Puno’s Rich Folklore: Traditional Dances and Celebrations
The Charms of Puno, Peru
Peru boasts numerous provinces and cities attractive to tourists. The Department of Puno amazes travelers with its charming and rich folklore. It seems like an Inca place extracted from a fable, where traditions are artistically depicted in hundreds of dances seen in feasts and festivals.
These celebrations occur regularly throughout the year, and almost all have religious themes, blending Christian colonial past with indigenous pagan traditions. Puno festivities honor both Christian saints and Inca gods.
Puno has registered more than 350 dances. Native dances include those of farmers; Llameritos, or dancing llama breeders simulating the passage of these Andean animals; Capullani Carnival; Flute; Sicuris, a ceremonial dance of Inca origin danced by the Aymara; Vicuñitas, Unu Boxes, Mallku Condoriri (dance of the sitting condor), among others.
There are also dance costumes, beautiful and colorful, notably the brown or dark dances with hundreds of years of history, and the famous devil dance, portraying the Andean evil being. It is a beautiful religious dance, a choreographic spectacle with numerous performers, colorful clothing, and perfect choreography.
Traditional Puno Dances
AGUATIRI (awatiri): Aymara pastoral dance performed by children and adolescents in couples. It represents children playing in qamañas (viewpoints on plains and summits), sharing music, and initiating ballads. It is presented in all Puno provinces, danced to pinquillos, flutes, charango, and panpipes, incorporating songs and love affairs.
AYARACHI: Music and dance from Quechua Paratía Lampa heights (Melgar, Azángaro) and cloud forest valleys (Carabaya and Sandia). The melody is solemn, played with panpipes or sikus, said to accompany Inca lords’ funerals. The dance is frugal and solemn.
BOAT PEOPLE: Ritual dance honoring Breast Qocha (Quechua) or Mama Qota (Aymara). Couples imitate lake waves to pinquillos, song, and drum. It represents Izani community, Zepita District, Chucuito-Puno.
CACHARPARI: Farewell dance for employers and highland carnival festivities. Sikuris troops, dancers, and carnival gangs dance to fifes, bands, estudiantinas, quenachos, etc.
CAPTAINS: Satirical Aymara dance referring to Spanish cavalry. Dancers move on horseback and dismount, with martial movements. The jester Kusillo joins on foot. Characters include the master, bearer, and subordinates distinguished by uniform colors and gallons.
CASARASIRI: Highland Aymara marriage dance. Young people dance euphorically, expressing furtive love, leading to engagement. Couples perform a propitiatory dance with stems (lit candles), celebrating to flutes, drums, and bass drums in many communities.
KANA TAPE: Aymara sacrificial weaving dance. Braiding creates beautiful figures on a pole in a circle of dancers. Colored ribbons from the pole are twisted and untwisted. It occurs in Puno, Chucuito Collao, and Moho provinces.
CUNTIS: Aymara sacrificial dance of dyeing wool. It is represented only by men in Juli district, Chucuito-Puno.
CHALLPAS: Aymara dance of scapegoat hunters and vicuña/parahuana hunters. It is represented in Yunguyo, Chucuito, and Puno provinces.
CHATRE PULI: Satirical Aymara dance of a Spanish colonial soldier. It is represented in Sisipa Pomata, Titilayo in Conima, and Aricota in Sandia.
CHOJNA: Aymara for green, representing economic prosperity. A ritual dance to apus (tutelary gods) precedes it. Danced in pairs with quenachos and bomblets, it represents communities in Azangarillo Huancané.
CHOQUEL: Ancient Aymara dance, with debated colonial or pre-Inca origins. It recalls vicuña hunting stages. It is ritualistic with mythical characters (old man/Wari or Choquel Wiracocha, old woman/Choquel Ahuile), male hunters (quena choquelas), female Llipis of different ages (children/yoqallas with stuffed llamas), and Kusillo buffoons. It represents Aymara-speaking provinces.