....and dancing.In the rain and in the mud every student danced. Teachers and administrators danced.
The director, Padre Freddy, danced.
Miss UAC-Carmen Pampa
slipped out of her shoes
to dance.
Different departments chose from the hundreds of different Bolivian folk dances - each with its own history and symbolism.
Below is the Tobas from the hot Amazonian jungles.
The Vet department did the Waca-Waca (cow dance) below.
This dance which Dan and Lee are adroitly performing is called the Morenada. First done by black slaves who worked the mines for Spanish overlords. The 45 pound costumes spoof the courtly dress of the Spanish royalty.
This dance is called a Tinku. It was done in villages that were split into an upper and lower half, or in close neighboring pueblos which were at odds with each other. They dressed in their best clothes to dance a reconciliation in holy week each year. The costume includes leather helmits because the dance ended in a ritual but real and sometimes deadly fight - with stones, fists, iron knuckles, etc. Women fought as bravely as the men. When there are injuries and deaths it served to insure good crops the following year.
The dance in Carmen Pampa included only a symbolic brawl in the mud (above). Traditionally all harm was forgiven immediately - even by the parents who lost a child in the brawl. The two warring towns made up and purged all resentment of the previous year. The dance is still common but much tamer. However, even now in the rural areas, there are occasional deaths.
Then there were some who selflessly gave up the chance to stomp mud and roll in the rain in order to record all this. Jean photographed.
