Costa Rica Traditional Dances: Punto Guanacasteco and More

Costa Rica’s national dance was written by a man in a jail cell, and its best-known moment is a shouted, rhyming insult. Most of the country’s traditional dances have a story like that behind them.

Costa Rica’s traditional dances are mostly rural, festive and tied to specific places and dates. The best known is the Punto Guanacasteco, a courtship dance from Guanacaste that has been the official national dance since 1944. The others worth knowing are swing criollo, a fast partner dance from San José’s dance halls; the Yegüita of Nicoya; the masked Diablitos of the Boruca people; and the giant-headed mascaradas that parade through town streets. Most travelers see them at school parades, town fiestas and a handful of annual festivals.

This article explains each dance, what the dancers wear, the music behind them, and where and when you can see them live.

Dance	Where it comes from	When to see it
Punto Guanacasteco	Guanacaste, northwest Pacific	Guanacaste Day (July 25), Independence Day (Sept. 15), school events year-round
Swing criollo	San José’s dance halls and neighborhoods	Dance halls and cultural events; any big party
Yegüita	Nicoya, Guanacaste	Dec. 11–12, Virgin of Guadalupe festival
Juego de los Diablitos	Boruca and Curré, southern Puntarenas	Boruca from Dec. 30 into early January; Curré in early February
Mascaradas	Town fiestas across the country	Oct. 31 (Día de la Mascarada) and patron-saint fiestas

The national dance

Punto Guanacasteco: Costa Rica’s National Dance

The Punto Guanacasteco comes from Guanacaste, the cattle-ranching province in the northwest, and it acts out a courtship. The man pursues, the woman turns away and teases him, and the dance traditionally ends with a kiss. Couples dance a quick heel-and-toe zapateado to marimba and guitar, the women swinging wide, colorful skirts and the men in white with straw hats and a red kerchief, dressed like a sabanero, the Guanacaste cowboy.

The music is younger than most visitors assume. It was composed around 1900 by Leandro Cabalceta Brau, who, as the story goes, wrote it during a short stay in jail. The government declared it the national dance in 1944, and every Costa Rican schoolchild still learns it.

The city dance

Swing Criollo: The Dance San José Made Its Own

Swing criollo grew up in the popular dance halls and working-class neighborhoods of San José in the 20th century. It borrows from American swing, jazz, bolero and tropical rhythms, but the steps are local: small, fast, bouncing footwork, close holds and quick turns, danced to tropical music. It was once frowned on as too suggestive for polite company. Costa Rica declared it intangible cultural heritage in 2012, and it has since been nominated to UNESCO’s heritage list.

Unlike the folkloric dances, swing criollo is social dancing, not a costumed performance. If you go dancing in San José, this is what the couples who look like they have done it for 40 years are dancing.

Festival dances

Traditional Dances Tied to Festivals

The Yegüita of Nicoya

Every Dec. 11 and 12, Nicoya celebrates the Virgin of Guadalupe with the Yegüita (little mare). The legend says two brothers were fighting with machetes when a mare appeared, kicked and bit them apart and vanished; Nicoyans credited the Virgin. In the procession, one dancer wears a mare costume with a carved wooden head and a fiber tail, a second carries a wooden doll, and the pair dance through the town center ahead of the Virgin’s image, to a drum and an ocarina, a small vessel flute.

The Juego de los Diablitos

The Boruca people of southern Costa Rica stage the Juego de los Diablitos (Game of the Little Devils) each year in Boruca, starting the night of Dec. 30, and again in nearby Curré in early February. Men in carved wooden masks and burlap costumes play the diablitos, standing for the Boruca’s ancestors, and fight a bull that stands for the Spanish conquerors. Over several days the bull charges and the devils dodge; at the end the devils win, and the bull is burned. It is a ceremony as much as a dance, and it recalls resistance to the conquest. Our article on the Fiesta de los Diablitos covers visiting, and the Boruca masks article explains the carving.

Mascaradas and the cimarrona

Mascaradas are giant papier-mâché heads, usually caricatures of devils, witches, local characters and politicians, worn by dancers who spin and chase spectators through the streets. They are led by a cimarrona, a small, loud brass-and-drum band. You will see them at patron-saint fiestas around the country, and especially on Oct. 31, the Día de la Mascarada Tradicional Costarricense, when towns hold parades.

Chorotega and Caribbean traditions

In Guanacaste, Chorotega communities perform dances such as the Danza del Sol and Danza de la Luna, mostly at cultural events today. On the Caribbean coast, the Afro-Caribbean community brought calypso, quadrille and maypole dances from the English-speaking islands; our article on Afro-Caribbean culture in Costa Rica covers that side of the country.

Costume and music

What the Dancers Wear and Dance To

The traditional dress you see at parades is the traje típico. Women wear a white blouse and a full, ankle-length skirt in bright colors, often with flowers in the hair. Men wear white shirt and trousers, a straw hat and a red kerchief at the neck. Dancers lift and swing the skirts as part of the choreography, which is why they are cut so wide.

• Marimba. The wooden xylophone at the heart of Guanacaste music.
• Guitar. Carries the melody and rhythm alongside the marimba.
• Quijongo. A one-string musical bow with a gourd resonator, still played in Guanacaste.
• Drums, flutes and conch shells. Used in indigenous ceremonies like the Diablitos and the Yegüita.
• Cimarrona. The brass-and-drum street band that leads mascaradas and fiesta parades.

Our guides to Costa Rica’s traditional instruments and the music of Costa Rica go into more detail.

Seeing it live

Where and When to See Traditional Dance in Costa Rica

Most traditional dancing happens at festivals and parades rather than on a stage, so timing matters more than location. Plan around these dates and you have a good chance of seeing dancing in the street, free.

• July 25, Guanacaste Day. The anniversary of Guanacaste’s annexation brings parades, marimba, bombas and Punto Guanacasteco to Liberia, Nicoya and Santa Cruz.
• Sept. 14–15, Independence Day. School parades nationwide with students in traje típico and folk-dance groups. More in our Independence Day article.
• Oct. 31, Día de la Mascarada. Mascarada parades with cimarrona bands in many towns.
• Dec. 11–12, Nicoya. The Yegüita procession for the Virgin of Guadalupe.
• Late December to early January. The Diablitos in Boruca, plus year-end fiestas such as Zapote and the Tope horse parade in San José.
• Town fiestas. Almost every town holds a patron-saint fiesta with music, mascaradas and often folk dancing. Ask at your hotel what is on locally.

For the full calendar, see our guide to Costa Rica’s holidays and celebrations.

Good to know

Costa Rica Dance FAQ