News from Susana

We had a presentation at Lincoln Elementary School last Monday and Tuesday. The children danced their entire program (about 45 minutes) for their peers. It was a lot of work for everyone, but everything was great. Some of the children from the school questioned how to join the ballet, but we cannot accept new members until January 2010.

Our next presentation will be December 12 at Holy Cross at 1 p.m. to celebrate la Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe.

Working with the Heart

I worked teaching Mexican dance to kids for a long time, but right now is different for me.

My labor with the children is different because they do not know the Mexican music and dance, most of them never went to Mexico and only speak Spanish in their homes.

Most of the families do not have a lot of money to pay for activities or extra classes for the kids, and the group is a good option for the families because the charge for the class for the month is very inexpensive - $10 per family.

I am working with children with disabilities (my daughter), and kids with behavior problems; that is not easy for me, sometimes I feel sad, or frustrated, but when I come to practice and see everyone dancing and smiling, my heart says to me "This is a great job."

~Rosa Villa, Director

My Surprise

My name is Maria. I'm going to the folkloric ballet. The reason I go is because a person invited me to come to the group. The other reason is because I have a little girl. She is very shy. I thought that it could be good for her to be together with other children and learn traditional dances and to share games. Also, she was going to start preschool and I didn't want for her to be afraid of the teacher or to go to the bus crying. These were my reasons for joining.
And right now, I don't regret coming to the group to dance because everything was a surprise for both of us. My daughter lost her shyness very fast with the other children and she started school and goes happily to school and continues to work with the folkloric ballet. Thanks to the people that invited me to come to the folkloric ballet.

~Maria Camarillo, mother and folkloric ballet volunteer

Recent Notices

We are informing everybody that the folkloric ballet organized a fundraiser to buy costumes for the children.

And in the beginning of September more children joined , so the group grows and continues working ardently.

We are very grateful for all the support from the businesses and organizations in the community of Mendota, specifically:

* Parents of the dancers
*Migrant Education Even Start
*Youth Services Bureau
*Holy Cross Catholic Church
*First United Methodist Church
*Main Street Mendota
*Whistle Stop Restaurant
*La Central Grocery
*El Zarape Restaurant

Hope to see everyone soon!
~Susana Correa, Assistant Director

Back Home with Pride

It's been a busy summer for the Migrant Children's Folkloric Ballet. They've danced across La Salle County for various events in June and July. In July, they went across the state to Kankakee to dance at a Statewide Migrant Parent Workshop, where they were received with great enthusiasm.
Tonight, they will proudly perform in front of the Whistle Stop Restaurant in Downtown Mendota to help kick off the the annual Mendota Sweet Corn Fest. They will perform there again on Saturday. On Sunday they will dance during the parade beginning at 1:00 pm. They have decorated a float for the event as well.
Each performance will include traditional dances from Jalisco, the northern desert states (polkas), and Chiapas.
Not only has the group been busy travelling, performing, and rehearsing; but they are currently learning more dances. The new dances come from the Pacific state of Nayarit, the home state of our director Rosa Villa. Can't wait to see them!

Featured Dancer

Congratulations to Flor Salinas (pictured here in the striped shirt with her friend and fellow dancer Ashley) for her exemplary behavior! She is our first featured dancer.

Flor writes:

My name is Flor. I'm 11 years old. I'm going to be in 6th grade. I like dancing in the folkloric ballet because I'm learning traditional dances. My favorite dance is Jarabe Tapatio. It's a traditional dance I like because it's from the same place as my mom.
My favorite subject is math. I have 2 sisiters and 1 brother. They are all in the folkloric ballet. My parents thing it's a good thing I'm dancing. They're also proud of me being the best I can be.

Thanks Flor, and way to go! Keep up the great work!

Pictures from Lion Club Festival in Earlville 6/27/09

The top pictures feature the little ladies dancing in the style of the state of Chiapas, a tropical state in Mexico's south. The pictures below that show the older children dressed in their polka costumes. The costumes and music are characteristic of the Northern desert region.

