Clips from a scissor dance competition in Andamarca, Peru. The scissor dance (Danza de Tijeras) is a prehispanic dance that is performed in Andamarca three times a year: Christmas, Easter, and for Yacu Raymi (the annual water festival). It's also performed all over the southern Andes. Dancers compete with one another in a kind of break-dance style, alternating with each other and performing more and more elaborate moves, eventually degenerating into stunts like dancing with cactus stuck all over the dancer's body, breathing fire, throwing firecrackers, etc. Each dancer beats complex rhythms with their feet and with pieces of metal made in the shape of scissors, and travels with an entourage of violinists and harpists. They make their own costumes and they have fierce names like Terror of Puquio, and The Lion.