In pre-Columbian Mayan civilization, ceremonial dance had great importance. However, since dance is a transient art, it is inherently difficult for archeologists to find and evaluate evidence of its role. There is little material information left behind, beyond a few paintings on murals and vases. This lack of direct evidence leads to several different archaeological interpretations.
Dance was a central component of social, religious, and political endeavors for the ancient Maya. The entire community danced, including kings, nobles, and common people. Dance served many functions such as creating sacred space, closing the gap between here and the otherworld, and releasing the dead from the grasp of the Xibalbans (see Xibalba).
Overview
Dance from pre-Columbian Maya culture still exists in various altered forms today. However, dancing in the ancient world carried a much deeper significance in their sophisticated culture. Records of these dances have come to light through various murals, codices, and especially the Spaniards who first recorded their observations.
Spirits of the super-natural world and their relationship with Maya culture played an important role in ritual dance. Just as well, beasts were usually mimicked in ceremonial dance. The attire worn to some dances as depicted in murals show the links Maya dancers make to the natural world and to their worshipped gods who often took the form of animals. This is evident especially in the frescoes of Bonampak.
The elements as well were worshipped through Maya dance. In the Tzutujil Maya culture, it was believed that a spirit controlled the power of volcanoes. When the mountain began to grumble and shake, the Tzutujil priests would pick young women and girls who would partake in a large dance ceremony before being sacrificed into the burning mountain. Maya dance rituals often included sacrifice. For instance, the Tun-teleche¬ dance included victims whose hearts were removed before they died as a gift to underworld demons. On the other hand, some public ritual dances were even erotic in nature. Common throughout most all dances though was the importance of deities and the relationship between man and god.
Dancing includes many different aspects of other rituals into the moves and actions they do during them. Blood-letting was used to help demonstrate the bravery of the warriors. They would also put their captives in their dances; the captives would be killed in a public ritual normally after the bloodletting. Ball games were also involved in dances. Some ball players would be in similar positions as dancers' sometimes confusing people analyzing them . Instruments were also including in depictions of ball games further supporting the connection of dancing, ball games, and warfare are connected in the life style as they all share very similar depictions of what they are.
Dancing on designs has been hard to find at first. It has been discovered that pictures of people dancing have been found to be standing still in the pictures or with a leg raised and just barely touching the ground. The physical location of where the image is gives hints to its reason. Symbols around and in the image also give helpful hints to the decoding of the image. Some depictions of dances come in a story like format around temples, like the 40 days after Bird Jaguar IV's accession which spans many panels and includes a few different temples.