A dance in the sky

Five men climb a 30m high pole. One of them plays the flute and drums while the pole spins, the music reminiscent of bird song. The other four jump off.

That’s the Danza de los Voladores  or the Dance of the Flyers. It’s an ancient ritual that was ordinally from the Totonac people of Veracruz but is now performed throughout Mexico. In ancient days the other four just jumped. Nowadays they are attached by ropes, jump backwards and spiral gracefully to the ground. It remains very dangerous as there is no safety equipment involved.

Some facts I’ve learned about the Danza de los Valores:

Like many pre-Columbian rituals the Catholic priests tried to wipe it out as a pagan ritual. Luckily a few priests documented it in detail and some others decided to incorporate it into Catholic rituals so it survived. It is now considered a UNESCO-listed item of intangible cultural heritage.

Only men can do the Danza. There are a few women jumpers, but the man who taught them died jumping a couple of years ago – which was seen by many as retribution from the gods for his temerity in introducing women to the jump.

Each flyer spins 13 times as they descend. That’s significant because 13 x 4 is 52 which represents a full cycle of the Mesoamerican calendar and so was a sacred number.

This is not a fact, just opinion, but it’s a pretty impressive thing to watch. Thirty meters is a significant height and the slow spin down is quite mesmerising.