The south of Gran Canaria hides a series of spaces where history sometimes stops. It is in the Bailaderos area, in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, about four kilometers after passing the Sequero along the track that leaves from the Casa Forestal de Cruz Grande, through Pilancones. There was the place where the ancient Canarians performed their sexual rituals until the beginning of the 20th century. It's what was called the broken branch game.
The Dominican Fray Alonso de Espinosa (1594) maintains that "but when the storms did not come, and due to lack of water there was no grass for the cattle, they gathered the sheep, and by sticking a rod or spear into the ground, they separated the young ones from the sheep and made the mothers stand around the spear, bleating; and with this ceremony the natives understood that God was appeased and heard the bleating of the sheep and provided them with storms..."
These dances were considered witchcraft practices, in some cases associated with Christian rites. Other sources, based on this same text by Alonso Espinosa, maintain that the toponym is a corruption of "baladero", in reference to the place where the cattle were taken in order to separate the goats from their parents and make them "bleat" and perform rain supplication rites.
Professor Lothar Siemens collected, in his interesting treatise on Canarian folklore, the case of the Baile del Gorgojo, which was initially performed in remote places and at night, with the dancers appearing naked. It also says "... until the beginning of the 20th century, in the south of Gran Canaria, a phallic dance called the Dance of the Broken Branch was also practiced, the memory of which still continues among the inhabitants of the Barranco de Guayadeque...", although this seems to have more a sexual sense.
Other sources, based on this same text by Alonso Espinosa, maintain that the toponym is a corruption of "baladero", in reference to the place where the cattle were taken in order to separate the goats from their parents and make them "bleat" and perform rain supplication rites.