Wedding and "Peruvian Typical Flash Dance"!

 

Ella in her "Caporales" costume.

Ella and her dance partner David :)

We are currently living in Ayacucho, Peru and the Principal's daughter (at our kids' Christian school) got married this past weekend.  For the wedding, she wanted some of her friends to do a "Flash dance" with typical Peruvian dances.  So, about 20 youth/young adults got together and learned 5 different Peruvian dances.  The cool thing they did with these dances, was to, in typical "Flash dance" style, add in people with every dance.  there were five dances with 2 couples in each dance.  So, the first dance was the Marinera dance with two couples.  The second dance was 2 couples, but then the two previous couples joined in...and so on.  So, at the end, all 20 were dancing :)  Each dance took about 2 minutes so the total time is around 10 minutes.  The video is embedded at the end.  Before that though, there were some fun and neat things that happened in the wedding that I had never seen before - and really liked!  I love seeing new wedding traditions...well, new to me :) 

There were 3 groomsmen and 3 bridesmaids - but they didn't walk in together.  They all walked in separately - with different responsibilities.  One bridesmaid was the ring bearer and one was the flower "girl".  The bride's sister walked in by herself.  The three groomsmen had other responsibilities...

The first groomsmen brought in a sign that says "God" and then "Brian and Sherida" underneath.  The pastor announced, as he walked up the aisle, that this new family had been formed "under God".  Very cool!

The second one announced the entrance of the "Novio" (Groom).

The last groomsman brought in a sign that said "Here comes the woman you asked God for" <3 How sweet is that??

Also, when the groom and bride walked up the aisles, instead of being escorted by a parent(s), they walked alone, and were met halfway by their mom/dad.  It was sweet to watch :)  

Something else I had never seen before, was that they had "guards", which we would probably call "escorts".  They escorted the couple to the reception, and entered the church at the end to lead them out.

I do not know if the above things were something the couple thought up on their own, or if it's done here a lot.  I have only seen one other wedding here.  At both weddings, for the couple's first dance at the reception, the grandmothers threw rose petals on them while they danced.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a pic of it happening - just of the petals on the ground afterwards :)  It's a neat tradition.

Now to the dancing :)  Before dinner, some of their friends (also in the Flash Dance), did a fun little dance to help kick things off.  Ella, my daughter, is the one on the far right in the red/silver :)  If you want to see the video directly in youtube, here is the link.

After dinner, we saw another tradition we hadn't seen before.  Here, people bring up their presents one by one...kind of like in a conga line :)  And the presents?  Wow.  Holy Moly.  Cabinets, furniture, refrigerator, one set of parents gave land (!), and a motorcycle!  They just kept coming!  It probably lasted 30-40 minutes!

After the gifts, and after the group of youth got changed into their costumes, they did their dance.  Here it is!  The five traditional dances are Marinera, Valicha, Tahumpa (music from the Selva/jungle), Saya, and Tinkus.  I'm not sure how big the video will appear in this blog, so here is the link if you want to see it directly in youtube.

We also learned that weddings here are ALL day events!  We arrived at the wedding at 10 and left after the dance at 8pm...and they kept partying until midnight! lol

Thanks for following along in our journey here in Ayacucho!  God bless!

In Christ,

The Juarez Family

No, I'm not looking lol

I had to include these two pics 😂 While we were at the wedding, we took Gemma to be groomed - so she wasn't home alone all day and we didn't have to take her with us.  Plus, she realllly needed to be shaved and clipped.  But they put jewels and bows on her! 😂  We couldn't believe it when we picked her up! lol