Danza de tijeras

Danzantes de tijeras (scissors dancers) are descendants of the "tusuq laykas", prehispanic priests, fortune tellers, healers and shamans who experienced persecution during the colony. In this colonial period, they began to be known as "supaypa waman" (son of the devil in Quechua) and took refuge in the highest areas. As time passed by, the colonizers accepted they return but conditioning them to dance for the Catholic God and saints. In this way, they started to perform the danza de tijeras in fiestas patronales. Nowadays, it is a magical-religious and ritual dance that represents, through their choreographies, the spirits of pachamama, yacumama, hanaccpacha, ucupacha, and others. Peruvian writer José María Arguedas (1911-1969) immortalized danzante de tijeras in several novels, even in the short story La agonía de Rasu Ñiti (1962), the main character is one of them. ==Symbolism==

The scissor dancers are identified with ritual skill and challenge from the outsider's point of view. Basically, the scissors dance is an impressive manifestation of physical art and skills, but to the Andean man it represents a complex ritual. A series of mysteries stalk around the dancers (the ones who do the ritual) who, in a surge of force and elasticity, test their skills with the gymnastics-like jump at the sound of a harp and a violin, while they cut the air with their scissors. According to the priests of the colony, its magical side obeys to an assumption pact with the devil, due to surprising moves or tests that they execute in the dance. This tests denominate Atipanacuy. The central instrument of the dance is the elaborated scissors of two independent metal plates of approximately 25 cm, and when the two plates are fused, they make a shape of blunt-end scissors. The scissors replaced the flat stones used in antiquity due to the similar sound they emit. It is considered a great humiliation if the scissors fall from the dancer's hand while he is dancing. == See also ==