At the end of our unforgettable week with the Roots and Wings Institute in Pasac, our hosts casually asked if we would wear the Maya Quiche traditional clothing for part of day at the end of our stay. Concurrently they asked if our group would learn a short folkloric dance to perform in front of a few of the villagers. As the day of dress proceeded, details of our performance surfaced–our group was the main act for a Noche Cultural, the organizers needed us to perform another dance of our choosing highlighting our (US) culture, plus an introductory speech and song. We suddenly realized the surprise guest performance scheduled to appear at the Noche Cultural was not a surprise to us. We began to sweat underneath the thick fabric of our juipils and cortes.
Our group hastily chose Wagon Wheel by Old Crowe Medicine Show as our introductory song, more because Devon already knew most of the chords and we could just sing (or speak) the catchy repetitive chorus behind her as she sang the main verse. For our second dance performance, our modern piece, if you will, we chose the uber-overplayed wedding, bar mitzvah, and middle school dancefloor hit Cha-cha slide well, because it was on Montana’s ipod and the line dance with called instructions would allow us to perform with zero preparation. That’s right, we decided to improv Cha-cha slide to a group of 200 Mayan villagers while dressed in their traditional attire at the pueblo’s Noche Cultural. If the song seems inconceivable to mess up, think again. Words can’t do justice to the perplexed look at the townsfolk faces as we Cha cha slided off the stage. Above you’ll find our group shot pre-performance.
Eh-Bah (Adios in Quiche)!
-Alex and Jackie
