Dancing with Machetes
So they’ve been at this ballet folklorico thing for a few months. The whole reason Boo agreed to try dance classes was because he remembered seeing a folklorico machete dance. He thought would be pretty OK. So he patiently waited to learn a machete dance. I told him that he should ask his teacher. But at the end of September, he came home all smiles, telling me how the new dance they are learning has…machetes! I don’t care what the experts might say, but there is something on the boy DNA that attracts them to weapons – and showing off their weapons. Because the story behind the machete dance is basically that the men working in the sugar cane fields are showing off their machete skills for the pretty senoritas.
And just for fun, here’s a folklorico dance with the machetes. Boo is a beginner, of course, so he doesn’t have all the fancy moves, just hitting them under and over his legs. He says dancing with machetes is pretty easy, “Just swish them around and try not to cut off your ear.” Good advice, Boo.
But that was before he whacked his sister in the ear while practicing.
(Be sure to watch the video through to the end, when the men pull their head bands over their eyes)
