and spaces to locate to the invited families, as
well as the production
of
the jojonoko or dance hint, which you/they upholster with
barks of manaca trunk. In this
place
generally located in the later part of the homestead, every
afternoon they will be
developed
along one week, the different acts that compose the
festivity. The beliefs warao
and
their rituals vary according to the geographical point of
the delta where they are and
according
to the acculturation degree to that you/they are subjected.
The objective of the
celebration
of the najanamu, is to appease the spirit applicant's
desires to take a bath in the
white
yuruma flour, gathered and kept zealously in the kauya
ajanoko or small enclosure
specially
manufactured for that effect. Of not being completed their
desires one would run
the
risk of receiving many wrongs in the community, especially
illnesses in the children,
famines
or poverty; it is for it that these rituals are made at
least once a year. To the men
selected
by the wisidato, it corresponds them to choose the sticks of
the jatabus to place
them
in the superior part the splints wooden called daunona that
represent the feminine and
masculine
gender of the spirit ofrendado. In the splints some lines
are traced in equis form
and
in the spaces they place thick points by way of decoration.
The clever jatabus with their
respective
daunona is placed in the center of dance couple's hint to
give beginning to the
ritual.
Later, with great reverence, they bring the sacred objects
wrapped in a cloth; the
jebu-mataro
or great maraca, enormous idiófono adorned with feathers
and multicolored
tapes,
only used by the chamán; the moroki or maraca of second
order of smaller size, less
trim
than the previous one and the one that is given to the
invited chamanes or important
characters
of the society warao; the maraquita jabi of average size and
without any
decoration,
it is used by the rest of the masculine companies. Kariña.
The table of Guanipa
in
the state Anzoátegui, is the region where they are the
communities of Tascabaña, Under
Deep,
The Potocas, Cachama, among others. There the kariñas
lives, descending historical
of
the famous caribeses who were seated originally in the
riversides of the rivers Pao for the
columnists'
news, Orinoco, Caura, Caroní and Guarapiche, in Venezuela.
In those
populations
of the table of Guanipa, the maremare, manifestation is
danced that formerly
was a
sacred ritual from the cult to the jaguar and the moon whose
meaning magic-religious
became
a secular festivity. At the moment maremare is danced in
marriage celebrations,
anniversaries,
or when a relative arrives after a long trip. As for the
song, it is testimonial
and
it can be interpreted by participants of both sexes that
have veteranía in the
improvisation.
Those of historical references are among the most popular
topics; those that
mention
to old or contemporary problems of the community; you fear
loving and
humorous.
The maremare is danced in even or small lines of 3 or more
people who move
with
short steps, forming forward and back, while they describe a
circle simultaneously.
The
main musical instruments are those of indigenous origin as
the maracas veréekushi
(reeds)
which drive the melody and they go accompanied by the four
Creole and the
tamborito.
The akaatompo, another important manifestation of the
culture kariña, is heiress
of
the old ritual agrarian caribe, which is manifested at the
moment with many variants as a
result
of the deep acculturation that has suffered this powerful
culture through the years.
During
the first 3 days of the month of November, the kariñas
celebrates the religious
festivity
of the akaatompo in honor to their deceaseds. Two months
before the preparations
begin
with which they will give the children the first day and to
the adults the second and
third
day. Very early in the morning the activity begins when
those smaller than the
community
visit the houses of the mothers that have lost its children;
to these children they
are
served food and drink and they are lit with a lit candle
while they consume the snack.
The 2
and 3 of November are the days in that the adults are
assisted when arriving at the
houses
where some of their members has died. There the woman begins
the song from the
akaatompo
to the remembered person's name, accompanied by the dressing
rooms of four,
maracas
and reeds. These visits are rewarded with food, fermented
drink and liquor. The
akaatompo
singers take turns (man or woman) although the widespread
habit is the
feminine
voice who improvises about the remembered deceased's life,
until when for
fatigue,
another person takes her shift. This repeats uninterruptedly
until very entrance the
dawn.
Their movement is slow as the music, because a sacred ritual
is considered, she/he is
organized
in form of people's of both sexes lines, some in front of
other who they take for
the
waist to carry out a trajectory of advances and setbacks
forward with 4 steps and 4 stop
behind,
before turning to the right or the left. Of the lines wings
of 3 or more people come
off
who always repeat the same variants and trajectories. Jiwi
(guahíbos). This group is
located
to both sides of the river Orinoco between Colombia and
Venezuela toward the
south
of the state Amazons, they also extend toward a part of the
territory of the state it
Hurries,
but the community of Flagstone of Márano, in the
municipality Atabapo in the
state
Amazons is of where they come the ritual dances and laymen
that next are described,
among
which the better known ones are the jirijirewa (brincadito),
the piece, the jiwa,
guana
and the wajita. These are practiced during the party of the
yarake, name of a drink
that
you/they prepared formerly with milled yucca and then cooked
by long hours. The
women
were in charge of of these tools, while the men left in
search of a good prey to eat
and
to drink during the celebration. This habit was disappearing
little by little, more than
everything
for the influence of the missionaries, especially the
evangelical ones for who
these
amusements were connected with the demon. At the moment the
jiwis cultivates the
cane
of sugar in small quantities, of those that obtain after a
long process the strong
guarapo
with which they celebrate their meetings. The juice of the
cane boils it in big pots,
it
stops later to deposit it in a wooden curiara which you/they
cover later on with banana
leaves.
During several days, the chamán prays next to the drink,
until when it considers
that
it is sufficiently strong, she/he lists to drink. Then it is
invited the relatives of other
communities
and neighboring populations. The assistants take advantage
of the opportunity
of
the encounter to carry out exchanges or economic and social
commitments. Before
giving
beginning to the meeting the namo it is executed (fox),
sacred flute that is used to
evict
to the spirits of the place where she/he will be carried out
the encounter. Once
finished
the session of spiritual clearance, beginning is given to
the party. The wajita whose
meaning
is «connected one to other» it is a sung story and danced;
the soloist with a
handful
of men meets in the square the history that will count
during the dance to discuss;
once
agreed the topic the song begins with the soloist's
sentences that then the choir
repeats.
All are linked elbow to elbow and they begin a moderate
swinging of the body as
they
accentuate the rhythm with the right foot hitting the floor
forward. The wheel headed
by
the singer-guide who is also the one that plays the maraca,
never closes in order to
having
more flexibility in the movements and I eat opening sign and
invitation to
participate.
When the women want it they enter to the dance; for they
slip it among the men
connecting
them for the waist; these in turn place the arm on the
shoulders of them without
losing
the rhythmic blow of the dance. They count the jiwis that
formerly prepared the
mápato,
species of elaborated cloth of the roots of the tree of the
same name. The women
made
their robes called marima while the men used the guayuco.
