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.