Cinco de Mayo : Student Dancers Tap Into Folk Tradition

The sounds of a Mexican folk song echoes though the school auditorium as the stage vibrates with heels stamping the wooden boards. As the dance comes to a climax, a dozen or so voices cry out in unison: “Que si!”

The voices belong to Roosevelt High School’s folk dancers. In the last weeks, the resident folk dance troupe has been rehearsing about three hours a day to prepare for public performances the week of Cinco de Mayo.

A smile, a look that is half timid and coquettish, a casual whisper, and Socorro Ruiz, 16, is ready to practice the faldeo (skirt-work) and zapateado (Spanish tap dancing) with her partner.

Never mind the scarce lighting and the lack of adequate costumes--outfits are still at the dressmaker’s. Ruiz was able to make believe that she’s somewhat attracted to her dance partner on a recent afternoon.

In this type of dance, “(you) have to act as if (you are) open to a relationship . . . demonstrate affinity to (your) partner,” said Gema Sandoval, who founded the first school-based folk dance group at Roosevelt 21 years ago.

Still, for many students, acting as if they are in love with their partner seems to be quite an ordeal. And the task apparently requires a knack for acting.

Folk dancing “makes you a different person on stage. . . . I can’t think the way I usually think. I have to act as if I’m really into this guy, even though he’s ugly or not. I have to act my part,” said Elizabeth Gonzalez, a 17-year-old junior at the school.

“Most likely we all feel the same way,” Shirley Urquijo, 17, said.

Added Julio Valpuesta, a senior student who teaches the class as a volunteer aide, and one of the few participating male dancers: “There’s a lot of pressure. You forget you’re nervous and the performance begins.”

According to Sandoval, now the executive director of Plaza de la Raza, the Eastside cultural center, “In folk dances throughout the world you have the concept of male-female relationships . . . all sorts of levels of relationships going on.”

In order to depict that theme on stage, some students go back to a specific time or place in which women walked with a sway of the hip in order to seduce men, and men impressed them with their footwork.

Socorro Ruiz said: “When I dance I identify with my land, Guadalajara, and it makes me feel I’m there.”

The dances that make up Mexican folklore trace their roots back to different areas of Mexico, including Veracruz and Guerrero, Sandoval said.

“Sones de Veracruz,” one of the dances in the troupe’s repertoire featured the week of Cinco de Mayo, is known for its white dresses profuse with French lace, and the men’s guayaberas, or other loose-fitting shirts.

The European influence is very visible in the way woman from Veracruz dress, Sandoval said. Veracruz, a seaport, has been a hub of commerce.

The wardrobe for “Sones” would have been incomplete without a trip to Tijuana.

A folk dancer since he was 12, Valpuesta crossed the southern border to look for the white fans used by the female dancers.

Two years ago when the class teacher resigned, Valpuesta and his schoolmate, Joel Sandoval, 17, who teaches the advanced folk dance group, stepped in and took charge of the two dance groups.

The two youngsters prevented the groups from falling apart, said Amy Niwa, a teacher who supervises the dance troupe.

According to dean Ramon Salazar, finding a qualified professional folk dance teacher with time to devote to the groups and the willingness to do so for $8 an hour has turned into an impossible task.

Valpuesta and Joel Sandoval said they are willing to fill the vacancy once they graduate next year if only to forestall the demise of the oldest folkloric troupe in the district.

Valpuesta, who joined the troupe due to an administrative error and then stayed “because of the girls” until the dance itself cast a spell on him, said he hopes to recruit more male students.

Most boys favor sports and physical education classes over folk dancing, according to the troupe leaders. As a result, there’s a need for male dancers, they said.

The troupe, made up of about 40 beginning and advanced students, will perform at Roosevelt (May 3 and 4), Grant (May 5), and at Cal State Northridge (May 6), Valpuesta said.