The jirijirewa or
brincadito
consist on to hold on to in even and to jump alternately in
anyone from the feet
to
the rhythm of the kayawua (maraca that took figured mythical
figures and feathers of
colors
in their interior). Each man took it in his right hand to
accentuate the rhythm, while it
rotates
of a side to other carrying out turns on his own axis, at
the same time that he goes
advancing
in elliptic form. The jiwa, another dance that they carry
out with reed, it is called
this
way because each man plays an instrument of 5 tubes tied
with candlewick and another
of
more size that is managed loose. In this dance the
instruments are played alternately,
male
of serious sound and females of sharper sound, which are
supplemented in the touch
of
the melody. Each musician takes a dance partner with who
carries out long steps in kind
of a
slow career advancing and going back in zigzag form. The jujú
is the acquaintance
piece
dance; I orchestrate musical that it is manufactured with
the bone of the skull of the
deer
and when being blown by the small occipital hole the rhythm
that accompanies the
dance
takes place. Here the groups are subdivided and they
distribute in small groups being
placed
next to the dressing rooms that possess the instrument. Once
placed some in front of
other,
advance and they go back being and going away with short
steps, as long as the
instruments
go sounding to the unison. The wana or pylon dance, are the
only one that uses
2
lines of participants who move to the compass of the gunábato,
name that you/they assign
to
the pylons or manufactured long and thin drums of the trunk
of the tree guana. The
male's
dressing room (heavier) and that of the female (lighter)
they head the lines of the
dancers
to hit the drums alternately against the floor. The
participants of each line
accentuate
the rhythm with the right foot while they place their hand
on the precedent
partner's
shoulder. Piaroa (wótuja). The hábitat of bigger density
of the piaroas is along the
rivers
Parguaza, Cuao, Gave birth to, Cataniapo and Sipapo, flowing
of the Orinoco in the
state
Amazons. The piaroas considers that their origin and
descendant comes from the
family
of the tapires (or dantas), since Wajari, its cultural hero
and spirit of the danta,
transmitted
them to him this way. For it this animal is sacred to such a
point that nobody
dares
to look, to play and much less to kill. The quantity of corn
that you sows a year in a
traditional
establishment varies of agreement with the decisions that
are adopted about the
ceremonial
activity of the year in course. For the great sari-warime
festival (the first word
designates
to the ceremonial drink, the second to the masked dancers),
the «territorial
ruwa»
(master of ceremonies) she/he should prepare parcels of much
more corn since for
the
ceremonial drinks as much the corn as the batata it is used
in high proportion with
relationship
to the yucca. The go-sare (fermented guarapo of batata and
yucca) and the
ñami-sari
(fermented guarapo of corn and batata) it is prepared by the
women and stored in
big
canoes it stops after having fermented, to drink it
profusely. Equal happens to the
yukuta
(mañoco and it dilutes) and a great variety of prepared
juices with the help of
cultivated
fruits or wild, which waste away in big quantities. When
concluding the rainy
station
the hunt it is intensified, in order to accumulating many
preys, which are smoked
and
they keep for the moment to consume them in the party.
Although the sari-warime is a
great
ritual of fertility, it is also a public demonstration of
the power that it possesses the
territorial
ruwa who represents Wajari during the ceremony, the creative
deity of the men
wótuja,
of the animals and of the world. Most of the myths piaroas
narrates the fight well
among
the and the wrong; in this case it is the fight of power
among Kuemoi (anaconda)
that
means cannibalism and the danger and Wajari (danta) who
represents the benevolent
being.
The society piaroa arises as product of the mythical
marriage between the family of
Kuemoi
and Wajari; and of the interaction between the danta and the
anaconda. She/he
relates
the myth that at the end of that time Wajari organized the
first sari-warime, to which
all
the mythical beings were invited. At the end of the meeting,
he granted to the animals
their
current form. Wajari was the first one in having the
hallucinogenic vision of the ritual,
with
its masked dancers and the sacred musical instruments that
you/they play every
morning
and the nights and that no woman can see. This first
ceremonial that Wajari
organized
was in its sister's honor Céjeru, goddess of the fecundity.
At the moment the
masks
warime, placed 5 men take them distributed in 3 types: the
masks imé or of the
váquiro
white cheek and of the small váquiro of necklace, adorned
with feathers of macaws
and
of toucan; the mask jicú or of the white monkey; and the
mask reyo or giant spirit of
the
forest. The base of the masks is made with an open thick
fabric and covered with a clay
layer.
The dancers are presented with the totally covered head by
the masks, which take on
the
base a curtain of threads of vegetable fiber that arrives
until the height of the chest of
the
dancers. Two skirts of leaves of palms cover their bodies:
the first one from the neck up
to
the height of the thigh and the second from the waist until
the feet. All take in the hand
the
raniñú or maraca knitted with vegetable fibers that it is
good them to accompany the
movements
with which they emphasize the songs, while they dance in the
great ceremony.
Walekena.
In the context of the ritual of passage kasijmakasi, carried
out by the walekena
of
the town Wayánapi (White Guzmán) to the south of the river
Black-Guainía, in the state
Amazons,
a group of songs and dances are executed that they serve as
outline kinético and I
eat
vehicle for the development of the action ritualística.
This cycle of movements is
observed
from the beginning of the event, where the active and
passive participation of the
companies
is known; also during the same one, in order to maintaining
the attention of the
audience
toward each one of the fundamental acts of the ceremonial,
and when concluding,
as
conclusion and farewell of the I celebrate sacred, mythical
and secular. The group of
songs
and dances composed by the maliyé, manukaliyamo, wayalu,
wayanúa and
yuwirililu,
are carried out in different times and during the period
determined by the
madzalu
or «cabezante» who is the coordinator of the preparations
of the party. The maliyé
dances,
manukaliyamo and wayalu, they could be considered a lúdicro-sacred
code, since
their
object is concretizar and to accompany the fundamental acts
of the ritual. As long as
the
yuwirililu and the wayanúa share a lúdicro-secular or
profane code, since the wayanúa
is
danced for the initiate ones after having fulfilled the
regulation fast and with the tests to
which
were previously subjected; also for the companies without
the participation of the
initiate
youths; and like farewell dance when the ceremonial has
concluded.
Dance
and dances afrovenezolanos
In
the land of the dance spaces or stages can be pointed out in
the process intercultural that
has
been come manifesting in the groups afrovenezolanos. The
arrival of African to
Venezuela,
specifically in the area of the coast, during the years of
the Colony; later on of
Antillean,
in their majority of Trinidad, attracted by the peak of the
exploitation of gold in
THE
Callao (Edo. Bolivar); and more recently, the continuous
interculturación among
Curazao,
Bonaire and other small near islands to the coast of Falcon,
they have left cultural
prints
that are expressed clearly through folkloric and popular
manifestations identified in
those
regions. The first ones, arrived with the Spaniards from the
XVI century, laid the
foundation
knowledge of their own culture with the European; by means
of a symbiosis
between
the Christian faith and the African religions. The countless
parties that take place
year
after year in the states Zulia, Miranda, Yaracuy, Aragua,
Carabobo and in the Federal
District,
it is the answer to the dynamics that settles down among the
exchange of cultural
values
of both entities. The homage to diverse saints of the
Christianity, the ways and styles
of
African origin, reflected in the songs, musical instruments,
patterns of movements
centered
in the pelvis, as well as the organization of brotherhoods
and associations, they are
some
of the elements that distinguish these groups. The seconds
they bring with their
Antillean
tradition the mixture of the autochthonous language with
English, different
musical
instruments and in general, differentiated customs of the
previous ones; the reason
of
its dances differs, since these, fundamentally, are carried
out for carnival and lately, to
celebrate
the Carmen's Virgin, July 16. The third are identified in a
same way by the use of
percussion
instruments, for the movement centered in the pelvis; their
activity, highly
popular
and secular, it can take place in any time of the year. The
3 groups before
mentioned
they arrive to the country for different roads and at one
time and distant space to
each
other; nevertheless, the dynamics of their customs and the
force of their culture
constantly
enrich the patrimony artistic Venezuelan.
