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Shall We Dance?
By Jim Plunkett

Contestants at work

I doubt that Richard Gere could have learned the Marinera for his recent film, “Shall We Dance,” but you can! In the municipal parks of Miraflores or San Isidro, for only S/.20 ($6.00) a month, you can learn both the Lima style as well as the Norteña, typical of the northern towns and cities. All you have to do is get in line with a group of enthusiastic ladies and gents that have time off from babysitting grandchildren, a wide skirt and comfortable low heel shoes, a broad straw hat for the men, a white handkerchief, and you're in business.

So enthralling is this dance that we were enticed to head to Trujillo for the 45th annual Marinera festival. Trujillo is Peru's third largest city, some 780 kms. north of Lima on the PanAmerican highway, and the home of the Mochica culture, sugar cane, and the famous paso horse.

We chose to drive. It took us 8 hours from Lima and the road was in good condition. You can take a bus for $35 round trip, or fly for $150-$300, depending on restrictions, availablility, etc. We got stopped twice going up, and twice coming back. First stop was by a fat cop with a moustache who claimed I was going more than 45 kms./hr in a residential area. I was….but how could he tell? He had no measuring device, but good, old Peruvian cop intuition. With a warm and broad smile, he asked for all my papers and pulled out a greasy finger worn rule book where in red letters, he lamented he had to confiscate my licence and grant me a speeding ticket. I said I was going to need my licence to drive to Trujillo to see the Marinera festival, and he settled for a small donation to the local Police Benevolence Fund.

The next stop was brief: a routine check to see if I had my SOAT obligatory car insurance coverage, which gives victims up to $4,615.38 so their relatives won't go looking for you after the funeral. It also covers burial expenses!

Trujillo was a blast…a hustling and bustling city laid out in a circular pattern to make sure you never get back to where you started without getting lost. It is extremely clean in the downtown area, and has some nice residential areas. The Plaza de Armas and adjacent streets display a variety of well-restored colonial structures, and there is a carriage drawn by a fat, tired horse at night that will take you around the plaza for S/.1 (30 cents). The local food is great, and we ate at least three times at La Mochica restaurant on Jr. Bolivar, where the menu is varied and the prices are extremely reasonable.

The Marinera festival took place in the local coliseum, not too far from downtown. We bought an “abono,” or complete event ticket for the four days of competition. The first day the infants and smaller folk started to compete, followed on Thursday by the junior and adult “Trujillanos,” the semi-finals on Saturday, and on Sunday, the grand finale. Seventeen judges sat with their eyes glued to an average of 5 couples swirling in front of them and the audience.

Marinera at it's best

While the wife sat there with my video camera filling five cassettes, I managed to sneak off to an opportune golf tournament at the Trujillo Golf and Country Club where I competed with 70 other golfers from different clubs around the country. The Trujillo club is most delightful, filled with tennis racquets and bikinis, and a very nice 9-hole golf course. The tournament cost me S/.70 ($ 21.50) for two days of practice, two days of competition, an Argentine barbecue, and drinks. If you are a registered golfer, you can always get permission to play.

The Marinera is something else. It was derived from the Afro-Peruvian dance called the Zamacueca and the Mozamala. In 1893, a famous local character nicknamed ”El Tunante” baptized the dance with the title of “Marinera” in homage of Peru´s greatest naval hero, Miguel Grau, who went down with his ship while defending the country.

What makes it so special is the graceful manner the couples flirt with each other while spinning around the floor. The footwork reminds me of the lovely prance of the paso horses. The men are dressed in white trousers with striped cotton ponchos, white shirts, and wide-brimmed straw hats used by the farm owners and foreman along the northern coast. The ladies wear ornate flowing skirts with long sleeved blouses equally as decorative, with their hair drawn back in a bun and often adorned by flowers. The men wear hard leather shoes in order to do some fancy footwork, and the gals dance barefoot, imitating the steps of their partners.

Supposedly the costumes stem from the days when the prosperous gentlemen would descend from the ships at the local port of Salaverry to be greeted by simple countryside girls in bare feet who would try to attract their attention with their long flowing skirts and coquettish flirting. The Piura style of Marinera is characterized more by black outfits, while Trujillo uses lighter and brighter colors. The Lima Marinera uses tighter skirts and shorter steps, but all use a white handkerchief that they swirl between their fingers as they flirt with each other. Never do they make absolute physical contact nor do they kiss in order to maintain an element of suspense and temptation.

As to the music, the Marinera is waltzy and is usually performed accompanied by a guitar and a rhythmic hollow wooden box called a cajón. In big events such as the Trujillo festival, the Police Brass Band is called in to assure lots of noise. 170 couples from tots to seniors competed during the last three days of the festival, and it is a world of color, rhythm, and ecstasy.

On the way home, we were stopped for going around a roundabout the RIGHT way, and again going into Casma where we, along with a string of other vehicles, were clocked doing 55 kms. in a 45 km. zone when they took our picture with a radar camera. We all got tickets for S/.330 ($100). This time there was no request for donations. I paid the fine upon my return to Lima and for being punctual, they gave me a 50% discount! Talk about bargains. We´ll undoubtedly go back again next year.

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