Contradanza de Paucartambo

reflection and transgression of colonial power

Abstract

The contradanza is a European dance genre that was brought to our territory by the Spanish during the colony. In different Latin American countries, this dance was appropriated by local populations, generating new meanings and forms of expression. This text seeks to present the Contradanza of Paucartambo (Cusco - Peru) - which is one of the dances, of peasant origin, present in the Festival of the Virgen del Carmen - mainly through the description of its characters and choreography that alternates European and Andean rhythms and emerges, according to its own practitioners, as a mockery of the Spanish power of the colonial era. This mockery is represented, mainly, in the game between the Machu (Spanish) and the Maqt'a (indigenous), in which the reversal of roles is shown in the best style of king - jester or the tradition of the so-called trickster, present both in the mythology of different cultures and in theatrical tradition. Finally, based on the fact that currently the members of the troupe are perceived as privileged within society, a thought is presented on the complexity of this dance as a reflection of the process of miscegenation in Peru.