Out again with Los Guloyas

I had another day out with the Guloyas on Monday. They usually come out on the 25th Dec. 1st Jan. and 6th Jan. This last date is Three Kings Day, when children traditionally receive their presents here in the Dom Rep. The government had changed the date of the holiday this year so it was celebrated on Monday instead.

There was quite a tropical deluge first thing so we had another late start this time about midday. There were only about 5 dancers to begin with which gave the day a more intimate feeling to start with. As the day developed more and more dancers joined in.  What started off as a small group on a late start ended up at a huge street party on the other side of town from Los Guloyas’ base where they did a long set with all their choreographies. This meant parading back to their base in the dark finally coming to a halt around 9pm!

The party that the Guloyas happily gate crashed was a street party for the children of an area next to a row of wooden houses were a family lives in each large room. There was a great atmosphere and whereas the Guloyas would usually stop for 5 minutes they stayed for about half an hour running through the traditional set dances (lining out and turning the partner in the middle, going round in a circle three in a row, forward and back) as well as the usual extraordinary routines. Another thing is that the Wild Indians (Guloyas) are afraid of water. Every now and again a well informed spectator will put some on the ground which really gets them going. After some tentative playing around a few cracks of one of the Indian’s whip gets things back to normal.

The party carried on for a couple of hours back at the office and then the heaven’s opened once again. Just as well the Indians had put their outfits away for another while.

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