(Picture by: Carlos McNulty) DIA DIA Newspaper

You will find a huge variety of folkloric dances here in Panama City, Panama; among them, you can find the Diablos Espejos dance, originally from Colon Province. The Diablos Espejos dance has become so popular that it has extended to different parts of the country. You can enjoy this dance in school presentations and in different panamenian folkloric manifestations. The young people continue promoting this culture with the confection of the costumes; especially the masks that are purchased by tourists, what has taken this art to go overseas. At the province of Los Santos in the Corpus Christi festivals we can see the dance of the Diablos Espejos.

The Diablícos Limpios or better known as los Diablos Espejos use costumes made with fine silk pieces of multicolor cloths with tiny mirrors that decorate the whole skirt, the animal mask (the representation of the devil’s different transformations), a baton equally adorned and far colorful, gloves, and different figures with mirrors in the chest. This dance is of religious origin and it represents the fight of the good against the evil; the good represents the religious part with the take of the Eucharist and the parishioners attending church; and the evil that represents the devils dancing around the church preventing the mass to take place.

The music of the Diablos Espejos is an instrumental music and is only interpret with the drum and the accordion. Los Diablos Espejos have their own music and musical instruments, demonstrating the cultural and ethnic diversity that Panama City, Panama has. Nowadays, you can appreciate this type of dance in carnivals, in TV commercials, in private parties and in touristic presentations.