Troupe Keeps Tradition Going Year-Round

For Virginia Diediker celebrating Mexican heritage is a year-round passion sparked 30 years ago during college. But on Cinco de Mayo, Diediker, who directs a group of Mexican folk dancers, would rather watch from the sidelines.

“We just fill in the rest of the months,” said Diediker, explaining that she and others in her world-touring company prefer to see community groups, which practice all year for the event, spend the day in the spotlight.

A dancer since the age of 2, Diediker discovered Mexican folk dance as a student at Brigham Young University in Utah when she scrambled at the last minute to fill a physical education requirement. The dance class was the only one that fit her schedule.

Diediker loved it so much that she left school and began touring and studying with Mexican folk dancer Graciela Tapia.

Diediker, who is of European descent, learned Spanish by listening to music and ultimately graduated with a major in Chicano studies and a minor in history from Cal State Northridge.

Through her dance company, Ballet Folklorico Ollin, Diediker has used the costumes, music and movement of Mexico’s 32 states to bring Mexican culture to audiences in the United States, Europe and, of course, Mexico.

“I wanted Mexican folk dance to be recognized as an art form. Thirty years ago it was not something you would see,” said Diediker. “I think that has changed.”

Although communities in Los Angeles and much of the Southwest celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Saturday, Diediker and her dancers rehearsed until noon. Three times a week, the dancers sweat and breathe heavily as they go through the paces of El Coco, a traditional dance from Veracruz.

The rhythmic, three-count sound and the light swish of the Zapateado, a basic step of the dance, were punctuated only by Diediker’s voice cajoling tired dancers to tilt their heads, lengthen their arms and kick their legs a little bit higher.

The studio, in the backyard of Diediker’s Panorama City home, is surrounded by rooms filled with hundreds of costumes. It is the base of operations for Ollin. They preform 15 full concerts during the year. In January, they were featured on the popular Spanish-language television show “Sabado Gigante.”

As Diediker talks about her passion for dance, she squints through her rose-toned glasses.

In 1972, with eight little girls at Las Palmas Park in San Fernando, Ballet Folklorico Ollin began. Though she later started another group, Los Hilos de Plata, for 75- to 90-year-olds, Diediker is particularly devoted to teaching children.

“It is important to work with children because they are the ones who will carry on the tradition,” said Diediker. In addition, she said, they learn important lessons of self-esteem and self-discipline. Thousands of children of all races have danced with Ollin and gone on to become doctors, teachers and police officers with a passion for Mexican history.

“In order for us to feel [the dance] and have emotion on stage, we learn the history and try to project that to the audience and to the other dancers,” said Elmer Ramos, 30. Ramos began dancing with Ollin when he was 8 and continues performing today.

The students describe Diediker as a perfectionist. The word makes Diediker flinch, but co-director Francisco Verdin said she had little choice. More than a few eyebrows have been raised questioning Diediker’s devotion to Mexican culture.

Some have wondered out loud whether an American has the ability to teach Mexican dance to predominantly Mexican students.

“Dancers of experience always question until they see her work. Then they don’t question anymore,” said Verdin. It is a perfect example that you don’t have to be Mexican to appreciate the culture, he said.

Since receiving a key to Aguascalientes during its first performance in Mexico, the group has had the honor of working with some of Mexico’s greatest dancers and musicians. Commendations from Mexican states hang on the studio walls.

Several years ago, Diediker began working as community services coordinator for San Fernando. She still directs the Ollin dancers on the weekends and said she is grateful that even her full-time job allows her to continue pursuing her passion.

In December, Diediker, in collaboration with others, created San Fernando’s Mariachi Master Apprentice program in which students age 11 to 19 receive instruction from master musicians.

Their first performance, she said, is scheduled for June.

Well after Cinco de Mayo has passed.