Guadalupe Castro Paramo: Huapango Veracruzano
"La Huasteca veracruzana de competencia"
In this course, participants will learn dances from the huasteco region of Veracruz. These dances are those most commonly utilized in the huapango competitions in Mexico. La Presumida, El Taconcito, El Caimán, El Zacamandú. This class will be incredibly fast-paced for advanced level dancers, ONLY.
Maria Guadalupe Castro Paramo, Ph.D.
Nacida en Morelia, Michoacán, inició sus estudios de danza a los 9 años de edad cuando ingresó (como la alumna más jóven que hasta el momento ha tendio San Nicolás de Hidalgo) al departamento de Bellas Artes para tomar clases de Ballet clásico. Sus estudios de folklore se iniciaron en el Instituto México-Norteamericano de Michoacán, de donde pasó al Instituto Michoacano de Arte Popular (IMAP), formando parte del grupo de actuaciones. Más tarde ingresó al grupo de ARCA (Arte y Caridad) de donde salió para viajar a Riverside, California, donde cursó un año en el Junior College. Ahí tuvo oportunidad de estudiar Danza Moderna. Subsecuentemente entró a la Academia de la Danza Mexicana en la Ciudad de México para especializarse como maestra de danza folklórica mexicana y directora de grupos, de donde se graduó en 1977. De ahí pasó a la escuela del Ballet Folklórico de México donde cada verano (1978-1982) tomaba juntos dos cursos consecutivos. Recibió su maestria, y el doctorado de UCLA en 1992, y como parte del curriculum que a esto la llevó empezó a investigar danzas en la región propia de cada una. Con los Voladores de Papantla viviócada verano por ocho temporadas, en Tampico estudió el huapango en todas sus formas por más de diez años, en Michoacán continuó sus estudios con Juan Antonio González Soria, y más recientemente se ha afocado a la investigación de la Danza de la Piña, para lo cual ha hecho tres viajes a la ciudad de Tuxtepec, incluyendo la celebración de los 50 años de esta danza. Desde 1990 ha impartido clases en Danzantes Unidos, y desde hace que funge como maestra de danza folklórica en Fresno City College. En 1971 fundó el que es ahora el Grupo Folklórico Oyohualli, y creó el programa Noche de Danza Mexicana, que se presenta ahora cada primavera en el teatro del Fresno City College.
Zenon Barron: Campeche
This class will feature dances from the state of Campeche with material suitable for intermediate/advanced level dancers.
Zenón Barrón is a professional dancer trained in modern dance and classical ballet, as well as Mexican folk dance. He is a researcher of Mexican and Latin American folklore, costume designer, and the founder and Artistic Director of Ensambles Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco.
Es director y coreógrafo egresado del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes de la ciudad de México. En la actualidad es el director artístico de "Ensambles Ballet Folklórico de San Francisco". Sus raíces indígenas (por parte de padre) lo vincularon con los orígenes de la cultura de su país. A los cuatro años inició su carrera como bailarín en el grupo "Matlachines", para luego acercarse a la danza clásica y a las danzas folklóricas mexicanas. Zenón, que ejerce una importante labor docente en la difusión de las danzas mexicanas, es investigador y realizador de vestuarios típicos de las diferentes regiones de México. Es además, diseñador y realizador del vestuario del grupo como también de otras compañías folklóricas.
Benjamin Hernandez: Danza de Los Moros (Puebla)
This spiritual danza requires the ability to negotiate prolonged and intricate footwork. The dance is appropriate for intermediate and advanced level dancers. Class is open to ages 12 to 100.
Benjamin Hernandez director and co-founder of East Los Folklorico and Mexicapan. Conference Director for ANGF Conferences in East Los Angeles and Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Based in Los Angeles, CA.
Rudy Garcia: Guerrero
This class will be offered for intermediate/advanced dance level adults and may include the following repertoire: El Vapor Chileno, El Palomo, Que Te Vas, Te Vas, Verdad de Dios, El Pato & El Gato
Rudy F. Garcia began his dance training while a student at Stanford University. He has danced with Flor de la Esperanza, Los Lupeños de San Jose, Xochipilli de San Jose, Alegría de San Jose, as well as Jubilee American Dance Theater. He has served as Artistic Director for the San Francisco Bay Area groups Alegría de San Jose and Los Lupeños de San Jose. He was Conference Director for ANGF 1990 in San Jose for the Asociacion Nacional de Grupos Folkloricos. He currently serves on the Board of Directors, as Treasurer, for Danzantes Unidos de California and is a Board Member of World Arts West, the annual producer of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival.
