Folklore Dancing is the Best Way to Learn about Ecuadorian

Culture

Priscila Navarrete
block 4
3/18/2015

Folklore Dancing is the Best Way to Learn about Ecuadorian Culture

Folklore, one of the words you will hear most of the time if you visits the
indigenous communities in Ecuador. What does this word really mean? Folklore is an
english term that comes from two voices, folk and lore which mean what people know
and what people accustom. Now this word is hispanized and it means what you learned
from people, and what people taught through language, customs, dances, stories and
beliefs, but now it remains as a spiritual treasure of the forefathers of the indigenous.
Folklore is a anthropological cultural science which studies the customs of a certain
region. The Folklore word started to be used in Ecuador on 1972. Folklore dancing is
the best way to learn about Ecuadorian culture because with this dance you understand
how their life is, ancient stories, how they dress and what is the meaning of their
dressings, their communication, their eating and their beliefs.
On Ecuador there are many institutes that recover this type of dance one of them
is Ballet Ecuatoriano de Cmara. There are many more great academies on Ecuador
which any dreamin kid or teenager could go there and learn various types of Ecuadorian
dances. Among these is the folklore dancing. They make many presentations in La
Casa de la Cultura it is a wide theater where many people go to see them. According to
Ruben Guarderas (the fundator of the academy) he said The school was established in
order to train professionals in the dance, with technical and artistic training of
excellence, who are backed by a dance company Institution to ensure their

Folklore Dancing is the Best Way to Learn about Ecuadorian

Culture

employability. (translated) The dancers that attend to this institute have to learn the
stories that that those dances tell and the details behind it. One of the important part of
dancing this is that they learn some words about Quechua, in the dance sometimes
women and men communicate but they do it in their natal language. Since most of these
dances are typically about everyday life men usually tel women my love which is canda
munani. They also mention many times child which is wawa or wambra. This is why
when they dance they tell stories and when they tell stories they communicate in their
natal language.
On Chimborazo, a natal women explained to me what they wear when they
dance, she said she wore a long skirt called anaco, usually the anaco is color black but
when they dance they wear different colors of anaco and use a set of them. Women use
red poncho which she made with their own hands. They wear a white blouse with
designs of weaving on it. The sombreros are a very important part because the women
wear them when they dance, sometimes they wear a handkerchief below it but it
depends in what kind of sombrero they are wearing, because if it is a little one they do
not wear the handkerchief.. There is meaning to all these dressings, if a women wears
the poncho tide up a knot in the center it means she is single but if it is tied up by the
side it means she is married. They also wear a cinch which sustains their anaco, that
cinch comes in many different colors and women weave it . Men usually wear a white
blouse, sometimes a red poncho and a type of pants called samarro and the outer part of
it has goat skin. Men also wear a handkerchief over their heads. This things are little
details that most of the people do not know but you can learn it only by seeing their
clothing.

Folklore Dancing is the Best Way to Learn about Ecuadorian

Culture

Many dance has a meaning and tells a story, the women that studies in the Ballet
Ecuatoriano de Camara said that. They mostly dance about their daily life. One of the
most well known dances is called The Venada (it translates in, The Doe). This dance
represents how men capture a doe while women are preparing the rest of the food for
lunch. Usually a women dresses up as the doe and there are about eight to ten men
capturing it, they dance while they do it. So that this is one of the examples that they
dance about their daily life. They also refer a lot to their god Inti which is the sun and
their other god is the moon Yaku. In some dances when bad things happen they are
represented as the devil, they think it is a punish for something they did wrong.
Finally I say that the folklore dance is one of the best ways to learn about
ecuadorian andean culture and beliefs because one in a dance you learn so many things,
there is not only one type of folklore there are many more topics of folklore like love
poems, stories, ceremonies about disease and more. Just with this dance you learn about
their communication, dressings, beliefs, gods, daily life and what all of these mean to
them. Folklore is a great part of Ecuadorian culture and it will always mean something
because most of Ecuadorian roots come from the indigenous people. We should learn to
be part of it because it is beautiful and it is so significative that every time you talk
about folklore you should always remember about Ecuador and its amazing culture and
beliefs.

Resources

Folklore Dancing is the Best Way to Learn about Ecuadorian

Culture

Folclor y tradiciones populares. (2013, July 6). Retrieved March 18, 2015, from
https://anteojosda.wordpress.com/2013/07/06/folclor-y-tradiciones-populares/
Andean Folk Dance. (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from
http://pachacamak.org/andean-folk-dance/
Nathalie Antonella Marcillo (student from the Ballet Ecuatoriano de Camara)

Folklore Dancing is the Best Way to learn about Ecuadorian Culture

Priscila Navarrete
Block 4