Description: One of the things that everyone tells you to do when traveling to Mexico City is to catch the Ballet Foklorico. The Ballet Foklorico de Mexico performs twice a week at the famed Palacio de Bellas Artes. Buying tickets was a bit difficult to do from the United States. The tickets are sold on the Mexico Ticketmaster site, but in order to use a credit card, you need to have a Mexican billing address. So while in Mexico we walked to a local music store with a Ticketmaster booth and purchased our tickets for a Sunday night performance. If you want to pay with a credit card, make sure that you bring along your American Express card as that was the only foreign card that was accepted.
On Sunday evening, we entered the Palacio de Bellas Artes with its tiled floors and beautiful, ornate ceilings. Having purchased the least expensive tickets in the house, we kept walking up flights of stairs to reach our sky-high seats. When we finally reached our tier, we gave our tickets to the usher, who quickly made an offer to move our seats to the tier below ours for 100 pesos total (approximately $9US). Initially, we politely refused the offer and made our way to our seats, but while waiting for the performance to begin we realized just how high our seats were, and changed our minds. With the exchange of money we were moved to the front row of the tier below. My friend had been surprised by the usher's offer and said something of the sort. The usher responded by stating that this type of exchange was not at all unusual in Mexico.
The performances were a mix of pre-Hispanic and post-Hispanic dances. They are a flurry of vibrant color, music, and dance. The program included nine pieces with one intermission. Two of the dances that stand out in my memory are Fiesta de Tlacotalpan (Festivity in Tlacotalpan) and Danza del Venado (The Deer Dance). In the first, there are two wooden platforms on the front of the stage where different dances are performed for the "people of the village". This performance includes many different dances that are representative of characters and legends of Tlacotalpan. The Deer Dance invokes the ceremony of the hunt of the Yaqui people, an Aboriginal tribe that has resisted influences from other cultures. The agility of the dancer who portrays the deer is quite startling, and it's nearly impossible to take your eyes off him.
The final piece was a nice ending to the entire performance. It begins with Mariachis playing and includes many traditional and famous Mexican dances, including the Mexican Hat Dance. The end of the night is marked by the dancers throwing colored confetti streamers into the audience.
If you have kids, love dancing and music, or just want to experience a bit of Mexican culture, this is a performance not to be missed, despite the shows bit of touristy cheesiness.
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