Jose Tena: Jalisco
"Large-scale production techniques"
This class will focus on original material especially choreographed for huge casts in venues such as stadiums and arenas. The emphasis will be on repertoire from the state of Jalisco and will include tips for working with live music. This class will be open to intermediate/advanced level adults.
Internationally acclaimed folklórico dancer and instructor
José Tena, from Las Cruces, New Mexico has been dancing for more than four decades on his forever young legs and has set thousands more in motion with his dance troupe of 30 years, the Ballet Folklórico Tierra del Encanto. He has been the recipient of several coveted honors and supporting grants for his outstanding contribution to the arts and has been the subject of a bilingual children's book, "The Man Who Set the Town Dancing" by Candice Stanford. Jose Tena not only set his town dancing, but has also traveled from coast-to-coast, from Washington DC and Boston, MA, to Fresno and Sacramento, CA, giving folklorico workshops. He is the driving force behind the folklorico workshops at the annual Las Cruces International Mariachi Festival and has served on the board of directors and as a conference director for the Asociacion Nacional de Grupos Folkloricos.
Jose Vences: Danza de Los Negritos (Veracruz)
Maestro Vences' approach to instruction is to place high expectations on his dancers, to push them to discover their true potential, at times beyond their own expectations. This work can be very emotional as he challenges his students to work at their very best and draw from within themselves all the strength and talent ballet folklorico requires. This class is not for the sensitive or faint-hearted. Come prepared to commit yourself completely. This class will be open to intermediate/advanced level adults.
Jose Vences was born and raised in Morelos, Mexico where be began his training and love of dance at the age of sixteen. He studied dance with Jesus Parra Duje at the Universidad Autonoma de Morelos in 1983 while earning a degree as an elementary school teacher. He was honored with being selected to participate in the Cultural Exchange program with Kansas City, Missouri in 1984.
He later became a member of the Compania Universitaria del Centro Cultural Morelos under the direction of Raul Rubi before deciding to further his professional dance training by moving to Mexico City. He attended summer classes at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1985, then auditioned for and was accepted with the world famous Ballet Folklorico de Mexico de Amalia Hernandez. He became a member of the resident company in July 1986 and later was promoted to the first company in January 1987 where he performed throughout Europe, Mexico, Brazil and the United States. In 1990, Mr. Vences moved to Los Angeles and in 1992 was an original founder of Ballet Folklorico del Pacifico (now known as Pacifico Dance Company), where he served as artistic director for 9 years.
Mr. Vences' approach to instruction is to place high expectations on his dancers, to push them to discover their true potential, at times beyond their own expectations. This work can be very emotional; Mr. Vences challenges his students to work at their very best and draw from within themselves all the strength and talent ballet folklorico requires.
"I will say that this job can be difficult," Mr. Vences explains, "because this company is made of dancers with a diversity of backgrounds- some are trained technical dancers, others have a more organic talent. My expectations for each of them are the same: to perform at their personal best. I provide them with strategies, with the knowledge that has been taught to me throughout my career, to empower them. It is an emotional experience. I try to connect with my dancers, through metaphors and personification, and even jokes, to draw connections between what I am expecting in the studio and their own personal experiences. Sometimes this process challenges them to change their concept of dance, a new relationship between movement, intentions, emotion, and the music. More than anything, I would say that I demand commitment, because I believe that where there is genuine intention, there is a good result."
Cecilio de Castro: Michoacan
This class will be geared toward Beginner/Intermediate Youth and repertoire may include: Juchiti florentina, Arriba pichataro, Tata juriata nana cutzi, Danza del pezcado.
Cecilio DeCastro started dancing at the age of fifteen in Southern California under the direction of Nellie Slivkoff of Ballet Folklorico Las Florecitas del Campo, which later went on to become Ballet Folklorico Azteca. His first teacher was Sal Magallanes from the Ballet Folklorico Mexicapan. At the age of seventeen, he auditioned for Mexicapan under the direction of Benjamin Hernandez. He stayed with the company for three years. During the first two years of dancing he was taught by Lupe Aldaz and Oscar Castro, also members of Mexicapan. Other members of Mexicapan also instructed him during this two-year period. After joining BFM, Cecilio began to teach at different cities and different groups, he continued to learn more about folklorico and its history. He traveled to various cities in Mexico to continue his studies in folk dancing and folk music. Along the way he made new friends who taught him a lot about dancing, music and the ways of presenting folklorico on stage. Mr. DeCastro has been teaching since the age of seventeen, he, has taught at UCSB, UCLA, Rio Hondo College, Roosevelt HS in Los Angeles, Mountain View HS, El Monte HS and many other high schools throughout the state of California.
