Now lay me down on Market Street/I’m lookin’ for some spare change/A coast guard ship has been lookin’ for me/And I might have to change my name/Here comes Uncle Sam again with the same old bag of beans/The local chief’s on the radio/He’s got some hungry mouths to feed/Going back to Alcatraz/Lay me back down here on the highway/One hundred and one ways to go/Solitary is so confinin’/To the legend of Geronimo/Oh I know I could bring the rain/Used to dance for ABC/And all the braves down on death row/Are pretending to be free
The blues lyrics above refer to San Francisco's famous Alcatraz prison island, but Alcatraz is also a flirtatious and erotic dance from Peru. It can also be considered an Afro-Peruvian dance of the festejo genre from coastal Peru. It's a couple's dance. Traditionally, the woman has a piece of tissue between her legs while the man dances with a lit candle trying to light the tissue. If the man can light the woman's fire, that means that she is his. Agile waist movements are used to describe loving encounters.
This dance originated in the Amazon region of Peru, created by its own people and inspired by happy rhythms. The main theme is based on carnival games. The typical costumes are made of natural fibers. Trees, cotton, and "llanchana" are the main materials used in the elaboration of fabrics, crowns, and other accessories that are decorated with bones, seeds, and feathers.
Alcatraz is one of the most typical dances that prevail on the Peruvian coast; the current dance takes form at the beginning of 20th century from the African rhythms brought to Peru by the black slaves. Its tradition has survived and has prospered with the crossbreeding, and it ismost often performed in the departments of Lima and Ica.
Anuradha Muralidharan - As a very small child I remember watching my father write and somewhere in my mind the wish to become a writer was already embedded. He ...
