Mexico
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The third largest city market place in the world after Tienanmen Square in Beijing and the Red Square in Moscow, the city square called Zocalo in Mexico City, is a stage for unusual performance which roots go back to pre-columbian Mezoamerica.
The event is called the Aztec Dance (La Danza Azteca) and is mostly performed on weekends as a major tourist attraction of Mexican capital city. In its basic form it is a vibrant show with a lot of drumming music with lots of dancing performed by descendants of the Azteca people who lived in the Valley of Mexico before being conquered by the army of Spanish conquistadors led by Hernando Cortes in 1521.
The Azteca Dancers performing at Zocalo, central market place in Mexico City.
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The dancers are decorated with traditional and colourful feathered headdresses that dominate in their performance costume. The dance is a living and still evolving spiritual performance which is closer to a religious service than a modern ballet performance. It is a form of a cross-generation and ancient communication amongst the Native American nations of central Mexico as well as a form of worship their ancestors.
The Azteca Dancers performing at Zocalo place in Mexico City.
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The instruments used in the dancing ceremony are mainly drums, rain sticks, flutes, mandolins and guitars. The dancers have small jingle-bells attached to their ankles that jingle as they move while dancing.
Colourful feather of headdresses of the Azteca Dancers at Zocalo with the Mexico City cathedral in background.
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In the presence of the Mexico City cathedral, solid walls of the Presidential Palace and residential houses around, the drumbeating music is amplified and the show creates an overwhelming impression of sound attacking the viewers' ears in 3D reality.
Ritual smoking and cleansing from bad spirits, The Azteca Dance, Mexico City.
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