ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a reconstruction of the dance performances that took place at the Classic Maya city of Quirigua (Izabal, Guatemala), in association with a large platform designated 1A-1. Using spatial analysis and the iconography and programming patterns of public sculpture associated with this platform, the chapter suggests that the platform and its sculpture program provided a setting for dance performances that took place during the festivals of period ending the Classic Maya anniversary of the ritual calendar. The chapter also suggests that these festivals featured a circular counterclockwise dance that was symbolically associated with the renewal of cyclical temporal periods in Mesoamerican ritual, analogous to the Lordly Dance of the Aztecs. The performances that took place in the context of this platform support the identification of circular space-time as an important Mesoamerican aesthetic trope.
