(Contributed)
Group learns history, geography through dance
By Lise CutshawEast Tennessee State University
There’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “America’s Best Dance Crew,” “Superstars of Dance,” and this summer, there is a new, exclusively local opportunity: Cultural Dance.
None of the participants, however, get voted off and the stars are the young dancers themselves, all students in ETSU’s summer Migrant Education Program. This year, for the first year, the MEP is incorporating Mexican dance into its summer curriculum — but not just dance because it’s in vogue.
“The arts, including dance, music and the visual arts, are a great learning tool, because it has very experiential and expressive aspects and because (young people) can have fun at the same time,” said Jane Crowe, who received a grant from Tennessee Arts Commission for the dance program through her position as Program Development Coordinator for Telamon Corp.
“We crafted this dance program to be cross-disciplinary as well as cross-cultural. Not only will the children learn the dances, but they will also learn and explore the history and culture of their and their parents’ heritage; a geographical component including the locations of the dances and why they were/are important; and the physical fitness aspect is important, as well. Getting them moving is great.”
There aren’t three judges, but there are (at least) three mentors for the fledgling dancers, most of whom are not familiar with the dances of their parents’ homelands. Crowe drives in from Knoxville, where the Telamon Migrant and Seasonal Head Start is headquartered, to encourage and assist, while ETSU students Ana Zavala and Kirstie Sensky work one-on-one with the MEP youth, from 3rd to 12th grades, Mondays and Wednesdays in Wesley United Methodist Church’s cavernous gymnasium.
Zavala has organized each day’s class into pre-test or post-test time to see what the children know and have learned; instructional time, hearing and reading about traditional folk songs and dances, instruments and costumes from the 32 states of Mexico; and time learning and honing the actual movement.
“I love to dance, especially Mexican folk dance,” said Zavala, who is a native of Tamaulipas, Mexico, and a sophomore nursing student at ETSU. “I think it brings a little piece of home to my heart every time I start dancing …
“I am excited to share that passion with the children. We want to enhance the students’ and families’ knowledge about their Mexican cultural heritage. We want them to feel like even though they are far away from their ancestral homeland their culture is so rich in dances, traditions. Even though they are in another country we can still bring a piece of home within them and dancing is a great way to do this.”
The teens and pre-teens are learning “La Bamba,” made famous by Ritchie Valens, while the younger dancers are moving to the beat of two traditional Aztec dances of wind and sun. Headdresses were being feathered and glued Wednesday by the six Aztec dancers and some costumes ready to test out on the dance floor. “We are using a lot of sequins for the Aztec costumes,” Zavala said with a twinkle in her eye, “and they really like the face paint. The boys always want mustaches and beards.”
All costumes are being stitched by volunteer hands, MEP Coordinator Holly Melendez said. Traditional skirts, lavish with flounces, for the “Bamba” dance were sewn by four Wesley UMC members, entailing about 80 hours of work, and Zavala and Sensky are making the costumes for the younger set. “People have been so amazing and generous with their time and money,” said Melendez, who organizes and oversees the annual five-week MEP experience.
And the young people are embracing the new experience based on historic material, as well. “They really seem to like it,” said Zavala, who started dancing as a child and teaches dance at her church in Lenoir City. “From the tests, we can tell they are learning a lot about history and customs and they are really, really enjoying the dance and competing with each other a little.
“Of course, some of the older ones are concerned about being in front of people, but most are doing really well.”
As so often happens, the teachers are learning, too, said MEP Director Dr. Sharon Loury, an assistant professor in ETSU’s College of Nursing. “With the history lessons, the costumes and learning the dances, they’re learning about their own culture that they may not have been exposed to and we are learning, as well. It would be interesting for the general population to see these dances. It’s fascinating. We’re getting educated ourselves.”
All this learning will culminate today — as all great dance endeavors do — in a performance. The MEP Final Fiesta, at Wesley UMC, will include a potluck-style meal for families, reminiscences and the folk dances. The dance portion of the festivities will begin around 1:15 p.m, when families and friends can see for themselves what Crowe, who coordinated a mural painting program in 2009 at the Johnson City MEP, calls the “power of art.”
“I really believe in the power of art to inspire children and to help them create … ” Crowe said. “We are becoming passive. We’re allowing our reality to be created for us. The arts are a way for us to examine our social interactions, the meaning of things, to explore deeper levels of our beings.
“It’s not just an extra thing in life. It’s essential.”
For more information on ETSU’s Migrant Education Program, e-mail Holly Melendez at melendeh@etsu.edu, or for more information on Telamon Corp., a non-profit organization that provides employment and training services, early childhood programs, housing and other initiatives in 11 states, including Migrant and Seasonal Head Start and a Youth Initiative in Tennessee, e-mail Jane Crowe at jcrowe@telamon.org.