The
expressions more representative afrovenezolanas are: San
Juan's drums that occupy the
whole
coastal area of the country almost especially the states
Sucre, Miranda, Aragua,
Carabobo
and Yaracuy; and San Benito's chimbángueles, located in the
state Zulia. Other
manifestations
also of African root, but of more recent origin (final of
the XIX century)
they
are spread in the rest of the country, I eat the calipso for
example, coming from the
Antilles,
very diffused in Güiria (Edo. Sucre) and The Callao (Edo.
Bolivar). In the time of
the
Colony she/he originated the devotion to San Benito of
Palermo, first black sainted who
she/he
was born in San Fratello and she/he died in Palermo, Italy
in 1589. This saint's area
devocional
doesn't only embrace the state Zulia, but also part of the
states Falcon, Merida,
Trujillo,
Barinas and Portuguese. In the state Zulia the festivity is
expressed through the
chimbángueles,
voice of origin angolesa coming from Imbangala. According to
Juan D.
Martínez
Suárez, the chimbángueles was gestated in San Pedro's
town, for a slave's
initiative
who «...gracias to the knowledge that she/he brought of its
African village located
in
the Kingdom of Imbangala, toward the occident of Angola,
begins the cult to I Aged,
African
deity, by means of rituals that contained songs, prayers and
drum touches. A
religion
enriched by the contributions and experiences that each to
continue went
incorporating
begins this way». The years of religious inquisition
imposed on the part of
the
settlers it favored the slow displacement of beliefs and
deities African conductions in
the
cultural complex of the slaves: it is as well as San Benito
of Palermo displaces to I
Aged,
since «the parties of navidad of European origin executed
them the targets and some
of
their slaves, but the drums dedicated to I Aged or San
Benito, they sounded from
October,
florid Easter, until the coming of Kings Magos (January 6)».
At the moment the
term
chimbángueles is used to designate the group of songs, drum
blows and dances that it
completes
a function devocional and festival during the cult in honor
to San Benito. Party
of
San Benito: The organizations responsible for San Benito's
celebration in the towns of
Gibraltar,
Bobures and The Batey, to the south of the lake of
Maracaibo, make a series of
courtesies
where you dispensan mutual visits before the celebration of
their party.
Beginning
December 26, the vassals, captains, registered and stewards,
carry out a ritual of
welcome
and discharged by the streets and squares of those 3 towns,
concluding with the
attendance
from the 3 San Benito to the biggest mass and with the
visits to the promeseros
houses
and people of the organization of their respective saints.
December 31, eve of New
Year,
each who she/he goes to their home to celebrate the last day
of the year in family. In
Bobures,
the activities begin very early, with the sacrifice of the
heads that you/they will
serve
as food for the companies and visitors of the New Year. For
the reception of the
sacred
visitors the tamboreros, registered and captains of Bobures,
meet to organize the acts
of
that day. Later they go to the church and they take out the
saint in procession toward the
entrance
of the town, before the biggest cross, where they wait San
Benito of the Batey and
of
Gibraltar. Once in the place the saints go back, they
approach, they lean in kind of a
reverence,
they go back again and they give a turn on themselves,
always with their
respective
ones registered, presiding over the movings to the rhythm of
the drum blow. The
procession
continues for the streets of the town until arriving at the
cemetery, from there
they
continue to visit the houses of some devote ones. After some
10 hours of dance to the
rhythm
of the blows of «doddering» before leaving the church and
of «I aged» when
leaving
to the street, they change the rhythm for the one of «chimbanguelero
goes»
continuing
the march with short stopped. Once concluded the journey for
the streets of
Bobures
is carried out the farewell ceremony, which is developed
before the church. The
saint
of Bobures accompanies the sacred visitors again until the
biggest cross, she/he stops
later
to return like at the one of the dawn to the church driven
by his vassals. Once placed in
their
altar the participants they return to their homes to rest.
Party of San Juan: It is
celebrated
during the month of June in Chinese's populations, Farriar,
Palmarejo,
Aguanegra
and Taria of the municipality San Felipe, in the state
Yaracuy, where they are
carried
out the drum parties in their honor which are tradition of
the colonial time. The
drums
in the state Yaracuy is the cumaco, manufactured with a
hollow trunk from 1,50 to 1
m of
long, which is put to bed in the floor; the percutidor sits
down near the patch and
she/he
plays it with the hands, as long as the body of the drum is
played by several men
with
the toricos or laurels. The tamboras is small with a single
patch and they usually take
hung
them of the shoulder during the procession and the saint's
sangueo. Each singer or
musician
takes a single maraca to accompany the rhythm of the
percussion that begins from
the
evening of June 23 marking the beginning of the good night.
The sangueo is a
continuous
movement between the saint and its followers, which is
accompanied to the
compass
of a rhythmic touch, with the tamboritas and the song and
with which leaves
house
at home in the residents' search to meet then around the
cumacos, accompanied by
the
toricos and the maracas, singing and dancing until the dawn.
The very early following
morning,
they leave of the town toward the river blessed previously
by San Juan, it stops by
means
of the collective bathroom to purify the bodies and to cure
the hardships. Concluded
the
bathroom, the residents return to the town to continue the I
celebrate, they attend the
solemn
mass, they sing sirens or commendations before beginning the
procession, she/he
stops
later to wait the arrival of promeseros of neighboring
villages and then to begin the
encounter
and the saints' battle. San Pedro's spree: It was danced for
the first time in the
time
of the Colony, as a result of a history, which counted that
a called slave María Ignacia
had
requested San Pedro Claver, well-known as apostle of the
black ones, to save her
daughter
Rosa Ignacia, victim of a painful illness. When being
carried out the requested
miracle,
the mad slave of happiness danced and she sang before the
saint for not having
thing
better than giving him. Faithful to the traditional legend,
the cañamerales peons and
coffee
plantations, they continued celebrating the event attending
the solemn mass every
year
San Pedro's day, finished the one which, they danced and
they sang in the altozano of
the
church. Then the streets traveled and the houses of the
masters and main people visited,
where
they sang allusive ballads, receiving to change currencies
and bottles of liquor. For
that
day themasters facilitated their levies and top hats to
their slaves. In the procession,
María
Ignacia is represented by a man dressed up with woman's who
dances with a cloth
doll
among her arms in the slave's daughter's memory clothes.
Complete the sampedreños
group,
the tucusitos who were included in the spree during the
Federal War, and who
symbolize
for the colors of their attires, the liberal parties and
conservative in an innovation
of
the Gothic and liberal times. At the moment the tradition
continues and every year, June
29,
the members of San Pedro's spree leave to celebrate the
biggest mass and later to dance
for
streets and squares of Guatire and Guarenas, populations of
the state Miranda. San
Antonio's
day: June of every year 13 are carried out in The Tocuyo and
other cities of the
state
Lara, the dance of the tamunangue; choreographic expression
that consists of 7 called
sones
The Beautiful one, Chichivamos, Six Figureao, Parrendenga,
little by little,
Juruminga
and Galerón, of a denominated initial dance of sticks The
Battle, which is
similar
to «you fight with sticks that are executed in a
magic-religious context of ethnic
groups
of Senegal and Angola» and of one it Saves final. According
to the investigating
Juan
Liscano, the tamunangue it substitutes San Juan's party in
the state Lara. San Antonio
comes
to complete the Baptist's times; it is him who presides over
the coming from the
favorable
rains to the siembras made in the month of May. The central
nucleus of the party
in
honor of San Antonio is the solemn mass to which attend all
the promeseros, it stops
later
to the they are of the music, to begin the saint's
procession for the whole town carrying
out
stopped in the corners where allusive altars have been
placed of devote by some well
received
one. The eve has been carried out the wake to the saint with
cantadurías, prayers
for
promises, foods and drinks to which you/they attend many
devote accompanying the
image
until the dawn. Very early in the morning of the 13 she/he
wakes up the town with
touches
of bells and cohetería fires like announcement of the great
day in that once
concluded
the activities of the church beginning will be given to the
payment of promises
by
means of the execution of the tamunangue, dance where the
whole community
participates.
