The Dances of Mexico

Mexico has a long and rich tradition of dance. This includes the dances performed by the indigenous groups such as the Aztecs and Mayans, as well as dances brought by the Spanish and other Europeans beginning as early as the fifteenth century. The early Amerindian dances included ritual and secular dances. The many European dance influences included ballroom styles such as the waltz, the shottishe, and the polka.

Today, Mexican Folk Dance groups, or grupos folkloricos, perform representative dances from a variety of states and regions of Mexico. One of the most famous dance troupes in Mexico is El Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, directed by Amalia Hernández.

While some people would argue that the performances presented by the dance troupes of Mexico are not authentic expressions of Mexican tradition, all of the artists who I interviewed argued that groups such as the Ballet Folklorico are traditions important to the promotion and understanding of Mexican culture. The artists told me that Mexican folk dances, as they are performed today by the dance troupes, are dynamic expressions of ancient and contemporary Mexico, and represent one means of preserving and promoting a positive Mexican identity.

Identity is a hard concept to understand—it is who we are and what makes us unique and special. One part of our identity is our nationality, and other parts might include our family background, religion, and hobbies. Make a list of those things that you think are an important part of your identity that come from your nationality, family, etc. Can you see why these artists think that teaching these dances to other children is important? close

Mexican immigrants to the United States remember learning these folk dances in the public schools they attended in Mexico, and want to pass the tradition of Mexican Folk Dance on to their own children living in the United States. Thus, many groups that study and practice Mexican Folk Dance have been established throughout the United States, including in Pennsylvania. I interviewed five people who teach the dances to learn more about this colorful and beautiful part of Mexican heritage: Olga L. Arellano, Jessika Y. Diez-Flores, Luis E. Ramirez and María I. Sosa, and Pedro Silva.

Mexico is a very diverse country that includes 31 states and the federal district where the national capitol, Mexico City, is located. Each state has dances and costumes that are unique expressions of that particular area and aesthetic. As I talked to each of the artists, they all offered pictures, examples, and descriptions of different dances that they know and teach.

Amelia Contreras is the director of Generacion Diez in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She invited me upstairs to her closet to show me the traditional clothes worn when Luis Ramirez and María Sosa’s students perform. These clothes provide additional meaning to the dances as they are performed, and just by looking at them, a person can tell what region of Mexico they are from.

Jessika Diez-Flores also invited me to her closet full of Ballet Folklorico costumes. It is very special to explore her closet, because she comes from a long line of seamstresses. Her grandmother, Carranza Flores, made the clothing for the Amelia Hernández Ballet. Ms. Diez-Flores told me, “Grandmother was a sewing girl for the Ballet Amelia Hernandez. She was doing professional dresses, in our house. She brought her work to the house because it was a lot of sewing. So she put her daughters, my mom and her sister, to help her. My mom learned how to do this just by watching her and to help her. Then when I was dancing, I didn't have the money to buy them so my mom started making them for me and then she asked me to help her. So I learned by seeing her, we didn’t learn by classes, we just learned how to put them together.

As I finished my interview for that night, I ask Jessika if her grandmother would approve of the quality of work that her granddaughter is doing, and Jessika replies, “I think that she would say that this doesn’t look like something that I would make myself…. But you know what, when you’re dancing and you’re moving, it looks pretty cool. This thing has to move (pulling at collar), and this thing has to flow (pointing out the billowy sleeves), I think we did a pretty decent job.”

Jalisco is the fourth largest state of Mexico, with over six million people counted in the 2003 census. The capitol of Guadalajara is the second largest city after Mexico City.

Also known as “la perla tapatía,” Guadalajara is home of the national dance of Mexico, the Jarabe tapatía. “Jarabe” is a term refers generally to a type of Mexican traditional music that uses multiple meters, and “tapatía” is a term that indicates that something is from Guadalajara. This dance tells the romantic story of a man who is flirting with a woman who he is in love with. There exist different variations of the dance and many involve a hat, thus the popular name it has acquired in the United States “The Mexican Hat Dance.”

