John and Deb in Nicaragua: Nicaraguan Folk Dancing

When we first arrived in Nicaraguan and were receiving our orientation for 3 days in the hotel across the street from the airport, the Peace Corps training staff arranged a professional folk dance performance for us. It was lovely and as was true in Honduras, I was entranced by the dancing and the costumes and wanted to learn how to do it. I figured when I got to my site, I would find a group of adults who danced together and see if I could tag along to learn some dances. It turned out to be not quite so easy.

Two of the younger members of the group practicing

Nicaraguans have a long history of folk dances with influences from the African/Caribbean people on the coast to the Spanish invaders to the indigenous people. Their dances usually tell a story or reflect some aspect of their history. The costumes are a major part of their performances and almost all the dancing is done to prepare for a performance. Contrary to the folk dancing I have done in LPC and at the Ecole, there are no casual dance evenings just for fun. They dance to perform and work hard to perfect their skills.

Men with hats and women with long flowing skirts

Once we got to Chinandega we started asking around about who taught dancing and whether or not there was a school or classes for adults. Traditionally the dancing is taught to children for performing at school functions and in parades. There are no classes for adults. Lo and behold, the young man around the corner from us studies at the university during the week and dances on Sundays. He told me he started on Saturdays with a man named Raoul Peñalba when he was younger and now he is in the performance group, which practices on Sundays. He asked Profe Raoul if I could come and watch some Sunday.

Skirts are flying! You can see Profe Raoul watching the practice and his portrait in the background

I introduced myself to Profe Raoul and told him I was interested in learning some Nicaraguan dances. He said I was welcome to come on Sundays and do the warm ups with the group and watch them practice. I had fanaticized that we could do a bit of an exchange and I could teach them some of the international folk dances that I know but they are on a tough work schedule and it didn’t feel right to impose myself on them. His group puts on one two-hour show a year and they practice all year every Sunday for that performance in December. There are about 30 kids (people) ranging from 8 to mid 30s and they dance in groups of 1 (solos), 2 (a few duets), 6, 10, 15 etc. There are dances for the younger ones, some for men only, some women only, and a few solo songs thrown in also. This year there is a rock and roll number in the mix.

Practicing their rock n roll number

Most of the dances involve a lot of skirt action. The skirts are very full and all the girls have practice skirts – for the performance they will all be very coordinated with matching shoes and flowers in their hair and lots of make-up. The boys practice with hats and sticks depending on the dance. For a while they were practicing a dance with machetes but that got scratched from the program unfortunately. Some of the dances require fans and for these dances a straighter skirt is worn (not the full gathered skirt). One famous dance called the Güegüense requires masks – some of horses and some of Spaniards. The history behind the masks is that the dancing could be done by either a man or a woman and with the masks, no one needed to know who was who.

El güegüense

Every Sunday that I am in town, I go to the Profe’s house to join in the warm up dancing in front of the big mirror. I am way in the back so I can’t see myself and I work hard to keep up with them. They have all been doing these dances for years and know all the steps backwards and forwards. For the performances Profe Raoul works out choreography with the steps they have learned and they practice and tweak it throughout the year. There is no set way to do any dance and if I Google a dance, I can see various performances to the same music that are all very different. Profe Raoul holds his students to a level of professionalism that is very admirable. He expects them to be punctual (not a usual standard in Nicaragua), to be quiet when others are practicing, to be supportive of each other, to pay attention and to listen to his guidance and advice. If anyone has unexcused absences, they are eliminated from the performance and replaced by more reliable members. They love him. He gets mad and yells and then makes them all laugh. He makes fun of them if they are not dancing properly and makes them laugh at themselves. For Father’s Day, they bought him a cake and celebrated his fatherly role in their lives.

Look how much he is sweating. There is a lot of attention to flirting during the dances which the older folks have mastered but the younger dancers are too embarrassed to take seriously.

After the warm up dancing, I sit and watch them practice. I love it but I am not learning enough. I decided to ask one of the older women in the group if she would be willing to teach me privately and she agreed. For 100 córdobas an hour (about $3.50) Cinthia comes and dances with me and guides me. I made a video of her dancing and then practice by following her steps. It is not easy and I am not particularly good at it but I love it. I had a practice skirt made for myself and decided to do a little performance for my health group during our recent mid service training talent show. It was a “corrido” (sort of like cowboy music) and Cinthia worked out the choreography for me. I filmed her doing it and practiced and practiced and practiced and the made a ton of mistakes when I performed it. We videoed my performance so I could show Cinthia when I returned to Chinandega and she said, “You are good at improvising.”