In Messejana, a quiet village tucked between fields of olive, far away from the coast in Alentejo, Portugal, the locals come together for a yearly prom in the summer – ‘Baile de Pinha’. The evening has an elected King and Queen, who open the event by hoisting a pine-cone-shaped piñata, which takes the choice of the King and Queen for the following year. As it all begins, the elders of the village break into a synchronised dance, and the apparent isolation in this rather sleepy village dissolves. This visual essay is a documentation of the evening, as I am waltzed by one Maria to the next  – most of the women in the village are named Maria.