Other dances of profane order of African origin arrived in
Venezuela for other
reasons
and in other circumstances, among them the well-known
musician-dancing
expression
with the calipso name. This musical species and it would
dance it will suffer a
transformation
process through the time, since the songs and calipso dances
that originated
in
language ewe in a principle, ashanti, fon, ibos, languages
belonging to ethnic groups of
the
western coast of África, arrived in the Caribbean (Nevis,
Santa Lucía, Saint Vincent,
Granada,
Trinidad, Martinique, Guadalupe) and little by little they
were becoming
Caribbean
airs. In 1870 it arrives in Venezuela, specifically to The
Callao in the state
Bolivar,
a contingent of Antillean to work in the mines of gold of
that region. This
Antillean
conglomerate brought I get its cultural patrimony with songs
and dances
constituted
by satirical, testimonial, social topics, etc., and you
dance with sensual
movements,
organized in simple steps adapted to the community with the
name of
processions.
These cultural features incorporated to the global process
that had the nascent
mining
population. From principles of this century the community
Venezuelan
afroantillana,
settled down in the south region of the country, she/he has
become one of the
most
popular and known by the celebration of their carnivals. For
the celebration of these
parties
they are rehearsed infinity of processions, which represent
different topics created
especially
for the occasion. The components of a procession include
music, text and
movement.
The created suits of agreement with the selected topic, as
well as the traditional
ones
«madamas» who appear as godmothers to give happiness to
the carnival parties and
the
recently created calipso. In the state Sucre the calipso
will give otherwise and she/he
will
have a basically different origin although its origin is
from the same Antilles. In the
last
decade of the XVIII century when the «it Crowns Spanish it
allowed the establishment
of
French farmers with their slaves in the virgin lands of the
island of Trinidad, the carnival
was
introduced, the patois ended up being the average language
and the Spanish customs
were
remplazadas for brought customs of the near islands». In
the beginnings of the XIX
century
many of those French and Spaniards were come with their
slaves toward the costs
of
the peninsula of it Gave birth to, in Venezuela, soon after
having been given the island
from
Trinidad to the Englishmen for the Kingdom of Spain. Towns
like Yaguaraparo,
Irapa,
San Lorenzo and Güiria among other, they were in their
beginning big country
properties,
of which the town of Güiria is at the moment the better
known one, for its
carnival
party and as bigger representative of these manifestations
in the whole region. A
lot
of people are mobilized toward the place to enjoy some days
of amusement, inclusive of
Trinidad
and Tobago, due to the proximity of these islands of the
Venezuelan costs. In
Güiria
the calipso is interpreted with the steel band originating
of trinidad, where the
corduroy
is the main musical instrument. This is built with a
metallic barrel that takes place
around
30 different sounds, it recreates the Venezuelan Antillean
rhythms to dance or to
sing.
The drums of Yaguaraparo: It is a dance that she/he is
carried out in that population
during
the month of December until Santa Inés's day January 21;
also during the employer
parties
of June 24, day of San Juan. Of Antillean African origin
these drums of type
tamunango,
they are struck in number of 2 or more; the performer sits
down placing it
among
her legs, supported in the floor or hung on the shoulder
during the dance for the
streets.
The retinue of the couples at the same time that it is
independent, she/he is carried
out
with small hip movements and sprains as long as they rotate
and they move. The youths
of
Yaguaraparo are very interested in learning, to continue and
to diffuse this tradition of
their
town maybe older than the calipso, since they are few old
men that know the touches
and
the movements of these drum dances. It completes this
selection of species
afrovenezolanas,
the drum veleño and coriano of the state Falcon, which are
in constant
diffusion
and growth for their unalterable cultural exchange with the
neighboring islands of
Bonaire
and Curazao.
You
dance and religious dances and laymen
The
musical and choreographic wealth in the components of each
one of the examples that
we
will point out next, demonstrates the continuous
miscegenation process in the
conformation
of the Venezuelan tradition. The origin of the dances in
procession, which
have
reached great extension and popularity, go back to the
Christian Medievo. In
Venezuela,
with the arrival of the friars and priests for the
Christianization of the natives
and
maintenance of the cult among the Spaniards, once again
she/he repeats the process,
when
introducing the brotherhoods and fraternities in charge of
celebrating saints, virgins,
as
well as to organize the processions. This brotherhoods and
fraternities, until today, they
have
been nucleus of many popular traditional manifestations that
stay effective in the
whole
country. Between the months of December and January the
festivities of religious
character
are raised, with dances procesionales in honor to the Niño
Jesús of which
highlight
the manifestations of offerings, as that of The shepherds.
Almost all the
Venezuelan
homes for the month of December, organize the manger in
memory of the Niño
God's
birth. The festejos begins the day 16 with the Christmas
gift masses and it is in this
time
when carols, bagpipes and other songs of Christmas are
listened. In the populations of
Hot
Waters, San Joaquín (Carabobo) and The Lemon (Aragua)
she/he takes place the
tradition
of The Shepherds. This dance is organized in the house of
the «steward» who is
the
one in charge of preparing the festejos and the rehearsals
of the dance. For December
24,
day of the devotion, the shepherds attend a.m. the rooster
mass at 4 o'clock; there they
arrive
formed in 2 lines, one of «pastorcillas» (men disguised of
woman who you/they
accept
this list for promise) and another of shepherds, preceded by
the «cachero» and
continued
by those «old», the «titirijí» and the «shepherd
guides». Once located in the
church
and at the end of the mass, the shepherds prepare before the
manger to carry out
those
«you surrender» or small gifts that you/they offer
expressing each who an allusive
verse.
Then they leave to the square where they have prepared a
popular manger, in front of
which
you/they execute the dance. The 2 lines with which the dance
begins they go
preceded
by the cachero and the shepherd guides. The characters of
the old ones are
humorous
and they go placed at the end of the group, as long as the
titirijí, kind of an ovejo,
moves
in irregular form among the dancers, a couple of plates that
takes among the hands
sounding
from time to time. The main trajectories of the called
choreography the cross, the
wheel
and the whirl, they are danced with a well-known music of
Christmas gifts as
«she/he
surrenders» and the other one «villainous». Those «partorcillas»
they emphasize
their
movements with the maraca that shake in each turn, jumps and
rhythmic steps. Many
populations
of the states Táchira, Merida, Trujillo, Barinas and
Portuguese, they celebrate
the
party of Kings Magos among those that stand out the Slope of
the Kings of the town of
Boconó
(Trujillo). It is also known the Boy's Paradura, homelike
habit that can be made by
promise
or amusement, selecting for it any date among January 1 and
February 2, day of
the
Candlemas's Virgin. During this lapse each family organizes
its corresponding one I
celebrate
for that which you/they invite relatives, friends and
neighbors in advance, the
musicians
they hire, they acquire drinks and foods and they name the
Niño Jesus'
godfathers.
