Huaylarsh

Huaylarsh is the carnival music and couple dance of Peru's Mantaro Valley, centred on Huancayo in Junín: a fast, stomping huayno offshoot played by orquestas típicas of saxophones, clarinets, violins and Andean harp, with shouted encouragement and vigorous zapateo footwork. Descended from the colonial huaylas and reshaped in the twentieth century by Mantaro migrants, it is performed competitively at carnival by costumed troupes, in an older ceremonial style (huaylarsh antiguo) and a modern, virtuosic one. Its emblematic interpreters include *Picaflor de los Andes* and the violinist *Zenobio Dagha*.