Devil Dancers

Inspiration ⁄ Category: photography

Cheers

A wonderful dose of history, love it!

December 09, 2012

Wow, that's quite the tradition!

December 04, 2012

Interesting!

December 03, 2012

Awesome shot! Great story!

December 03, 2012

Those are beautiful costumes. Do you know when these dances are performed, seasonally, when someone feels threatened...?

December 03, 2012

Very cool costumes.

December 02, 2012

very neat. Question for you - the dancer on the left side - did you edit out some of his face or is it just an illusion? His mask looks like it's floating above his body - there's a band of green (same like the foliage behind him) between the black mask and his body. :)

December 02, 2012

I wonder if they design their own headdress and what the meaning of the designs mean?

December 02, 2012

Devil Dancers

These four men are Devil Dancers. The dance to scare away evil spirits and dangers from the little boy in the center who 6 years old. They rub charcoal into their skin to make it black and wear black hoods with two glistening eyes attached. Their big headdresses are made of Yucca by each man and when they retire from dancing their headdresses are taken apart and burned in a ceremony in a cave in the mountains on their reservation. They each wear MANY bells and fresh evergreen. Not sure how they see through the black hoods but they do. These men are very young, maybe 16 or 17.