The spins around and around with her long black skirt flowing in the air as if it were ashes leaving the sugar cane fields. She is nostalgic for the children of those fields, home and gracefully carries memories of rich Mexican culture. To watch her move is to see art and music embodied through a human soul swaying in the wind of sweet sound.
This describes the dancers of UTRGV’s national and internationally recognized Ballet Folklórico, a 32-member team composed of skilled artists from all majors.
Performing their next ballet concert, “Alegría,” a musical adaptation of Mexico’s folkloric dance art, Feb. 2-18, music senior and La Joya Independent School District dance teacher Perla Olivo, mass communication sophomore Renay Lopez and dance junior Guillermo Rivas sat down with The Rider to talk about who they are, how they got into dance and what they do.
What inspired you to start dancing?
Olivo: “I actually started in high school with my drill team, but I was introduced to Folklórico by [Academic Dance Program Director Francisco] Muñoz here. He saw me and said, ‘I want you to join Folklórico, so come check it out,’ so I came, and ever since then, I’ve been in Folklórico.”
Lopez: “I started dance at a very young age, and I kind of just worked my way up, traveled around with it. I enjoy it very much.”
Rivas: “I wanted to do something different. I didn’t know what it was, but when I tried out [for the team] it was super fun.”
Did you always know you wanted to be a dancer?
Olivo: “Actually, no, I didn’t.”
Rivas: “No, me and my cousin in middle school, they had tryouts, and I was, like, ‘Let’s do it, let’s see what it is.’ Then I made it [the team] and that’s how I ended up liking it.”
What’s the hardest thing about it?
Olivo: “All the practices. This recent practice, we had a whole week nonstop. Sometimes it was all day, go to work, then come to practice.”
Lopez: “The lot of time that goes into it.”
Rivas: “Remembering the dances. We do videos. We go over them, but also, you have to go over them outside of practice.”
What is your favorite ballet?
Lopez: “‘Swan Lake.’”
How many times a week do you practice?
Olivo: “Two, on Mondays and Wednesdays.”
Do you work out? If so, what workouts do you do to prepare yourself for dancing?
Lopez: “Perla does workouts at the beginning of practice, and we do that.”
What is one thing they don’t tell you about being in a ballet/show like this?
Rivas: “Costumes. When they told me, ‘No shirt’ or it just depends, I was like, ‘Mmm, I don’t know … no … I don’t know.’”
Olivo: “It’s a lot of technique, and you have to really dedicate yourself into dancing. It’s time and effort.”
What is your favorite number from Ballet Folklórico?
Lopez: “Right now, it’s our Chihuahua piece. It’s a partner dance.”
Rivas: “Chihuahua. I always wanted to dance that.”
After graduation, what do you plan to do?
Lopez: “Well, I aspire to be a news broadcaster, so I’m hoping to move to a bigger city. There’s more opportunities there. I’m trying to get internships at News Channel 5 and stuff.”
Rivas: “Hopefully, still be dancing.”
What TV show are you really into right now?
Lopez: “‘The Office.’ It’s hilarious.”
If you had to be any animal, what would you be?
Olivo: “I would like to be a bird. I believe a bird is free. It can go wherever it wants to be.”
Rivas: “A lion. I think lions are leaders.”
What is your favorite dance music?
Rivas: “Mexican music, like cumbias, and salsa.”
If you weren’t a dancer, what do you think you would be?
Olivo: “I think I would be a math teacher.”
What is your goal as a dancer?
Lopez: “Right now, it’s just something that I enjoy a lot. It’s something I put a lot of time into. So, I’m just trying to live it out. Wherever it goes, it goes.”
What do you think of when you dance?
Olivo: “That’s what I like about dancing. You just go on stage, you think of nothing, just dancing, just performing.”
What are you most looking forward to in the show?
Lopez: “It’s fun to me and, hopefully, to the other people, and hopefully, the audience will get to see what we do.”
What is art to you?
Olivo: “Art is a way to express yourself, in any form. You can write. You can dance. You can sing. Let all of your emotions out.”
Lopez: “Expression, being about to express yourself on stage. Whether it’s through art, music or dance.”
Rivas: “Something you can express, and it can be anything and you can call it art.”
If you want to get swept in the magic of this team, Ballet Folklórico’s “Alegría” will debut at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Performing Arts Complex in Edinburg. It will also be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Feb. 16-17; 2 p.m. Sunday, and Feb. 11 and 18. In Brownsville, it will be performed at 7:30 p.m. March 8 in the Texas Southmost College Arts Center.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students with ID and senior citizens, and $5 for children.
