“We need minors to guarantee the future of one of the outstanding traditions of Guimar». Adrián Benítez, president of the Cultural Association Danza de Cintas de San Pedro Arriba, announces that the group has started a campaign to create “the quarry” that guarantees the survival of a dance that is more than two centuries old in the Güimarero municipality.
“Dear families. Like every even year, the San Pedro Arriba Ribbon Dance prepares to participate in the town’s festivities, with even more enthusiasm after this time without having been able to fully enjoy our traditions. For this reason we are writing to you to invite all the boys and girls who wish to join our Dance and have the opportunity to learn and enjoy one of the most representative cultural manifestations of our municipality. It is the text of the Association’s campaign to recruit minors. To do this, they only have to attend the rehearsals that will begin next Wednesday, at 7:00 p.m., in the Plaza de San Pedro Arriba de Güímar.
Right now, the collective has the 12 members it needs for the adult dance corps but only has three minors, so nine are missing. In 2016, the San Pedro Arriba Ribbon Dance was about to disappear. In the patron saint festivities of that year, the Dance of Ribbons of San Pedro Abajo supplied it accompanying the images. This gave rise to a group of old dancers, now adults, who decided to take up the tradition and take it forward. In this way, on September 7 of the same year, the Dance of Ribbons of San Pedro Arriba appeared during the ceremony of Our Lady of El Socorro, thanks to the support of the components of the other neighborhood.
about to disappear
This is pointed out by the official website of the Association, which adds that since 2016 Dance has resumed its adult dancers and has participated in different celebrations, such as the coronation of San Roque as patron saint of the municipality of Garachico, the Pilgrimage of Las Mercedes, the dance meeting held in La Laguna in honor of San Benito Abad and the Patron Saint Festivities of San Pedro Apóstol in 2018, year in which the dance composed of children danced in front of the image of San Pablo and the adult in front of San Pedro. It is believed that this has been the only time that two dances from the same neighborhood have danced accompanying the images in their procession to the neighborhood of San Pedro Arriba.
Adrián Benítez says that the Association he chairs has taken this campaign to the schools of the Güímar Valley, through the distribution of information brochures. “It’s costing. It seems that dancing around the pole and other traditions are no longer attractive; what is attractive is playing the PlayStation », he clarifies.
This güimarero dance arises in the year 1788, when a group of residents of the town decides to send a letter to the royal judge to ask him to dance in front of the patron saint of the municipality as it happened in other places such as Arico or Granadilla. For this reason, on June 10 of the same year, this is sent to the authorities, with the approval of the parish priest, and the San Pedro Apóstol Ribbon Dance is then created.
