Guam Chamorro Cultural Dance

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The Guam Chamorro cultural dance, commonly known as the Chamorro dance, is believed to have been introduced by some of the earliest visitors who visited Mariana Islands.

A certain report produced between the 1660’s and 1670’s accords that the dance came into existence as a result of some women who appeared to dance as they sway both their decorated bodies and their ornament-dressed hands.

 

The movement they made with their right hands portrayed some half moon like gesture while in their left hand they held shells and bells to accompany along the rhythm of the songs they were singing at the moment.A man in a tenor voice led the singing which was mainly composed of songs that mainly expounded a lot about their history and especially their genealogies.

 

The women costume during the dance time was composed of flowers and shells that were hang on their foreheads.The same shells also were hanged dangling from their waists which had skirts on. The time at which the dance could be performed was mainly during feast days as the various men and women making the dancing troops would go round and round in a circular manner singing songs as also those songs praised the person who was at the center of the circle. A time came when the dance disappeared ad it was hardly performed .

 

This was due to the great influence that Spain had in its colonies.A man by the name Francisco Rabon is credited to have influenced the revival of the Chamorro dance.Through his dance group, Francisco managed to lay a dance basis that one would have doubt if it would have made any impact through all the generations of the Hawaiian people since his time.Today the Chamorros can actually say they are totally proud of the dance.