Students and alumni of Wayne State University preserve tradition and embrace regional diversity through ballet folklorico.
Wayne State University’s Ballet Folklórico hosts their 2nd annual end-of-year showcase titled ‘Viva El Norte!’ with special guests Ballet Folclorico Xochihua from Columbus, Ohio. It will be held in the Community Arts Auditorium at WSU on Sunday, April 27 starting at 2 p.m.
The theme highlights Northern Mexican culture and dance from Baja California, Durango, Coahuila, and Nuevo Leon. It will also highlight how the Mexican Revolution influenced the northern region.
Veronica Beltran, director of WSU Ballet Folklorico and assistant director of Student Engagement and Culture for LatinX Faculty and Staff Association said the theme “came about naturally.” She planned to implement workshops around the northern states prior to the showcase. She also invited Maestra Victoria Paola Barriga Cobos who instructed them the year prior. This year Beltran wanted a workshop on repertoires around revolution which Cobos has worked on before.
“I think the opportunity arises to provide some type of social awareness like, “Let’s talk about El Otro Norte.” So we will have a part of the showcase where we’re actually going to be honoring our immigrant parents, and our immigrant families,” Beltran said.
El Otro Norte or El Norte, refers to the United States, most often by Mexican people living in Mexico. The group will be doing a rendition and representative dance of the relationship between Mexico and El Norte to the song by Antonio Aguilar titled “Paso Del Norte”.
“That’s a song that my paternal grandfather enjoyed a lot, and it talks about that journey. And he’s thinking about su chata and thinking about his family,” Beltran emotionally said.
She expressed the great privilege it is to honor her family.
“I feel that it is so dire and important during these contentious social times that it’s an opportunity for us to uplift ourselves through the performing arts,” Beltran said.
Beltran said currently we are seeing people be censored or put down for expressing their cultural identities, but throughout history we have also seen people use art to express themselves.
“I feel it is a form of resistance.. We, Mexicans, can be here in the United States, we do not need to change our culture, how we are, or how we talk,” Brenda Jacqueline Garcia said. Garcia is a Southwest Detroit native, that has danced folklorico for 12 years, and is currently studying medical laboratory science at WSU.
WSU Ballet Folklorico is the first of its kind at the school and is coming up on its two year anniversary since its conception. Beltran has some folklorico experience and had first discussed the idea of creating this group back in 2022. At the time, she was not certain there was much interest from students. After she waited a year, and encountered multiple students asking for it to be started, the group was born.
According to Beltran, the group is purely interest based. If a person is interested in learning how to dance and about Mexican culture and the diversity within the country, they can join the workshops. They have no strict schedule, no auditions needed, and no experience needed. Performances are not required and are left up to the dancers to decide to be a part of them.
“When I got here, I felt I needed to join something to feel more connected to my culture,” Kevlyn Aguirre, president of WSU Ballet Folklorico said. Aguirre is originally from Newport Beach, California and grew up in a mostly-Mexican part of town, and now currently studies biology and neuroscience at WSU. WSU Ballet Folklorico has filled that cultural void for him.
Beltran said when she first created the group she wanted a focus on education around Mexico’s regional diversity because more often than not the folklorico dance groups are Jalisco based..
The first year showcase was about the coastal Mexican region. Which also happened naturally after Beltran realized the majority of the workshops that year were from states in that region.
“It’s a pride I carry inside that brings me great happiness to represent my state, even though I’m far from it, “Itzel Ventura Perez said. Perez was raised in Tijuana, Baja California and moved to the U.S. when she was 10 years old. She is currently studying physical education and health at WSU.
Beltran wishes that people come to the showcase to see all the hard work the students have put into the show. She said the students and herself take the performances very seriously as they are trying to highlight the beauty of their own culture. The group seeks to bring honor to the history and tradition of their people.
“Sometimes people don’t realize how much history is in the dance. It’s not just costumes and steps. There’s a story behind everything,” Christopher Santiago Garcia said. Santiago Garcia was raised in Detroit and currently studies finance and engineering in business law at WSU.
