Baile CHino

What is Baile Chino?

Bailes Chinos are a dance practice that have been inscribed in 2014 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on Unesco (UNESCO, 2014). This dance inherited influences of catholicism and indigenous culture for the cult of religious figures. This practice began in colonial Chile in Norte Chico and the central region of the country, having different styles after each valley for location.

Organized mainly by a brotherhood of musicians who dance and sing in festivities, expressing their faith by making a ritual process as a collective sounds of flautones and exhaustive dance that resound. The Bailes Chinos stills are a common practice in rural areas having cultists and exponents in the country devotional practices and popular manifestations of families and communities of hundreds of rural locations and peripheral neighborhoods. With their full staging of practices rooted in indigenous, peasant, and mestizo traditions, they allowed for the public expression of a peasant and working-class population that resisted the labor discipline imposed by their employers and opposed a rigid religious hierarchy (Contreras & González 2019).

What is it composed of?

They belong to brotherhoods of musicians who play instruments like the flautón (a wind instrument) and drums. The Baile Chino dance includes rhythmic jumps in time with instrumental music, with equal numbers of musicians and dancers arranged in two symmetrical columns.

Each group has a leader who sings memorized or improvised rhyming verses, often recounting sacred stories and addressing religious themes. A drummer directs the choreography and sets the musical pace. The groups also include a flag bearer and guards, typically women. The music, dance steps, and verses are passed down through observation, imitation, and family transmission (UNESCO, 2014).

Their attire varies by valley and company, often featuring vibrant colors such as pink, blue, or white shirts paired with black pants, along with hats, shirts, shoes, and socks as essential parts of the uniform. This identity mark is also displayed in the group’s name, which is written on the drum and banner, as well as on the flag carried by the standard-bearer, the flutes, and the tricolor bands crossing over the dancers' chests. The standard-bearer’s flag is a central symbol in the singing, expressed through its continuous rolling and unrolling motion as the bearer sings (Perez, 2017).

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