Maya dance facts for kids

In the ancient Maya civilization, ceremonial dance was super important. It was a big part of their lives. But since dance doesn't leave many physical traces, it's hard for archaeologists to find out much about it. They mostly rely on old paintings on walls and pots.

Dance was a key activity for the ancient Maya. Everyone danced, from kings and nobles to regular people. Dancing helped create sacred spaces. It also helped connect their world with the spirit world. They even believed it could help free the dead from the underworld, called Xibalba.

Ancient Maya Dance: An Overview

Even today, you can still see forms of ancient Maya dance. But in the past, dancing had a much deeper meaning. We know about these dances from old murals, special books called codices, and writings from the Spanish explorers.

Spirits and animals were very important in Maya ritual dances. Dancers often copied the movements of animals. The clothes they wore in dances, as seen in murals, show how connected they felt to nature and their gods. Many gods looked like animals. This is clear in the famous paintings at Bonampak.

The Maya also honored natural elements through dance. For example, the Tzutujil Maya believed a spirit controlled volcanoes. If a volcano rumbled, priests would choose young women and girls. They would perform a big dance ceremony. Sometimes, these rituals included sacrifice, which was a common part of many Maya dances. The main idea in most dances was the connection between people and their deities.

Dancing often included other rituals too. Blood-letting was sometimes part of dances. It showed how brave warriors were. Ball games were also linked to dances. Some ball players looked like dancers, which can be confusing for researchers. Musical instruments were shown in both dance and ball game pictures. This suggests that dancing, ball games, and even warfare were all connected in Maya life.

In the Maya creation story, the Popol Vuh, it tells how the Twin Brothers performed dances. These dances were part of a miracle. The dances of 'The Armadillo', 'the Poorwill', and 'the Weasel' made the lords of death very happy.

Maya dance also connects the ancient past to today. Even in the 1700s, Spanish missionaries tried to stop these ancient dances. But native people kept practicing them in secret. Even after many Maya became Catholic, they still honored their old gods through ceremonial dance. This tradition has continued for generations.

Discovering Maya Dance

In 1966, Michael D. Coe and Elizabeth P. Benson described a dance scene. It showed important lords standing with one heel lifted. Later, in 1992, Nikolai Grube figured out the glyph (a special symbol) for "dance." It was read as akʼot in Maya script. We can see interesting pictures of Classic Maya dance on Maya ceramics and in the famous murals of Bonampak.

One picture shows Bird Jaguar IV, a ruler from Yaxchilan. He is in a dancing pose, holding a snake. The words around him say "celestial snake." Many of these pictures were placed on platforms, plazas, or stairways. These were places where the dances would have actually happened.

It was hard to find clear pictures of dancing at first. Researchers noticed that people in the pictures often looked like they were standing still. Or they had one leg slightly raised, just touching the ground. The location of the image and the symbols around it help explain its meaning. Some dance pictures tell a story around temples. For example, a series of panels shows events 40 days after Bird Jaguar IV became ruler, including dances.

How Maya Dance Was Performed

Ancient Maya dance often involved people changing into supernatural beings. This happened through a special trance. When in this state, dancers were believed to become their wayob, or soul companions. These soul companions were shown through the masks and costumes worn during the dance.

Some scenes are painted on pottery. These pots show humans, including kings and nobles, dressed in amazing costumes. Their human faces are sometimes shown inside the costumes of the fantastic creatures they had become. Some of these wayob look like animals, such as jaguars and birds of prey. Others look like strange monsters.

For the Maya, dance was a very public event. It helped people enter a trance state. This allowed them to communicate with the spirit world. Those who were strong enough to travel there would tell stories about what they saw. Some great lords were even shown dancing over a deep chasm that led to the spirit world.

The line between humans and supernatural beings was not always clear. Through dance, people could become gods, and gods could become people, even if just for a moment. These dances were more than just shows of pride. They were seen as direct connections to the spirit world.

The way dancers posed was very important in showing what the dance meant. Holding a double-headed serpent, for example, showed concentration and calm. The main dance pose was discovered to be a lifted heel, still touching the ground. This pose started small in the Early Classic period. By the 8th century, it appeared in many large pictures. These pictures usually show one heel raised, rarely both. The arms are in a dynamic pose, and the body looks outward.

Understanding Dance Poses

Another dance pose is the "stepping" pose. In this pose, a person is shown from the side. Their right foot is on the ground, and their left leg is bent with the ball of the foot on the ground. This pose needs a lot of context to understand its meaning. It could also mean walking. But if there are instruments or dance costumes, it means it's a dance.

The legs weren't the only important part of dance poses. The arms and elbows were used a lot. Hands and fingers were not always shown, but almost everyone had their arms visible. One dance position had the arms out in front of the person. Another had one hand by the head and the other on the hip. Artists would use arm poses if they didn't want to raise the person's heel but still wanted to show dancing. Using just arms could show someone who wasn't a regular dancer, like a baby or a god, was dancing.

Sometimes, these dance poses could mean something else. If a lifted heel pose was used without instruments or dance costumes, it could mean drunkenness. Warriors and battles also used this pose. It could signal capturing enemies or throwing a spear.

Meanings in Maya Dances

The Snake Dance was also performed by the lords of Palenque. In this dance, a man held an ax and a serpent. A woman grasped the lower body of the snake. These dancers wore costumes of First Father and First Mother. These were the gods whose actions led to the creation of the world and the birth of all other gods. This dance likely showed the role of dance in the creation story.

The story of the Popol Vuh gives more examples. After the Hero Twins are killed, they come back to life. They amaze the people of Xibalba with their dancing and magic. The Twins danced dances like the Dance of the Poorwill, the Weasel, and the Armadillo. They could even bring things back to life. This made the Lords of Death curious. They commanded the Twins to perform. The Lords were amazed by their powers and asked the Twins to sacrifice them. The Twins did, but this time, they did not bring them back to life. This limited the Xibalbans' power over humans forever.

Dancers were very specific about where they performed their rituals. Some dances were private, while others were public events that filled large areas. One Spanish explorer described watching 800 warriors dance in a giant stadium. Not one warrior was off beat. They danced all day, with food and drink brought to them. Diego Garcia de Palacio compared a courtyard in Copan to the Colosseum in Rome. Dances were mostly public rituals. They showed community, with people from different social classes on stage. These stages were usually large centers, public zones, or palace compounds.

Much of Maya ceremonial buildings have art showing figures doing ritual dances. The design of these buildings often showed what the rooms were used for. Some staircases have pictures of captives walking down them. This suggests the rooms nearby were used to hold prisoners. The East Court of the Acropolis in Copan is thought to have been used for dance rituals. An old dictionary described the acropolis as a community house. People would discuss public matters and learn to dance there.