dance competition

So this weekend was crazy.  We started off Saturday at 8:30am (which is ridiculously early for us).  We went to this dance competition hosted by one of the schools we teach at.  Our girls were there in their super elaborate costumes and so happy to see us.  Made my heart melt.

Some of the dances were rather interesting.  Because most of the dances were based on the native culture here, some very obvious gender roles were displayed.  Example: In dance #13, the boys get out their whips and whip at the girls.  In dance #26, the girls lay down on the ground, the boys straddle them, a brief bit of humping ensued.  Not pornographic, but definitely odd to see 7 year olds enacting a sex scene in their ethnic garb on the dance floor. 

Dance #28 had a graphic scene where the Spaniards killed the Incans and an elaborate funeral procession ensued.  Heavy stuff. 

The only dance that was notably less male-dominated was the llama/alpaca dance.  Llamas and alpacas are an integral part of Peruvian culture.  The boys dressed as llamas and had grass in their mouth the whole time, while the girls trimmed their fur and drug them by leashed tied around their necks.  We loved this one.  See pictures below.

Girl feeding the llama/alpaca boy some grass.

Here the girls are trimming the llama/alpaca's hair with some fake plastic scissors.

These boys were pretending to be birds and were quite cute.

Here is one of the more indigenous dances.  The little girls wore teeny-tiny little skirts and bare-midriffs.  The boys wore these short orange shirts/dresses that had slits up the side.  Very revealing, let's just put it that way.  Alex and I laughed at the thought of that ever happening in the states.  NEVER.