Capturing the Spirit of Mexico

From campus assemblies to weekend performances, many students say they look forward to and enjoy the shows performed by the Ballet Folklorico club.

The club has been dressing up in colorful dance costumes and celebrating traditional Hispanic dance culture for nearly 15 years. The club currently has 30 members who meet twice a week, for two hours at a time, with their instructor, Steven Koneffklatt.

“The club is divided into two groups, beginning dancers, and then the more advanced dancers practice later in the day,” explained senior Janette Perez. “Prior dance experience is not required to join."

The dancers start off their practices by doing warm-ups and stretches, and then dance exercises across the floor.

“Learning new steps is hard,” said sophomore Adrian Cortes, who also happens to be the only boy in the group.

“I joined because my friends told me about it and asked me to join,” Cortes said.

Other dancers joined the group because dance is an important tradition in Hispanic culture.

“My friends and mom encouraged me to join,” said senior Brianda Islas. “My mom was also a dancer when she was young.”

Islas has been dancing for about six years now, since she started in junior high school.

Practices for these dancers become longer and more regular when shows are approaching.

“It gets hard to balance school work and practice, and it sometimes takes away Friday nights,” said Islas.

“Sometimes we rehearse up until ten minutes before the show starts,” said Perez.

For Cortes, there is extra pressure to perform well because he is the only boy in the club.

“I have to do extra solos because I am the only boy. I try to get my adrenaline pumping and focus right before the shows,” he said.

Like traditional ballet, every dance performed in the shows tells a different story. Each dance the group does is from a different region in Mexico, and they all have different costumes, and meanings.

The Mexican Revolution is one of the main subjects highlighted in the club’s last dance performance. This set included three dances that focused on different themes of the revolution. The first dance in the set, “Jesusita en Chihuahua,” portrayed rich, upper-class people having a party and dancing.

This segued into “Juana Gallo,” a dance that showed peasants fighting in the war. It also touched on the theme of feminist power as the women dancers protested their husbands who were going out to fight the war, instead of themselves.

The last dance in the set reinforced this idea, with the women arming themselves with guns and joining the battle. This dance tells the story of an actual group of women soldiers who fought in the Mexican Revolution alongside the men.

In addition to performances at the school, the group has performed all over the Bay Area, including at various sporting events.

“The biggest shows we have done were at the half-time shows for the 49ers and Raiders, and we have performed for the Oakland A’s,” said Islas.

While money is tight for most clubs at NMHS, the Ballet Folklorico group faces the additional burden of having to pay rent on the theater for their shows.

“We are currently $1,000 in the hole from having to rent the theater, and they don’t give us an explanation as to why we have to pay,” said club adviser Carla Collins. In addition, the club also rents most of the costumes used in the shows.

Through all the hard work and dedication, these dancers take away certain experiences and lessons that they apply in everyday life.

“I have learned that sometimes you won’t like or get along with someone in a group, but you have to learn to work with them, because they are a member of your group,” said Islas.

“Dance has taught me how to have fun,” said Cortes.