[The
stained-glass curtain depicting the valley of Mexico.]
Event: Ballet
Folklórico
Venue: Palacio de
Bellas Artes
Location: Mexico City,
Mexico
Date: 23 November 2016
Founded in 1952 by
Amalia Hernández, the Ballet Folklórico has become a cultural
institution that has performed twice a week in the capital city since
1963. The group underscores traditional dance and music with
historical narratives that succeed in being both instructive and
captivating. On one level, the performance is a colorful presentation
of national culture, with brilliant costumes, elaborate choreography,
upbeat mariachi tunes, and constant motion. However, all of this
action serves to examine elements of Mexican history and regional
diversity. It's easy to simply watch and be transfixed, but at the
least one might find it curious to see a group of women dancing with
rifles. That particular dance honors the soldaderas
that fought in the Mexican revolution alongside the better-recognized
men. Other dances originate in pre-Columbian traditions, street
parades with huge papier-mâché figures, village festivals, and
ranching activities.
The physical movement
is artfully paired with accompanying music from a sizable mariachi
band. The night I attended opened with a loud, propulsive drum
performance. The drummers continued to strike their battery as the
dancers gradually appeared on stage. Most of the rest of the night,
the musicians played string instruments and horns loosely
corresponding to the region and era being also represented in dance
and costume. This typically consisted of several classical guitars,
including a Mexican
vihuela and a guitarrón,
in addition to violins, trumpet, trombone, and mellophone. The
musicians sang infrequently, and even when they performed without the
dancers (presumably while they were changing outfits), they primarily
played instrumentals. On one occasion, they surprised me by appearing
in two of the venue's seating boxes to play marimbas.
[Note
the marimbas in the second-level boxes on stage left. Photo by Alyssa
Hammons.]
When I first heard of
this group, I was skeptical of falling into a tourist trap. However,
the performance understandably made few concessions to the
non-Spanish-speaking portion of the their audience, and judging by
the crowd's participation in a few of the songs, most of the audience
did indeed speak Spanish. (I did not find my rudimentary familiarity
with Spanish to be hindrance to my enjoyment.) One could perhaps
criticize the embedded heteronormativity of some of the dances, but I
nonetheless appreciated the ambiguity and lack of detailed
over-explanation inherent in a performance without many spoken or
sung words. There were a couple sections based around hunting themes
that I could do without, but I could acknowledge the historical
relevance of even those narratives.
The performance more
than exceeded my expectations. The quality of the musicianship, the
beauty of the costumes, and the fluidity of the dancers won me over
immediately. Every component was exceptional and the physical
dexterity of the dancers and musicians was astounding.
The venue specifically
requests no photography during the performance, and while plenty of
people obviously disobeyed that request, I did not. Hence, I can only
leave you with another picture of the venue, but a quick internet
search should satisfy any further visual curiosity.
[The
exterior of the Palacio de Bellas Artes.]
Score: A-
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