The different acts that compose the ritual are: Walk of the
Boy, The Kiss, The
Paradura,
The Adoration, The Petitions, The Rosario, The Litanies and
the Saint. Once
concluded
the ceremony you toasts again, you proceeds to cover the
Boy's image and the
dance
begins. The espuntón of Caigua (Anzoátegui), it is another
ceremony that is carried
out
in honor of the Niño Jesús during the first days of the
month of January. This ritual is
made
before the church by peasants disguised of indigenous and it
consists of 3 parts for
that
which you/they use 3 symbols: to) the espuntón, kind of a
very refined and decorated
wooden
lance, with which you/they execute a series of movements
while they throw it to
the
air the displacements; b) the national flag, used in the
second part of the ritual with
which
you/they execute movements of offerings and reverences to
the Niño Jesús; c) the
dance
of the iguana, where the participants, each one to their
shift, takes in their hands this
animal
of regular size, to carry out some movings like to take it
to the entrance of the door
of
the church, where they execute movements of offerings and
reverences. Once concluded
this
part and after kissing her, a walk begins with the animal
among the assistants so that
each
who she/he makes the same thing in reverence sign to its
shift. After this last act the
dancers
retire to the they are of the drum that accompanies the song
in language kariña of
filiation
caribe. The day 2 of February in almost the whole state
Merida, they take place
parties
in honor to the Candlemas's Virgin. Inside these parties
dances such procesionales
are
executed as that of the vassals, which is carried out every
year in the town of The Parish
of
the municipality The Tip. Months before begin the rehearsals
of the different movings
that
compose the dance like the pasacalle of the beginning, the
dance, the ballads, the
fabric,
the confinement of the male goat, touches it, it burns it,
the sows, the aporco or
deshierbe
of certain agrarian reminiscence and the final pasacalle.
The organization of the
vassals
only allows men that are attributed to her by the rest of
its days for some benefit to
integrate.
The organization is nested and its different members look
for during the year the
necessary
economic contributions to cover expenses in the making of
the suits, for the
rehearsals,
the decorations of the church, the music and all the
concerning one to the I
celebrate.
The prospective day it begins with a solemn mass where the
whole town is
present;
when concluding the religious act the danceros decked out
with its expensive suits,
they
are organized for the procession commanded by its respective
captains who are located
behind
the musicians and before the Virgin's image loaded in its
small altar by 4 vassals;
more
behind the priest and the multitude of devote. Once finished
the procession the
danceros
carries out their ritual offering, by means of ballads and
dances. The musical
group
integrated by violin, treble and drum, serves from support
to the rhythmic canes that
each
dancer behaves in a hand while the maraca takes it in the
other one. These blows
emphasize
the segments of the dance that it dramatizes the cycle of
the pruning through
expressions,
it touches, sows and aporco or deshierbe. When concluding
the cycle of dances
they
retire executing the pasacalle. San Isidro also has its
Dance of crazy, product of a
series
of mythical dances and religious coming from old indigenous
manifestations, as the
call
Slope of the ches. To the great family timoto-cuica a series
of rites where the moján
(indigenous
priest) she/he retired to the moor and after certain time it
went down to the
town
disguised with skins of animals and with feathers of all
colors. People of the village
received
it to the scream of «you/he/she lowers the ches». The
natives covered of achiote
for
the occasion, they put on masks and they executed dances to
the they are of flutes,
hooters,
drums and maracas. In these dances they imitated movements
of animals and
agricultural
tasks. Among the towns mentioned by the first Spanish
columnists, Zamú is
(today
Lagunillas, state Merida) to the one that belongs this dance
of crazy of San Isidro
that
takes place May of every year 15. With the arrival of the
missionaries the parties of
San
Isidro Labrador were imposed, being born this manifestation
with the name of The
Black
ones of San Isidro who you/they were limited to dance around
the saint, disguised
with
masks and skins of animals to the old usage. With the time
she/he was given
brotherhood
character, organizing their dances in connection with the
agricultural works
whose
choreographies represent «the paloteo» that consists of
several figures: stick, court,
handkerchief
and zapatiera the quarter note. The party of devils of
Corpus Christi: She/he is
profudamente
rooted in different towns (16) distributed in 5 states of
the central region and
the
Federal District. This party is established starting from
the process settler from Spain,
probably
during the XVI century. The expression of a fight of
contrary where the belief and
the
faith of the divine power, they faced the contrapoder of the
demons, it was a topic that it
was
popularized quickly in the Christian world. These small
plays served as vehicle to send
the
message, since there she/he was reflected the spiritual and
social duality, when it was
shown
to the represented celestial power of a side by the Sacred
Sacramento, opposed to
Luzbel
or Lucifer personifying the malignancy. This duality
accompanied the European
men
that stepped American floor, they brought the medieval
thought, the religion and the
customs.
The columnist José of Oviedo and Bathrooms, when it points
out that for the year
1637
Caracas already possessed 6 churches, 2 convents and a
seminar, José Antonio
Calcaño
coincides with the historian and Venezuelan musician who in
one of his works, it
describes
to the group of «devils» that for the year 1673, he dances
once in the biggest
square
concluded the solemn religious act. Approximately up to 1680
Corpus Christi's
parties
were made in Caracas with a lot of pomp, with the presence
of military, civil and
ecclesiastical
authorities, in representation of the Spanish Government. As
long as in the
street
the town was organized in parades with dresses of «devils»
presided over by the
biggest
devil. They danced to the compass of a drum, bells and
maracas, accompanied by
gigantones,
headstrong and dragons. The monster, monumental character
with human body
and
animal head, represented the most usual sins in the men, and
it was placed in the parade
before
the Sacred one, presiding over the procession. The popular
creativity assimilated the
festejos
of Corpus being pointed out to San Mauricio's church (today
Santa Chapel) as the
devils'
from the Caracas traditional scenario of in the past. In the
twilights of the XVIII
century
the decadence of the street festejos will begin, because the
authorities of the time
will
consider the irreverent show for the due respect and
withdrawal that she/he was due to
the
ceremony of adoration to the Sacred one. This great party
that was motivated and
liderada
during several centuries for the high classes, begins to
decline among the dominant
groups,
and the ritual becomes a popular party. From then on in the
month of June she/he is
carried
out the party of the devils of Corpus in the states
Carabobo, Guárico, Cojedes,
Aragua,
Miranda and in the Federal District, where this tradition is
at the moment
revitalized.
In the history of the Venezuelan society it figures the
dance of those «seises
sevillanos»
that was represented after a lot of rehearsal for the great
ceremony that got
ready
Corpus Christi's day between 1590 and 1660; for she/he was
carried out it a rigorous
selection
among the young boys of the high classes who would represent
so great show in
the
central ship of the church Cathedral. These street
manifestations that they originated in
the
city of Caracas, they moved with the time toward the
neighboring states, where they are
carried
out every year in the towns of Yare (Miranda); Chuao,
Tastes, Cuyagua, Choroní,
Ocumare
of the Costa and Turiamo (Aragua); Guacara, Tocuyito,
Patanemo and Canoabo
(Carabobo);
Tinaquillo (Cojedes); San Rafael, Lezama, Altagracia (Guárico);
Naiguatá
(Federal
District). The party of the turas: In honor to the
Mercedes's Virgin, she/he takes
place
the 23 and 24 of September of every year in rural
populations located in the bordering
area
among the states Lara and Falcon. This celebration of
indigenous origin has taken
through
the time different cultural elements that show it as an
agrarian rite under the
invocation
of a Catholic Virgin. In the dance of the turas she/he is
surrendered cult to the
agriculture
and the believing ofrendan it leaves of their crops and of
their hunt to those
«divine
spirits», with the gratefulness for the obtained
productivity. At the same time they
take
advantage of the ceremony to request abundance in the sows
of next year, specifically
of
the corn, their basic food. The symbolic expressions
imitating hunt movements, moving,
making
reverences, shaking the maracas and blowing the deer pieces,
for the same time to
move
away the wicked spirits, they are part of the ritual and
they are basically the same
point
in the small tura as in the big tura. The small tura has an
approximate duration of 48
hours
and it can be made in the back patio of the houses in view
of the present; each who it
arrives
with the fruits that she/he wants to consecrate which are
deposited in «the palace» in
order
to being purified during the ceremony. All the acts are
presided over by the foreman
accompanied
by the steward and the assistants and the queen who it is
chosen by the same
foreman
among the women of more age. Later she/he begins she/he
stops then to go to the
«tree
of the garbage» where the participants defoliate and they
thresh the fruits to toss them
to
the foot of the same one. This action is accompanied by the
music and the dance which is
made
around the tree selected with steps toward the right, toward
the left one and vice
versa.
