Huayno | Peruvian Music and Dances

Held to be the most representative dance of the Andes. Its pre-Colombian origins blended early on with Western influences, spreading into dozens of regional variations. Its musical structure stems from a pentatonic scale with a binary rhythm, a structural characteristic which’s made this genre the basis of a series of hybrid rhythms, running from huayno to Andean rock.

The dance is performed by couples who perform turns and movements featuring hops and a tap-like zapateo to mark time. Instruments used to accompany the huayno include the quena, charango, harp and violin.

Some variations of the huayno involve marching bands which have added trumpets, saxophones and accordions. At the same time, although they are different genres, in popular thinking, huayno is closer to the marinera than it appears, judging by this refrain from a marinera serrana: “There’s no marinera without huayno / nor huayno without marinera / little Indian girl in the green skirt / the third part of this song is for you”.