Who, what or where am I? #21
We are dancing. But what is the name of our dance and where are we?
6 Answers
Is it the Kamayura Indian fish dance from Brazil?
Reminds me of the "Fire Dance" the guys did in Jamaica.
Is it a marriage ceremony?
We are dancing el mapalé, an Afro-Colombian dance from the Carribean Regio of Colombia.
In the 1600's this dance was brought to Colombia by Guinean slaves bought by the Spanish.
It represents an erotic courtship between a male and female.
Mapalé dancers use fast, furious, strong movements. Women take men out to dance and make them follow their moves.
All movements are based on the movements of mapalé-fish when they are out of the water. After a large catch of mapalé by the fishermen, this dance was done as a celebration.
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, is ThE city to watch mapalé-groups dressed in colorful costumes, accompanied by drummers (un tambor llamador y mas tambores). They mostly perform in the historic, walled-in city, but sometimes elsewhere in Cartagena. On the beach for example.
Mapalé music and dance is perhaps one of the purest African found rythms on the Carribean Coast of Colombia.
Time for another hint: in these pictures we are dancing on the beach of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. But it is much more likely that you see us dancing our Afro-Colombian dance in 'the old city', dressed in very colorful costumes.
Hint: this dance is called after a fish, as all our movements are based on the movements on these fish when they are out of the water.
Apart from the name, this dance has nothing to do with fish.