You toasts with chicha or carato to the spirit of the «tree
of the garbage» throwing
part
of the liquid on their trunk while the foreman recites the
mantras in application of
water
of rain enough, good hunt and good gathering of fruits and
medicinal plants for next
year.
In the moments of rest, after having played the different
sones of The dove,
Gonzalito,
Toad lipón, Carrerea, Hit and other, the tureros and other
participants intone
vítores
this way: Alive the party of the turas! Alive the Sacred
Virgin! Live the sacred
spirits!
My siblings live! Finished the act the steward proceeds to
place the candles in cross
form
to the foot of the tree and to light them. The celebrators
after to comment the act and
to
say goodbye return to their houses. The big tura is secret,
she/he is prolonged for 9 days,
she/he
is practiced in mountainous places and people that are
considered only attend
descending
of Aboriginal. A ritual fewer elaborated that the turas and
well-known with the
mastro
name the descendants of the ethnos baniva carry out in the
town of Maroa in the
state
Amazons for the month of September in honor to San Gabriel.
Other
dances secular living room calls were also practiced in the
big saraos of the masters
of
country properties and main gentlemen of the colonial
society. In November 1747 for
Fernando's
coronation SAW, she/he was organized a sumptuous quadrille
dance, which was
registered
by columnists of the time. During the geste emancipadora,
specifically to
celebrate
the victory of Boyacá, she/he took place a splendid dance
in honor to the
liberators
«...donde is executed with great lovely thing waltzes,
quadrilles and minuetos...»
These
dances of different European origins, will take American
personality when adapting
them
to the lifestyle of the time and to execute them with
instruments, musical times and
melodic
turns characteristic of artists and composers of the region.
The dances in wheel or
in
array of the gender of the quadrilles it was in the domain
of the traditional dances,
especially
in the center-western region of the country, where they are
recognized in the
Candlemas's
Danceros and The lunatics of San Isidro (Merida), previously
described, as
well
as the «six figureao of the tamunangue» (Lara), it dances
that it is composed of several
figures
in charge of 6 dancers, among them the one waltzes, I go for
a walk, I flower, eight,
chain,
small basket, big basket and many more. Other popular
traditional dances that are
carried
out with figures are: the «it dances of the arches», which
is part of the
choreographic
folklore of the town of Naiguatá in the Federal District.
She/he is practiced
this
dance during the days of the carnival and it is composed of
the figures of the fabric,
wheel
of arches, whirl, basket, wheelbarrow and final farewell.
These figures were
probably
part of that that before was known as cotillion, dance-game
species with which
the
soirée used to conclude. At the moment the dance of the
arches presents it as
accompaniment
of meringue and choreography adapted to the quantity of
participant
couples.
The coded movements that they define to the dance, they have
an extensive
repertoire
in the whole country that you/they are manifested through
many examples like
the
dances of tapes, group that includes the «sebucán» (it
guides), stick with tapes that are
knitted
and they unweave around to its. This dance was learned of
Spain although its origin,
according
to some specialists, symbolizes the old sacred tree that was
adorned with flowers
and
tapes and to whose around men and women danced. In San
Benito's Turns (you Walk
them),
it also includes in the ceremonial to this saint the fabric
of the stick of tapes which is
diversified
in «black», because dresses go and colored of that color,
«white» that take pant
and
white shirt with many tapes of colors cooked to the suit,
and those «brown» that go
disguised
of Indians. During this festivity the 3 groups can be
observed by different streets
knitting
and unweaving the stick with great master in towns and
villages of the state
Merida.
The devils of Tinaquillo (Cojedes) they also knit the stick
of tapes in a moment of
the
representation. Another fabric type exists as that of The
devils of Canoabo (Carabobo),
for
which you/they only use 3 tapes and the lattice is of
horizontal type as that of The
weavers
of Quíbor (Lara) who are placed in square form, 5 people
for each side, and while
the
lateral lines make of «loom», the horizontal lines make of
«weavers». Other dances as
The
paloteo (it Hurries), or game of sticks that collide against
those of the partner, to the
they
are of a binary music with spoken texts and sung; she/he
cries Her (Aragua), made up
of 8
sones interpreted by 4 couples; Gaita Perijanera (Zulia),
made up of 4 sones and
interpreted
by many couples; The quichimba (Miranda) composed by 5 tunes
and
interpreted
by 4 couples; and many more, they are dances with figures,
sones, musical
rhythms,
melodic turns and choreographic silts that are located in
the group of secular and
mixed
traditional manifestations with defined choreographic
structure for their
characteristics.
For 1837, it was danced «the gang» of 5 parts and «the
lanceros», dance
very
in fashion in the Paris of then. When they arrived in
Venezuela they molded to the
pleasure
of the Creole oligarchy who you/they were able to learn some
movings and
passages
that, with the time they would pass to be part of the
popular repertoire. Of all
these
airs it is the only living room dance that has remained
until our days and it is only
executed
with the object it is to stand out the qualities of the
youths that present in society
when
they arrive to their 15 years. Among so much the dances that
execute county people
continue
repeating in the time like inheritance of the tradition,
with slight modifications of
style
but attributed to the festival religious calendar. In first
term, we could point out the
very
profuse oriental amusements in the states Sucre, Monagas and
Anzoátegui. Generally
dance
pantomímicos, composed by song, drama, choirs and movements
that relax on topics
of
present time. The fundamental characters are: to)
registered: they preside over the
amusement
«opening road» among people and choosing the place where
the musical drama
will
be developed. They gather money once concluded the
performance like to continue
down
the street until finding another opportunity to repeat it;
b) symbols: fantastic animals
or
characters of the real life represent, created on purpose of
a social fact of transcendency
in
the region or at national level; c) actors: popular
characters that supplement the action of
the
symbols in the drama; d) guarichas: girls' that the main
characters surround in the
representation
choir; and) music: the small musical orchestra composed by
bandolín, guitar,
four,
maracas and tamboras preside over the amusement. The musical
group accompanies
the
dance during the journey for streets and squares, except for
when the moment of the
dialogues
arrives, generally humorous. The characteristic more
resaltante of the oriental
amusements
is the originality of the representation, which is once
irrepetible concluded.
The
monkey of Caicara (Monagas), it is a procession that
formerly she/he began in the
dawn
when the participants began to meet under the foreman's
guide who to the touch of
the
guarura or of the bull piece, she/he announced to the town
the entrance of the group.
