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THE SACRED DANCE
Five hundred years ago, as a reaction against the Catholic religion, prophets in the Andes foretold the end of the world for Europeans and those Andean people who had adopted new religion. The followers of this movement, known as Taqui ongoy (the mystic dancers) were searched out and annihilated by the church authorities. It is difficult to tell whether the scissors dancers of today are descendants of those secret dancers. Their modern costumes contain many Spanish elements and the metal bars they carry in their hands inevitably evoke the sound of the castanets. Nevertheless, the ideology surrounding the exhausting competition between the dancers has all the characteristics of a modern ritual. It should first be remembered that when the Andean religion was suppressed and its temples destroyed this aboriginal religion was practiced in people's homes and finally, when these too were invaded, the Gods took refuge in the bodies of their believers. This is, at the end, the most authentic seat of religious belief and is impossible to detect, and movement - that is the dance - is the purest form of religious offering. Vestiges of the old clandestine times are present even today, no dancer in his ceremonial costume is allowed to enter a church, as they were - and are - suspected of having entered into a pact with the devil. Indeed, the accompanying violin and harp are believed to sound better if they are allowed to "sleep" beforehand by the side of a spring or stream, and the same can be said of the two halves of the "scissors", which are "man and wife", married at a ceremony that also takes place close to a source of clear water.
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