Dance of the Little Old Men

One of the most hilarious folkloric dances of all Mexico comes from the Meseta Purepecha.

As Europeans settled in the Americas the original inhabitants, in this case the Purepecha, were astonished by the rate at which they aged. A popular mask was quickly developed representing the face of an old white man. This mask was adopted into a pre-conquest dance in which young athletic dancers pretend to be little old men intermittently taken over by the spirit of music and dance.