To me,.
Dance represents one of the best artistic expressions. Of all the dances, I am
most familiar with the Mexican Folklore. Does color and sign language play an important
role in the Mexican Folklore? Let’s travel through some of the regions of the Mexican Republic and find
out how colors and sign language are intrinsically connected to dance.
"To
enhance the dancer’s communication the custom, lighting and set designers must
strongly reinforce the mood of the dance to mise-en-scene they create."
Tamaulipas.-
The customary dress for the Tamaulipas is made of brown suede material. Women wear a knee length skirt with matching jacket,
and for men pants and jacket also made of suede. The men wear a tejana hat, and
both women and men wear a bandana around their neck. The sign language used in
some of their dance is the division of the group in half, with each half daring
the other to show who dances the best. The cowboy influence is exemplified in
the rope dance. The color of the lights in the scenario does not make an impact
on the dancers; the lights just impact the background and sometimes when only one
couple is dancing demonstrates the focus of the dance.
Nayarit- This
beautiful state has two different traditional dresses. One dress represents the
indigenous dances from the mountains of Nayarit and is used in Las Pachitas.
Pachitas or en Semana Santa Cora, celebrates the Passover beginning with Palm
Sunday and culminating on the Saturday before Easter. This dance has sign
languages as the gestures and movements represent the Biblical Jewish people as
the borrados (the erasers). This dance was researched and later choreographed by
maestro Jaime Buentello Bazan. Maestro Buentello visited Jesus Maria a town
established in the sierra del Nayar a remote and rough location in the mountains.
In my opinion, a better description of
this tradition can be had by visiting this web site which has good insights. http://www.jansochor.com/photo-essay/semana-santa-cora-mexico.html
.
Nayarit Costa is a
mosaic of dances that represent the coastal population of Nayarit. One of the
most popular dances used as an entrance for the performers is Vuela Paloma (Fly
(verb) Dove). This song is a fox trot and was choreographed by maestro Jaime
Buentello y Bazan. It is a very sad song and is usually danced only by women. The
white dove that the song refers to, is acting as a messenger to tell the loved
one that he is coming back to stay. According to Mexican tradition sadness does
not last long and the sad song is followed by happy dances with more stomped
zapateado (zah-pah teh-ah-doh) and skirt movement faldeo (fahl-day-oh). The dresses
are of different colors, but the colored lighting make the dresses appear
white. 
Sonora
has one of the most famous indigenous dances. La Danza del Venado (Dance of the
Deer) It represents the hunting of a deer. The movements of the deer are meant
to represent its fright, and at the end its death and being carried away by the
hunters. The dance of the deer This dance has its origins in the
mountain regions in the northeast of Mexico in the state of Sonora. It tells
the story of a majestic animal and its life in the valleys of this mountainous region.
The deer is respected by the other animals for its wisdom and beauty. The peace
among the regions wildlife was sustained up to the day that humans came to the Yaqui
Valley and began hunting the deer.Only he (the human)- armed with bow and arrows
- reaches the disturbance of this idyll location and ends with the death of the
majestic deer.
References
http://album.enfemenino.com/album/678887/mi-tierra-tamaulipas-mexico-16090866.html
Sporren, Dennis J. Reality Through the Arts.
Upper Saddle Needle, NJ: Pearson, 2010.