As Mr. Silva told me, “Jalisco se distingue porque usamos traje charro. Jalisco stands out because it uses charro costumes .” Traje de charro, Spanish for “cowboy clothing”, refers to the special clothing worn by a man in traditional costume from Jalisco. It is worn in traditional dances of Jalisco, and also it is often the clothing of Mariachi Musicians—a musical form typical in Jalisco. Traje de charro includes a large hat (or sombrero), a coat with silver buttons and other adornments, and long pants that have the same silver buttons that go down the length of the pant leg on the side. Women in traditional Jalisco dress wear colorful blouses and full skirts made from large amounts of colorful fabric.

The state of Veracruz is the third most populous state of Mexico and located on the Eastern side of the country on the Gulf of Mexico. Xalapa is the capitol, but the biggest city in the state is Veracruz.

The style of Veracruz’s traditional music is well known due to the popularity of a song that originated in this region, “La Bamba.” An instrument that is particularly heard in the music of Veracruz is that of the harp.

The clothing worn by women to traditionally represent Veracruz in folk dances includes a white dress, accented with a fan, jewelry, and often a black apron. According to Ms. Arellano, the women of Veracruz wear a flower in their hair on the right hand side if they are single, on the left if they are married.

Making Connections: Marriage Traditions

Master artist Olga L. Arellano performs a dance from the state of Veracruz.

Men often wear white as well, accented with a red handkerchief (pañuelo rojo) and belt. When dancing to “La Bamba,” a couple will often attempt to tie the man’s red belt into a bow with their feet. The man’s shirt is often what is called a guayabera—a shirt that is not only worn for a costume, but is commonly worn in warmer climates daily. Originally, the Guayabera shirts had four pockets, two lower pockets and two upper pockets, each with its own button. Another characteristic of the Guayabera are the two rows of alforzas (vertical pleats) which run on the front of the shirt, over the pockets and on the back of it.

Nuevo León is a state located in the Northeastern region of Mexico. With music influenced by the polka and the emerging tradition of Tejano, the dances of Nuevo León are often lively and accompanied by music with a contagious beat. Jessika Diez-Flores also noted the strong style of northern dances, telling me that “The north of Mexico has more influence from the United States and all those dances, but the Mexicans didn’t like the waltz. They wanted more screaming, and more like ‘we are revolutionaries.’ So they make the dresses more colorful and the dancers more aggressive. That’s the foundation [of these dance styles].” As she describes the yells, the loud stomping of their shoes, and the intensity of these dancers, Ms. Diez-Flores accentuates her words with expressive gestures. She points to the dresses worn by women in Tamaulipas, another northern state that is next door to Nuevo León and that shares many of its traditions. These dresses can seem in design to be similar to dresses from other states, but she warns that one cannot assume that because they are dressed similarly, that the dances will be similar. She notes that the full skirt of Veracruz and Tamaulipas look similar in form (although not in color), but that the gentle moves of Veracruz are very different from the aggressive steps found in these northern states.

One of the smaller states of Mexico, Guerrero is known for its popular tropical tourist destinations. Traditional dance masters Luis Ramierz and María I. Sosa were born in Guerrero, and one of the dances they described was a dance that mimics an animal in the region—the iguana. The dance of the iguana is a dance that represents the strong and graceful movements of the iguana. Another dance that imitates an animal that is popular is the deer dance. This particular dance, Luis tells me, comes from the Yaqui people originally from Sonora. In this dance the performer must feel the movements of a deer to embody its spirit and grace. A dancer performing the deer dance must walk, jump, and move like a deer. Due the scarce resources of the area where the Yaqui people live, deer constitute an important source of food. Mr. Ramirez relates that in doing this dance, the people are able to better understand the strength and mind of the deer, and they see this dance as a form of blessing that will aid them in hunting the deer for their provisions.