The
lunatics with the appropriate dress left to the street
commanded by the foreman who
was
distinguished to take the rope tied to the waist, the
mandador (whip), the guarura and
the
colored face. The men disguised of woman took skirts on the
pant, mask and shawl in
the
head. The procession went of house at home, waking up people
and incorporating it to
the
seguidilla dance, which consisted -and she/he still stays
this way - in a long line of
participants,
seized by the waist, moving from a side to another. If some
candidate opposed
resistance
to incorporate to the dance of the monkey, era put the force
and the foreman with
the
rope tied it to the other ones integral. The revel strolled
for the town of Caicara drinking
liquor
in profusion. To the evening, the groups of peasants
returned to the field, as long as
in
the city the family dances continued until high hours of the
night. At the moment The
monkey
of Caicara continues effective extending to other places of
the state. The zaragoza
(Lara),
it belongs to an old tradition of the town of I will Heal
maintained by the men of the
town
who December of every year 28 appear with showy attires and
masks in varied ways.
From
the morning they are organized to complete the promises
offered to the Innocent
Saints,
represented by a painting in which the scene of the orderly
slaughter of children is
described
by Herodes. After the acts of the church, between chiming of
bells and artificial
fires
they leave the zaragozas dancing to the compass of the music
and songs interpreted in
time
of three by four. The manifestation is organized later with
registered who presides
over
it, the loader of the square of the innocent ones, more
behind the promeseros who
dance
to the compass of the music that intepreta the musical
group. For the streets of the
town
and followed by mothers and children, the zaragozas receives
in their arms to the
small
ones to dance them, since according to the popular belief
all the ailments of the
infants
would cease if they are taken and rocked by them the day of
the Innocent Saints.
Agua
Blanca's locaina (Portuguese), devote of the image of the
Sacred Degüello she/he
meets
in the chapel of the neighborhood The Mangos, to wait to the
locainas of San Rafael
of
Onoto, devote of the Sacred Cruz, that of the village
Sparrow hawk with Santa Bárbara
and
that of the Chaparral, devote of the images of The Spirit
and the Innocent Saints. All
these
images are represented in big pictures framed very well in
niches adorned with
flowers
and tapes of colors. The characters that supplement the
cortege are those
«registered»
who carry immense flags of diverse colors, with the first
pavilion and bigger
symbol
of early. Those «tuntunecos» or articulate wooden puppets
and placed to the ends
of a
long stick, they are manipulated to the they are of the
music. Those «caricari», name
with
which they designate the bosses that organize the dance,
dresses they go of white and
with
very adorned hat of flowers and tapes that you/they call
camazas. The officials or
military
of the I celebrate they are the authorities in charge of to
watch over and to punish
the
offenders of the laws of the locaina. The locainas
highlights for the humor and the
creativity
of the characters, nevertheless to be a religious
manifestation and of a lot of
devotion.
The choreographic structure of these street manifestations
is free and, generally,
it is
executed in form singular or for even, improvising and
creating allusive verses to the
dancers
in narrow linking of the music and the
The
joropo, national dance of Venezuela, deserves special
attention so much for its
variability,
its extension, the wealth in the steps and figures like for
the musical rhythm. In
the
rural area, the joropo is synonymous of party; to put a
joropo is simply to organize a
dance
with reason of celebrating a special event. In counted
exceptions she/he is carried out
the
party for promise to San Pascual Bailón, very popular saint
in the region llanera, with
blows,
tunes, joropos and galerones. The devotion and miraculous
saint's fame, especially
to
recover lost objects she/he has extended for Turén and
other towns of the Portuguese
state.
When the owner of the promise has received the requested
benefit, it organizes the
dance
with a lot of advance to be provided of abundant food,
drinks and music. The day of
the
appointment, when they arrive the companies the fiestón
she/he begins to the blow of
the
harp, four and maracas. To the stocking night, the owners of
the house announce that
they
will pay the promises with the dance of 5, 7 or more
galerones. For it the present form
a
great circle and the marriage promesero it is placed to the
center, giving this way
execution
to that offered to San Pascual. Once finished the galerones
dance the party
continues
until the dawn. Also to conclude the ritual of the Wake of
Cruz of May, in the
region
llanera you proceeds to cover the cross to give beginning to
the line of the wake,
closing
with joropo parties, generally with harp music, or bandola,
four and maracas. In the
state
Barinas the is known «joropo sabanero» or of «parrando»,
which almost always takes
place
in the field, villages or caneyes; many people arrive to the
place after crossing long
distances;
habitually they bring several changes of clothes and their
chinchorro to spend the
night,
because these joropos usually lasts several days. With
relationship to the music the
rhythm
is of six for eight but the melody and the used tones, the
variants can be Pajarillo,
Six
for Right, Six Numerao, Hums that it Hums, Periquera, Gaván,
Guacharaca, Quirpa,
San
Rafael, Chipola, New Callao, Sparrow hawk, Carnival,
Passage, Removes Griefs,
Merecure
and Diamond. The most outstanding figures in the dance of
couples are the
«valsiao»,
«toriao», «escubillao» and «zapateao». In the central
region that includes the
valleys
of Aragua, of the Tuy (Miranda) and state Carabobo, is
played, she/he sings and
she/he
dances the joropo in all time of the year, as well as in
employer parties, dance
matters,
baptisms, birthday and any festival reason. Besides the
arpisto -like she/he is
known
-, the singer who plays the maracas at the same time, forms
the traditional group that
accompanies
to the central joropo. The typical airs are the passage, a
soft melody for
valsear,
and the blow, quicker rhythm with more execution for the
song and the tapping. In
the
oriental region the blow and refrain that she/he originates
highlights and it cultivates in
the
state Sucre thanks to grateful cultores as Juan Silva (The
King of the Bandolín), María
Rodríguez,
José J. Villafranca, Perucho Cova, Domelis González, Cruz
Quinal and other
who
learned it of their adults through the oral tradition. It
also coincides to be Cumaná first-
born
city of continental America where the first Europeans
arrived implanting their
customs,
their music and their dances that with the exchange with
other cultures was
becoming
oriental cultural patrimony. In a principle the refrain was
interpreted with the
bandola
of 8 strings, later on a displacement of the bandola begins
with the Neapolitan
mandolin,
which is brought jointly with the accordion (cuereta) for
the corsos among final
of
the XIX century and principles of the XX one. Thanks to the
dispersion of this joropo,
the
variant is observed that one dances in the community of
Teresén, near the town of
Caripe
with the name of «guacharaca», which is distinguished for
the softness of the
displacements,
the man's closed tapping in opposition to the woman's
serenity, as well as
some
of the figures that carry out without coming unfastened the
hands. In the state
Anzoátegui,
the oriental joropo is known in the bordering area with
Sucre where more
she/he
is cultivated. In New Esparta, according to version of the
investigating Beto
Valderrama
a special variant is gotten from the refrain to which is
denominated «joropo
margariteño».
Among the particularities of the blow refrain, she/he is the
difference among
the
time of three for four with which she/he begins and that of
six for eight with which it
finishes.
For the celebration of the oriental joropo a specific date
doesn't exist, in such a
way
that one can give in any time of the year. The preparations
begin well with the
escogencia
of the place it is public or family, which can be open or
closed. With the arrival
of
the musicians the dance begins, the couples leave to the
hint and they begin the journey
with
the valseo, moving in form to circulate and in sense
contrary to the needles of the
clock.
The couples are happened describing steps and turns on their
axis, without losing the
elegant
style of the dance; in the moment of the refrain they begin
to shine their abilities in
the
tapping and the different figures of each participant's
creative repertoire, taking care of
not
being left the place that corresponds them in the great
circle that stays until it finishes
the
piece. In the state Bolivar the is known «Guianese joropo»
which is executed with the
Guianese
bandola of 8 strings of similar metal to which is in the
oriental region of the
country.