New bloggers on board

This week Rosa, Susana, and I have developed a system to reward good behavior during rehearsals and performances by featuring the children who demonstrate exemplary behavior as bloggers for the week. We're eager to get started this week, so check in for some posts from our dancers.
The group will also be travelling to Kankakee for the Statewide Parent Workshop hosted by Scott Wilhelm from the Illinois Migrant Council. All the dancers are excited to come and grateful for the opportunity. We're all looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Performance Updates

Saturday our dancers performed for a community festival in Earlville, Illinois sponsored by the Earlville Lions Club, where they were invited to perform by Lions Club member Dick McConville. Despite the heat, the dancers enjoyed their performance and their visit to Earlville. Thanks to the Lions Club and the community of Earlville for having us!

Tonight the group is performing for the Migrant Education Summer School Program in Mendota, where many of the dancers are also students. They're excited to perform for their classmates and teachers tonight.

The next performance will be on July 11 in Kankakee for a statewide parent workshop sponsored by the Illinois Migrant Council. The dancers are already fired up for the event.

Getting ready to perform again...

Tonight the dancers and their parents will be heading over to the Mendota Lutheran Home after they finish practicing. They have prepared invititations that they plan to personally distribute to the residents, informing them of a performance planned for them on Monday evening.

Since Cinco de Mayo, enrollment in the folkloric ballet increased from a dozen to 22, with divisions for 3-5 years, and 6-11. They've been learning a variety of new dances, including a polka, as well as polishing those previously learned.

Many thanks from the entire group, children and parents, to the First United Methodist Church of Mendota for lending a practice space. We are so grateful for your generosity!

Achievement - Yes we did!

Songs, rhymes, and traditions

Jarabe Tapatio dance - literacy comes to life!

Hello from Susana, our Assistant Director

Hello I'm Susana Correa, mother of Eduardo y Christopher Sandoval, and I'm 33 years old.

The idea for the Migrant Childrens' Folkloric Ballet surged to realization as a way to promote Mexican traditions to our children, as well as because they like to sing and dance.

From the first day of practice, we parents were included dancing together with the children. This was how we made an activity where everbody participated, that was fun and entertaining, and interactive with the homework from Renee. It is also a good time to exercise.

Link to Mendota Reporter Article

http://www.mendotareporter.com/fe_view_article_window.php?story_id=3063&page_id=72&heading=0

Thanks to Bonnie Morris for a such well-written piece, and Jim Dresbach for the beautiful photo. Come visit us again sometime!

Homework Assignment (Pre-Performance)

The children made invitations for friends and family, employing the "who, what, when, where, and why," that we usually talk about with stories. Ashley, Carrie, and Rosa made these colorful invites.

One last pre-performance post

All the parents and children in our group have been so busy between sewing, studying, dancing, and singing. I have several pictures to take and post of all the kids last 2 homework assignments, and some words on our on-going English classes. The Mendota Reporter published a lovely article about the group last Wednesday (unfortunately, I've thus been unsuccessful at posting a link to the article). We have a profesional photographer coming this afternoon; volunteering his time and talent for our group at the festival. Other invitations to come and dance were a possibility, and now are quickly becoming a reality. More stories from our adults and children will be published here in the blog very soon. In the meantime, we all remain grateful and excited for the perfomance for the community this evening.
~Renee

Some words from Rosa, the dance director

I'm Rosa, I'm 33 years old and born in Mexico. I have 2 kids, Raul (he is 8 years old) and Rosa (she is 3 years old).

I always wanted to be a dancer and remember playing that I was a choreographer/dancer with my brother and sisters. When I was 10 years old, I wanted to study dance but my mother couldn't pay the dancer academy for me, so I had to dance only in school groups or festivals.

I started teaching dance to other children when I was 17 years old and at the same time studied Spanish and folkloric dance education.

