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.

And so it's born...

March 30th 2009 - Rosa and Susana stay after English class. (We meet twice a week in a basement office to study English as a foreign language.) They say "We want to start a folkloric ballet here in Mendota. Can you help us? Can we use the office to practice in the evenings?" My simple answer: "Please."
And so it's born. In minutes, we have a time and date for the first public performance, support from other agencies in the community (Thanks to Mario with the Youth Services Bureau), ideas for costumes, music, choreography, and the first practice set to start in only a few hours.