If one of their favorite Shuar songs is playing, they take moments to enjoy it and usually practice the steps in their free time. This is very similar to the people of the United States because music is a major part of our culture. After I tried to imitate their steps, the tour guide said to me "No, no nuashiras." Nuashira means "young, beautiful woman" in the Shuar language. They informed me that the women, whom were all busy with laundry and tending to the chickens, have completely different steps that come with more arm movements than the men.
The Shuar dance is usually performed with big groups, for ceremonies such as birthdays for the head of the community, to welcome the winter and summer seasons, weddings and as a special treat for visitors and tourists. They also tend to use dances like this as a celebration for holidays such as New Year's Day and Christmas. The tour guide expressed that they are just recently becoming more comfortable with opening up to the public and were not expecting many visitors until the weekend. For this reason, they were busy building a new home, cleaning their clothes and collecting all of the water needed for their lunch time.
The dancers dress in a special attire for their performance. The jewelry strap that crosses their chest are covered with pebbles from the San Pedro river nearby. Altogether it is called a "shakapi". The jewelry on their ankles are called "nupi", which is a collection of shells, bones of animals and the use of string to keep everything in place around the ankle.
