Scissors Dance

The danza de tijeras is danced by a danzaq accompanied by a harpist and a violinist, holding two loose iron blades in one hand that he strikes together in rhythm throughout. It is competitive: two dancers alternate, each answering the other's sequence with something harder, through acrobatics, contortions and eventually the atipanakuy, the trial section, in which performers have historically pierced their skin with needles, walked on glass, swallowed objects or performed feats of endurance to outdo the rival. The tradition is understood to descend from pre-Hispanic ritual specialists, and colonial authorities associated the dancers with the devil, a reputation the dancers have partly kept. It is danced at patron festivals across Ayacucho, Apurímac, Huancavelica and the Lima highlands, and UNESCO inscribed it as intangible heritage in 2010.

What you actually see

• The blades - two loose iron pieces struck in rhythm throughout the dance.
• The duel - two dancers answering each other with escalating sequences.
• The atipanakuy - the trial section with feats of endurance and pain.
• The music - harp and violin, in a tuning particular to the tradition.

When to go

At village patron festivals through the year, with Christmas and Corpus common; also at staged performances in Lima. Full competitive sequences can run for hours.

Honest expectations

The trial sections involve genuine self-inflicted injury and are hard to watch. Festival performances run late and involve heavy drinking. Staged versions in Lima omit the hardest material. This is ritual with religious weight, not folkloric entertainment.

Nearby

Ayacucho, Andahuaylas and the Huancavelica highlands are the tradition's heartland.