Gorgeous young men and women, great polka music, and inexhaustable dancing: the evening opened with a fantastically exciting estampa norteña (dance from northern Mexico).
These young men danced El Baile de los Machetes, a traditional dance from Mexico's western state of Nayarit. The dance includes precision maneuvers with flashing, clashing machetes and wild high kicks.
This Purhépecha folk dance shows off the beauty of traditional embroidery as well as the dancers' skill. The apron is cross-stitched by hand, as are the woman's blouse and the man's pants. This dance is in part a courtship ritual, ending with the men's fishnets catching the women.
19th Century dress from the northern part of Mexico included long suede coats for the men.
These handsome young men brought down the house–they might as well have been Chippendale dancers! The screaming, swooning young women in the audience adored the fellows' provocative moves.
It was the constant-motion rear view of these vaqueros (cowboys) that really got the crowd going.
A few minutes later, the guys were joined onstage by equally beautiful young women.
Frequent costume changes, exciting music, and beautiful choreography made the night intensely satisfying. The setting, in the Patio del Quijote at the Casa de Cultura, created the perfect ambiance.
The dancers never slowed down!
As darkness fell, another group took the stage for more estampa norteña.
Another traditional Purhépecha dance, performed by four men wearing carved wood pink-painted, blue-eyed masks representing Europeans in the New World. Each costume includes long white hair, a gourd at the back, a silvery fish at the side, and a cane with a horse head.
The costumes in this dance are similar to those in the photo above, but the masks are very different. From left to right, the masks represent a yellow man, an owl, a blue man, a black man, and a European man. Click on any of the photos to see a larger image.
A closer view of the dancer wearing the owl mask.
This male dancer in this Purhépecha dance wears a yellow mask. By turn, the woman dances with each of the masked men.
After one last number, a dance from Apatzingán in Michoacán's Tierra Caliente (hot lowlands), Mexico Cooks! needed to head for home.
Thanks to the Secretaría de Cultura for its wonderful dance presentations during this celebration. Won't you come with Mexico Cooks! next year, for the 53rd anniversary of Ballet Folklórico de Michoacán?
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