I was a professional folkloric dancer when I was 18 years old and traveled across my country and outside of it. The dance company's name was Ballet Folklorico Mexcaltitan.

3 years ago I came to the USA. My friends and I think that our kids need an activity when they learn Mexican tradition and at the same time help them in their education. My friend Susana told me to make a Mexican dance group, and then we asked my English teacher Renee "Can you help us?" and she responded "I can help out." Now we are here with 12 kids dancing in the Migrant Children's Folkloric Ballet.

The class is free and all people are welcome, no importance with race, skin color, or language. Susana and her father Serafin help me in the class. Susana's mother, Angelita and Eloisa made the costumes. Renee (our English teacher) helps us with rhythms and songs.
When I teach dance at the same time I learn that all kids have different learning needs but they can dance, sing, act and in the future they have better skills. The different skills help them in their life.

FYI on the Jarabe Tapatio books

The children were verbally instructed to make a book with their family using the text to the song to which they are dancing. They had full access to various art and craft supplies. They wrote out or cut out and pasted the text, then illustrated the content of the story. They were also instructed to write out the steps to each of the dance passages, but only one book included this part ------- Quiz time: Which book was it? ;-)

Jarabe Tapatio book by Raul

Raul made his book with tissue paper, construction paper, pen, glue, and paper cut-out illustrations. Raul wrote out the steps in the dance to each accompanying verse. His mother helped him with some of the writing, organization, and the order of the steps.

Jarabe Tapatio book by Eloisa, Flor, Rosa, Gustavo, and Yesenia

Mother and children created this book, Jarabe Tapatio, using yarn, glitter, 3 kinds of paper, ribbon, glue, scissors, crayons, and markers. They all helped illustrate, and Flor, Rosa, and Gustavo each wrote out the words to the song.

Jarabe Tapatio book by Carrie

Carrie wrote and illustrated her bilingual book about the dance, Jarabe Tapatio, that she is learning. She used yarn, construction paper, markers, and pencil to explain the text in the dance.

Jarabe Tapatio book by Eddy and Christopher

Brothers Eddy and Christopher used the lyrics to Jarabe Tapatio to illustrate a book they created together by the same name. Their grandparents, mother, aunt, and uncle explained the text to them, and then they cut out the text verse by verse and assigned each verse a page. They alternated illustrating each page.

Costumes

Last week the children dancing in our ballet folklorico received their first homework assignments, which were coloring sheets featuring a boy in the charro style sombrero and the elegant suit and boots, or a girl in the chinita skirt, white blouse and red-ribboned braids. They returned the sheets labeled with all of the costume details in English and Spanish. They will perform in this, the Guadalajara style vestuario.
Wal-Mart donated a $30 gift card from their Community Giving Program for sewing materials for the traditional dress. Some of our ESL lessons will be including sewing themes, as most of the mothers in our ESL class have children dancing.

The image above shows a glittery Guadalajara style vestuario.

Practice

Four times a week, for roughly an hour and a half, they come to dance. Rosa leads the group, which ranges from 4 to 11 in age, starting with warm-ups. The mothers, grandparents, and I stand up and stretch out too. Sometimes we join in the dancing as well.
Rosa (who travelled and performed in a professional ballet folklorico from Mexico) then teaches the Jarabe Tapatio, first giving everyone a lesson on the dance's origen, and then she steps, stomps, kicks, turns, shuffles, and bows in time to the music as she hums along or calls out instructions, all the while clapping out rhythms. She explains the sequences and patterns in the footwork and it's accompanying rhythm. Susana and her father, Serafin, dance with the group. They stand on opposite sides of the children modeling form and posture, offering encouragement and extra instruction at times, and demonstrating discipline. Eloisa also dances with the group. She stands at the back and fills in as a partner from time to time.
They take a short break before tackling La Raspa with the same dedication. They dance, they learn, they smile, they perspire, and they perservere in this very organized and time-honored manner of play, still so new to the children.