Dancing in Honduras

    Most of the dacning in Honduras consists of folk dance. There are lots of folk dance groups in large cities, but most of the time, only groups from universities are considered professional. There are hundreds of dances done in Honduras. The most common traditional  dance that folk dance groups do is called the punta, but is called "banguity" (which means "new life")  by the Honduran folk dancers. The music for the punta is created by traditional instruments, such as the drums, maracas, a conch shell, and sometimes claves (two wood sticks beat together). Along the north coast, there is also another popular dance, called the mascaro. It sounds a lot like African music.  Another dance is the sique (or seek) dance. It originates from the early indians. The malido wanaragua dance is a mask dance that represents the battle of the Garifuna people against England.  
    When there are folk dance competitions in Honduras, they are very exciting and intense. Most of the time, en wear ruffled white shirts and  full white pants and the women wear traditional white flowing dresses. Lots of poeple enjoy coming to the competitions to watch the dancers dance!!