Butterfly Dance: Behind-the-Scenes with Chikawa Aztec Dance Group
This is the second and final post in a series by guest blogger Megan Matonis. The U.S. Forest Service Policy Analyst shares her experience with students during the filming of a PollinatorLIVE!-hosted webcast/broadcast.
In 2009, AFF's Project Learning Tree partnered with the U.S. Forest Service and the Prince William Network to provide GreenWorks! service-learning grants to students to create gardens for Monarch butterflies.
February 26: Butterfly Dance
Every winter, oyamel firs forests in central Mexico burst into color and tremble with movement as millions of monarch butterflies alight on tree branches. The W.G. Jones State Forest was similarly ablaze on February 26, with the color and movement of nine dancers from the Aztec Cultural Group, Chikawa.
Adorning butterfly-inspired ceremonial dress, the group simulated the life of this important, migrating pollinator through their originally choreographed dance. The dancers gracefully fluttered their arms to resemble the beating wings of butterflies. They also gracefully bent over live plants in a symbolic representation of pollination and uplifted bouquets of flowers as an offer of gratitude for these gifts of sustenance. The dancers performed inside the outline of a giant butterfly they created on the forest floor with pine needles and colored sawdust.
The dance was accompanied by the rhythm of four large drums and the jingling of dry seeds from Ayoyote trees worn around the dancers’ ankles. Bellows from conch shell horns (“atecocolli”) and bird-like calls from clay flutes occasionally punctuated the music and echoed through the surrounding loblolly pine forest.
Alejandra Tapia, Chikawa Program Director and dedicated member of the U.S. Forest Service Amigos del Bosque, plays an integral role in the creation of bilingual programming designed to reach Latino communities with conservation messages. The efforts of Chikawa communicate vital conservation messages by linking art and nature to capture minds, spirits, and imaginations.
Butterflies had symbolic significance to the Aztecs, who believed that butterflies accompanied the souls of warriors to their resting place. The flutter of butterfly wings also represented the warming rays of the sun. Chikawa’s spectacular butterfly dance was a testament to the traditional cultural importance of monarchs and to their continued importance as pollinators.
The Prince William Network was on location to film the dance, with cinematographer Sam Altman demonstrating his dedication by sitting in a tree for three hours to capture a birds-eye view of the performance. This footage will become available through the PollinatorLIVE! website in the coming months. Chikawa dance members will performed a similar dance for the PollinatorLIVE! broadcast on April 13th.
Read the American Forest Foundation blog post “Increase in Monarch butterflies is good news for PLT students who created habitat”.
Photos credit: Tamberly Conway
