Stepping into the Mayan world

It may not have been “Dancing With the Stars,” but it was dancing under the stars -- or at least the rudiments of dance -- when the Ballet Moderno y Folklorico de Guatemala presented “The Spirit of the Mayas” at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday night. The 18-member troupe, founded in 1964 and under the direction of Lucia Armas since 1978, performed to live music, mostly marimbas, led by Rene Argueta.

No ballet or contemporary dance was to be found; instead, two suites of traditional steps performed in sandals and ankle boots (no bare feet) made up some of the 2 1/2 -hour program that unfortunately included 35 minutes of speeches and award presentations.

After an opening marimba jam that alternately sounded like a hurdy-gurdy or riffing on “The Flight of the Bumble Bee,” a procession of performers representing Guatemala’s highlands made their way to the stage to begin a quintet of festive dances. The dancers were joined onstage by a pair of 9-foot male and female dolls.

“Dance of the Vendors” featured basket-wielding women executing hop-skip footwork in beribboned satin dresses, while the men, inexplicably clad in fruit-colored T-shirts and black pants, bobbed along with balloons on sticks. In “Xelaju Waltz,” couples box-stepped cheek to cheek and faux tango-dipped before forming an undulating conga line that resembled a shimmying centipede.

Act 2 included “Paabank,” a religious festival dance redolent with burning incense, with performers costumed as bulls, parrots, monkeys and deer creating endless circles. Head-shaking parrots with bright green and red feathers were pinatas come to life, while repetitive steps -- legs swinging side to side like a pendulum -- ruled. Armas appeared with six other women in a Mayan ritual dance dating back thousands of years. Accentuated by slow, perpetual ankle-bouncing, the simplistic move nevertheless possessed trance-inducing qualities.

Augmented by drum and a type of pan flute, the droning marimbas enlivened the company, whose splashy finale featured the cast in funky headdresses and mirrored capes and pantaloons, as many in the sold-out audience captured the proceedings on cellphones. So much for tradition.