Primary School Children Perform Typical Dances on the Plaza Today

Every year, the primary schools of Cuzco do a pasacalle, a parade where they perform dances for the public and in honor of the city of Cuzco. Today is that day. For weeks and even as much as a month the various schools have been preparing, practicing the dances that represent their institution.

The children show a lot of joy. They want to learn the steps of the dances their teacher or their choreographer is trying to teach them. This is how the children learn to identify with their culture and become part of the activities it carries out all year round.

From early in the morning they begin to parade. The different schools each have their banners or their signs that carry the school’s name and the name of the dance they are performing.

They gathering place, where they prepare to enter the plaza when it is their turn, fills with and endless amount of talk and excitement. There the children and their teachers can socialize with other from other schools. At the same time you can feel the nerves as they check to make sure that everything is ready and everyone present. As their time approaches the energy begins to explode and they line up like horses in the stocks at a race to be able to dance into the Plaza before everyone.

The other children wearing an infinity of costumes wait and run around observing everything in great detail. They see they way people behave and organize themselve to the way they dance. In this way they learn about carrying the flag of the school or even more of Tawantinsuyo, the Inca Empire, with the pole resting on your chest while you salute the City and honor the place that saw your birth.

The different categories of choreographies and dance steps go forward and others end their participation. They will make memories of the event in the photos they take, generally with the Plaza de Armas as backdrop.

With sweat on their faces and pain in their feet and hands they finish dancing, hoping that at the end their mom and dad will receive them with joy, as if they had gone to war and returned victorious.

In this way, the Institution show their value and will continue through the day, after the dance is over, with other activities before the children return home to continue with their normal lives.