Folklorico dance a staple in La Joya ISD

In La Joya, every student takes dance.

The guys, the girls, the jocks — everyone. It’s not required by the school district. The students actually want to do it.

Folklorico dance has become a staple of the three high schools in La Joya ISD. It combines mariachi music with traditional South Texas and Northern Mexico costumes and dance routines. It blends modern Tejano culture with its roots in Mexico to create something different from productions found in other American high schools.

The end result is an elaborate stage show, complete with mariachis, gritos and intricate dance numbers. La Joya’s folklorico dance students have won national attention from high school and university dance
aficionados.

Next month, three seniors from the district will attend the National Foundation for Advancement in the Art’s annual dance summit YoungArts Week. At the event in Miami, the students will learn from some of the best dancers in the world, and they will represent their school, the Valley and Hispanic culture.

More than 6,000 students competed to win a spot at the event. Judges selected 20 to compete in the world dance category. Three of them come from La Joya.

In 2006, the event selected a single dancer from La Joya. This year, however, marks the first time that multiple students have made the trip.

To the officials involved with the program, this comes as no surprise. It was only a matter of time before national dancers learned what South Texas has known for years — these folklorico kids are good.

MEET THE THREE DISTINGUISHED DANCERS

Charlie Torres grew up with mariachi music.

His father Carlos Torres played it for a living. The family traveled throughout Alabama, Louisiana and Texas as his father played shows in those states.

Charlie often went and watched. Now at age 18, he is one of the principal dancers of Palmview High School’s Grupo Folklórico Ozomatli. Although he lived with the music as a child, he didn’t get into dance until middle school.

He chose folklorico because many of the other electives were filled. He hasn’t looked back.

In La Joya, folklorico dancers are known throughout the school as exciting, extroverted people. Torres calls them "the wild ones." In social circles, they’re as popular as the football team.

Now the folklorico group has given the 18-year-old senior a chance to travel to Florida. In January, Torres will attend the National Foundation for Advancement in the Art’s YoungArts Week.

He is accompanied by two other students from the La Joya district. Ricardo Flores, a 17-year-old senior from La Joya, and Edgar Reynoso, an 18-year-old senior from Palmview, will also make the trip.

During the week, they will have a chance to meet some of the biggest names in international dance instruction. The organization also passes out prizes for dancers that range from $1,000 to $10,000.

It’s a great honor for Charlie, not just to have this opportunity, but to bring folklorico to a new audience. The majority of dancers at the event practice modern dance, ballet and other more common routines. The students from La Joya are the only ones showing off folklorico.

Torres described it as an opportunity to represent his home, Hispanics and the rich culture captured by their routines.

"We’re really proud of it," he said. "We want to show it to the country."

NATIONAL RECOGNITION

The folklorico program in La Joya is a brilliant example of young talented dancers and a proud traditional culture, said Liz Gallego, who coordinates theater and dance programs for Dallas public schools.

"It is probably the best folklorico dance program and one of the best dance programs in the United States," said Gallego, who first became aware of La Joya’s dancers in 1997.

Gallego oversees 30 dance programs and 40 theater programs throughout Dallas schools, managing staff, curriculum and development. She has helped organize the Folklorico Festival of Texas and the Association of National Folklorico Groups.

Gallego said Dallas does not have a folklorico dance group that compares to La Joya’s. In fact, Gallego has never seen a school district that can do what La Joya’s folklorico dancers do.

The group relies heavily on talent within the community, says Rolando Rodriguez, a dance teacher at Palmview High School. Rodriguez first became involved with the group in 1986, while teaching at La Joya High School. He came to Palmview a few years ago, when the district split into three high schools.

The folklorico and mariachi groups in La Joya started as a dropout prevention program, he said. The district saw an influx of students from recently migrated Mexican families.

The new students, however, often quit school. To battle this, the high school offered mariachi music and folklorico dance electives and extracurricular activities.

The strategy worked. Some students began attending to participate in these groups. Much like sports, Rodriguez said he required them to maintain passing grades.

The community also became involved. Many parents grew up playing mariachi music and dancing traditional Northern Mexico dances. They passed the activities to their children.

"The community has taken ownership of the dance and mariachi programs here," Rodriguez said. "Anywhere you go in Texas and every national organization, you say La Joya and they say ‘mariachi folklorico.’"

SEE FOR YOURSELF

It’s a normal Monday morning, and a group of about a dozen students meet at Palmview High School. It’s 9 a.m., and they’re already stretched and ready to go.

They are practicing dance in the school’s beautiful studio, complete with hardwood floors and walls of mirrors.

They have a big show to prepare for. On Feb. 26 and 27, the mariachi and folklorico groups perform for massive audiences in the district’s auditorium.

Attendees come from all across the country. The students’ families are there, but so to are Winter Texans from Iowa, Minnesota and Canada. Some of them have come to the show for years.

During the elaborate show, students will play horns, fiddles and other instruments. They will sing booming solos and group songs. Clad in cowboy hats, leather vests and boots, they will dance Tejano numbers. They will change into traditional garb from Veracruz and Jalisco, and dance routines influenced by culture there.

After the show, the instructors require them to go into the crowd, and shake hands with the audience as they leave.

Charlie Torres loves this part. The audience members, many of whom come from states he has never visited, tell him how impressed they are. They tell him they have seen shows in Las Vegas and on Broadway, and this is just as good. He smiles and shakes their hands.

It feels good knowing they appreciate his hard work, his dance and, most importantly, his culture.

Zack Quaintance covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4447.