Slice of Life in Cuenca --2014 Dance Troupe Contest

doctorrevelator (47)in #cuenca • 6 years ago (edited)

Another Slice of Life in Cuenca

I have another treat from Cuenca for your enjoyment today!

This video and photo series was taken from our 3rd floor apartment window on December 28, 2014. I've not shared them with anyone yet, so this can be considered a Steem 'sclusie!

Some Background

We arrived in Cuenca on New Years Eve 2013, but moved into an apartment in February 2014. Unlike the "expats" (who we've come to define as the people over 65 who retire in Cuenca, but never actually assimilate any of the culture) who find apartments by way of English language apartment listings, which always seem to be more expensive than the local listings in Spanish, we found a huge apartment outside of, but with beautiful panoramic views of Cuenca and the busy El Centro area.

The only problem with the apartment was the very thing that attracted us to it in the first place. Because it was on the third floor up on the mountain side overlooking Cuenca, the trade-off for having beautiful views was the constant, cool, dry wind that blew through the place all day and night. Occasionally during the year we lived there, the sun cam out and we were able to open up the windows and feel comfortable; however, between July and November, I don't think we saw the sun more than a handful of times, and there several weeks in a row when the grey skys never let up and it stayed cold and rainy all the time. The windows in the apartment didn't have anything to seal them around the edges, so one could always here that sublte 'whooshing' sound of the wind that would sometimes elevate to a full whistling sound with the gusts.

Anyway, despite the cold apartment, we loved the neighborhood we lived in! Basically, it's a typical middle/working-class neighborhood that has been expanding and developing for several years now. You'll see a construction project in progress next door in the video, at that time, our building was only about three years old. Just behind the construction and next door to us was one of the older houses on the street.

Every Friday night about 9pm, some young people would gather next door and rehearse a dance routine they'd put together. The space they had to practice was pretty small, but they made the most of it. Practice would usually last about three hours and not only would they go over the steps, but they'd play their routine's music full blast while they did it.

Throughout the year on Saturday mornings, we'd observe as a couple vans arrived and they loaded each down with huge bundles of their costumes and about nine people. They'd return late that night, unload, and do it all again the next week.

December 28, 2014

Onto the point of this post.... in the days leading up to the 28th, we noticed the area where the troupe had been practicing had been taken up by some sort of structure. From our vantage point on the third floor looking down, we couldn't see the extent of the structure, but could just see that they'd constructed some sort of frame and filled in the sides with some material and covered the whole thing with tarps. There was a lot of activity around the structuer as the Chola Cuencana who ran the house directed everyone with commands calling for this and that. Like I said, it had been a few days with people going in and out, so we began to wonder if they were adding a temp room onto the house and people were sleeping in it. Finally, the 28th rolled around and they took down much of the structure and started setting up for something else.

Much to our surprise, in the morning, the neighbors started blocking the street from both ends and dozens of people started gathering.
Within a few hours, there were hundreds of people outside as the day's activites got underway.

First, games were set up for the kids. For the smallest kids, clay pots with candy and prizes; you'll see a couple of kids smacking them early in the video.

Not captured on video were other games for older kids.

Later, a large group formed a circle and a turkey was released in the middle and an exciting song with lyrics featuring "Pavo! Pavo! Pavo!" was played. Despite the excitement, the turkey seemed petrified and stood there. I think the point was for the turkey to run around and try to escape and whoever caught it got to keep it. They tried 'goosing' the poor thing a couple of times, but it was not having it.

The hosts then served food.... THAT was what the 'structure' had been built for days before! They'd built an oven inside there and had cooked an entire pig! One by one, plates were made and given to everyone.

After food was served came the highlight of the day

Several dance troupes from different cantons of Azuay performed and competed for a grand prize.

The coolest thing of all, this wasn't for tourists or some kind of public demonstration for anyone other than the people who came.

The day was followed up by a party in the street that went on into the night, well past midnight! There were fire crackers, rockets, and a full DJ set-up.

I'm sorry for the choppiness and wind noise in the video. I was, afterall hanging out the window all day. Unfortunatly, I didn't get all of the dance troupe's routines on video. The best one and winner of the day went to a group we think may have been from the coast rather than from Azuay because their routine was completely different and their demeanors was so much more outgoing than the others. That's not to say Cuencanos aren't outgoing, but compared to people from the coast, people in the Andes seem to be much more reserved.