Maya-Quiches Guatemala / Various

Produced and recorded by Henrietta Yurchenco. Rabinal Achi is one of the few pre-Columbian literary works to survive the Conquest, a tragic story of epic proportions that, like other pre-Hispanic dramas, employed song, dance, mime, masks and declamation. Baile de las Canastas (Dance of the Baskets) celebrates the change from a semi-nomadic hunters' society to an agricultural civilization. Today it is performed as a series of set scenes using masks, dance, music, dialogue, and mime. The performance takes it's name from the tall baskets worn by the dancers.