On a visit to Peru, Jennifer Spencer — originally from the South American country but now living in Layton — said her young son wouldn’t stop with the questions.
“Why do they have those clothes? Why do they dance like that?” the boy, born in the United States, asked.
Wanting to expose Ethan, now 5, more deeply to his Peruvian roots, she enrolled her son in a traditional Peruvian dance class in Utah, and it seems to have sparked an interest. “He always asks, ‘Mommy, when are we going back to Peru?’” she said.
Similarly, in a bid to expose the broader public to Utah’s Peruvian community and mark Día de la Marinera, Liliana Fernandez, also originally from Peru, held an impromptu dance exhibition at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday. She heads Viva Peru Dance, where Ethan takes classes, and the event drew the boy, his mom and perhaps 50 other dancers, who demonstrated the traditional Peruvian dance to family, friends and others on hand.
“It’s just a celebration for the Peruvian community here in Salt Lake City,” said Fernandez. “We’re just trying to show a little bit of our Peruvian culture.”
Oct. 7 in Peru is Día de la Marinera, or Marinera Day, and the occasion is meant to celebrate La Marinera, perhaps the most emblematic and representative traditional dance of the country. Fernandez said her group did a similar Marinera Day dance exhibition in Salt Lake City before the COVID-19 pandemic, but Tuesday’s performance was the first since then by the group to mark the day and the first in the Capitol rotunda.
La Marinera is rooted in the Indigenous, Spanish and African cultures present in Peru, and Peruvian tourism officials call it a “unique expression of the cultural diversity of the country.” Among the most distinctive aspects of the dance are the white handkerchiefs that dancers wave above their heads and the fast footwork. Women and girls typically wear flowing skirts while men and boys wear black garb and the traditional white hats of Peruvian horsemen, called chalan hats.
Tuesday’s performance, dubbed a flash mob by organizers, featured young students learning the dance and adults more versed in the moves.
“I’ve danced since I was 8,” said Alexandra Escalante, originally from Peru, now living in Holladay, artistic director of Viva Peru Dance and one of the performers Tuesday. “In Peru, everyone likes to dance the Marinera. It’s the most popular dance of Peru.”
Aside from showing off Peruvian culture to the broader community, Fernando Peralta, another Peruvian expatriate in Utah who was helping with the event, said the performance serves to teach young Peruvian Americans about their roots.
“It shows and promotes the culture and heritage among younger generations,” he said. “Most of these kids were born here. They don’t know the Marinera.”