For their location in the region suroriental of the country,
the state Bolivar has
received
the influence of cultural exchanges especially in the
joropo, where they join
rhythms
of reminiscence llanera and of the oriental style. This
condition has allowed him to
produce
its own variants in different places of the state, as well
as in execution of
instruments;
this way joropos can be listened with bandola, mandolin and
violin like
soloists,
and the four, guitar and maracas like companions. The «six
Guianese» it is danced
in
any time of the year, in cross wakes, employer parties, you
trade and in family,
especially
in the rural areas. This dance has its origin in the Spanish
fandango of popular
root
that arrives in Venezuela with the conquerors, of which is
still an example with the
fandanguillo
name located in the town of Macapo (Cojedes). She/he doesn't
make the same
sense
in the urban areas where the joropo has taken the modality
of being a musical piece,
of
which you/they exist in the market discográfico countless
examples. Their dispersion
almost
embraces the whole national geography, being the styles
oriental, central and
western
the better known ones.
Dance
and popular dances: The forms non traditional dancísticas
are imposed by the
fashion
and for a while indefinite. The living room dances that were
in a beginning of
indispensable
learning, like part of the label that distinguished to the
high class of the
society,
will suffer modifications with the emergence of the waltz,
which will revolutionize
the
art of dancing in group in big circles with figures and
whirls, to open the way to the
dance
of even independent. In the XIX century, she/he will extend
their popularity quickly
to be
individualized the couple in a more intimate relationship,
what was not achieved to
cabalidad
in dances that they contained great number of people. In
Venezuela she/he settles
down
definitively and it will share honors with the dance that
arises as variant of the
quadrille.
Later on, with the meringue she/he will become
dance-meringue; when lapsing
the
time each modality she/he will take different roads,
although they cohabit largely the
dance-Havanan
one, arrival of Cuba, the meringue and the Creole waltz, as
well as the paso
doble.
Today, the dance is hardly listened; I didn't seize the
Creole meringue that still
pervive
in the pleasure of the Venezuelans. Later they will be the
tango of Argentina and
the
charleston of United States that will be imposed in the
family parties. Always she/he
has
had the population urban rhythms of Caribbean origin, which
have stayed in a constant,
although
with varying dissimilar. In the last 30 years, a stylistic
modality that has
strengthened
has arisen more and more; it is what called you guaracha in
a principle and
that
today she/he is known with the name of sauce; this rhythm,
arrived through countless
artists,
was sowed in the country by its form likeness and melody.
One of the cultores that,
somehow,
it impacts in this process it is the popular Billo Frómeta,
the one which, young
still,
their orchestra forms in Venezuela and with her motto «to
enjoy boys!», she gives to
know
a rich musical repertoire that is able to capture the
pleasure, especially of the
inhabitant
of Caracas, for the Antillean rhythms. In the course of
these last years, the native
artists
have created a type of sauce with characteristic own that
competes with that of the
Antilles,
especially of Sacred Domingo, Cuba and Puerto Rico. The
marked pleasure for the
French
thing that it distinguished to the high Venezuelan society
of final of the XIX one
and
principles of XX, she/he has left transforming gradually
toward the American thing; the
jazz
acquires particular connotations and unknown values until
that moment; the notable
influences
of the North American culture an establishment process it
begins in the pleasure
of
the Venezuelans, modifying the behavior patterns, especially
of the urban population, in
the
habits of the dress, foods and drinks, language and
naturally, in the music and the art in
general.
In the environment of the dances and the songs, a marked
dependence exists on the
part
of juvenile groups that although they don't always
understand the English language,
they
feel special pleasure for this gender, the one that you/they
enjoy and they feel like part
of
its global culture. This phenomenon, stimulated thoroughly
by the media of masses,
she/he
has brought a preponderance of the rhythms rock, disk music,
breakdance and rap as
a
result.
You
dance and theatrical dances: Starting from the folkloric
festival carried out in 1948 in
the
New Circus of Caracas in homage to the president of the
Republic Galician Rómulo, it
can
be pointed out that a new category arose for the historical
study of the dances and of the
dances.
It is the projection of the folklore or their teatralización
that the investigating Juan
Liscano,
for the desire of making know the rich folkloric repertoire
of the country,
organizes
a great show with the name of the Party of the Tradition
that had 3 platforms, a
complex
system of illumination and the participation of a hundred of
arrived cultores of all
the
regions of the country. This presentation that lasted 3
followed nights, was applauded
by a
public that show after show filled the bleachers of the New
Circus and to the one that
Fernando
Ortiz, humanist, anthropologist and Cuban writer qualified
of «great collective
rite
and danzario» and the same Liscano pointed out as «national
rite, of legitimate
nationalism,
by means of the one which the town of Venezuela and its
government, they
offered
consustanciarse, in the truths of our tradition». For the
beginning of the following
decade,
Manuel Cardinal red Rodríguez, creó the movement
Altarpiece of Marvels that I
lower
the motto of «investment of the time free of the workers»
it reaches a remarkable
success
with the creation of the School of Artistic Formation, where
they got ready the
integral
workers of the groups that conformed that movement. Among
the decade of 1950-
1960,
the Address of Culture of the Ministry of the Work
registered, among other, the
following
artistic groups: Mainland, Latin American Dances, Hill of
the Ávila, Venezuelan
Dances,
Snail of Brass, Infantile Dances, Choir of Workers, Coral
Venezuela, The
Madrigalistas
of the Snail, Theater of the Town, Teatro Guiñol Guácharo,
filial groups of
the
Altarpiece of Marvels in the state Zulia. Among the decade
of 1960-1970, a descent is
noticed
in the area of the development of the traditional popular
art, when it diminishes the
work
carried out in the previous decade. Nevertheless, with the
government support to the
artistic
group Dance Venezuela, called this way from 1965, it will
maintain until the present
a
line of presentations in the well-known style as «nationalist».
The development and
invigoration
of the investigation of dances and popular dances, starting
from the creation of
the
Department of Coreología of the Institute of Etnomusicología
and Folklore in 1975, it
will
allow another projection form with mixed groups, that is to
say, groups where they will
alternate
cultores, investigators, singers and interpreters with the
purpose of outlining a new
philosophy
in the teatralizar art the repertoire of dances and
traditional dances. The
Ministry
of Education on the other hand, through the Infantile
Folkloric Festival
Cantaclaro,
which goes for their sixteenth edition, has contributed to
the knowledge and
diffusion
of the folkloric patrimony of the country, by means of
annual encounters that are
carried
out in the town of Valley of the Easter (Guárico), with
school representations of the
22
national entities. The Central University of Venezuela from
1985 has stimulated the
cultural
investigators of the last promotions of anthropologists, in
a summary work,
exchanges,
ideology and practice of traditional cultural aspects. As a
result of they maintain
it at
the moment a formation program and projection with the group
The Trapatiesta arisen
among
students and professors of that house of studies who have
taken the name from the
UCV
to many places of the country and outside of our frontiers.
Private foundations also
support
the traditional popular art by means of the investigation,
projection, formation and
music
diffusion, dances and dances of the Venezuelan patrimony,
like it is the case of the
Foundation
Integral Center of Dances (CENIDAN), Fundación Bigott,
Foundation Dances
Aragua,
Foundation The Taparitas of Cariaco, Foundation Aged,
Fundacaminos, Fundación
Danzas
Sends it and many more than they work in cities and towns of
the country. The
National
Council of the Culture it maintains a program of
subsidies, for those
groups
of folkloric and popular projection that arise almost
spontaneously in the county.
level.