Cecilio's performance collaborations include: Banda el Recodo, Mariachi Vargas, Rosenda Bernal, Beatriz Adriana, The USA Olympic Committee, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farms, Cecilio has been a guest instructor for numerous groups throughout the state, including: Paso de Oro Dance company, Sabor de Mexico, Nube de Oro, Raises de Mi Tierra, Alma Latina de Long Beach. Cecilio DeCastro has been a faculty member of the Danzantes Unidos Festival since 1999 and currently represents Los Angeles on the DUC Board of Directors.
Roxana Borrego: Huapango Tamaulipeco
This class is appropriate for Intermediate Youth and may include: La petenera, Las conchitas, El bejuquito.
Roxana Reyes Borrego began studying Folklorico at the age of five and began teaching at the age of 19. Since then, she has dedicated herself to enriching the Sacramento Community with the art for the past 20 years. Mrs. Borrego has worked with several groups, including, Danzantes del Alma de UC Davis, Ballet Folklorico de CSU Chico, Nube de Oro and Sol De Mexico in Sacramento.
In 1997, Roxana founded the group Flor del Corazon at Sacramento High School. She served as its instructor for 6 years and established it to be the first college preparatory Folklorico class recognized by the Regents of the University of California.
She is one of the founders of Grupo Folklorico Raices de Mi Tierra (raicesdemitierra.com) and has served as the Artistic Director for the past 14 years. She is adjunct faculty at CSU Sacramento in the department of Theatre & Dance and is the Dance Events Chairwoman for Festival de La Familia.
Mrs. Borrego is the owner and director of the Sacramento Cultural Arts Center (sacculturaldance.com) which was awarded Non-Profit of the year by the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 2007 and is now the only studio dedicated to preserving and promoting cultural art in Sacramento.
In 2007, she was recognized by the Arts Business Counsel of Sacramento and was nominated for an award of excellence in the area of Arts Management . This year, she has also volunteered to assist with the Sacramento World Music & Dance Festival, Las Reinas de Las Fiestas Patrias, and the Sacramento Gold Rush Day's.
Roxana completed her Masters Thesis titled "Ethnic Identity Development Through Traditional Mexican Dance", is currently a Marriage Family Therapist, and a member of the American Dance Therapy Association.
Marco Sanchez: Sones Serranos de Jalisco
Intermediate/Advanced Youth
El Son serrano es el estilo de tocar el son caracteristisco de varios estados del occidente y centro de la republica el cual se caracterisa por ser de metrica "pareja", sin cambios musicales notables. El son Serrano de Jalisco, en sus diferentes modalidades (de tarima, imitacion, hablidad) es el estilo de baile tradicional de las regiones rancheras de Jalisco. El material es un resumen del extenso trabajo de folkloristas e investigadores Jalisiences dedicados a preserver las tradiciones danzisticas de Jalisco.
El Astillero
La Iguana
El Jarabe Largo de Jalisco
Victor Medina: Tabasco, Veracruz
Intermediate/Advanced level children Platanero, Tigre, Bamba, Butaquito
Victor Medina, dancer/instructor based in Elk Grove, CA.
Ana Bustos-Ponce: Jalisco, Sinaloa
This class is for beginner and intermediate level children ages 7-12 and may include the following repertoire: El maracumbe (Jalisco), El sauce y la palma (Sinaloa), La Cumbamba (Veracruz)
Ana Bustos-Ponce was born in Mexico, City in 1972. Presently, Ana lives in Fresno, California with her husband Raul and three beautiful children, Emmanuel, Israel, and Christina Ponce. A native from Mexico City, Ana's parents and six siblings migrated to Fresno, CA in 1979 when she was 7 years old. As a young child, she overcame the obstacles of learning English as a second language as she graduated in 1990 from FUSD Roosevelt High School. In 1996 she obtained a B.A. degree in Education with an emphasis in Bilingual Cross Cultural Language Academic Development through California State University, Fresno and ever since has taught grades K-12. Ana has served in Fresno Unified's Technology Trainer of Trainers Program, Aiming High, Autism Task Force, and Community Advisory Committees. She is a founding member of St. John's Spanish Recollection Youth Group, Grupo Folklorico TEOCALLI, and Families for Effective Autism Treatment-FMC. Recently, she helped review, edit, and translate in Spanish a chapter of 2006 Autism Society of America nationally award winning education book "Autism Spectrum Disorders from A-Z" written by Barbara and Emily Doyle found nationwide in many public libraries throughout the United States. Ana is the current president of the Autism Society of America - Central California Chapter. In May 2008, Ana was also awarded 2008 Mexican American Teacher of the Year through the Association of Mexican American Educators. Presently Ana teaches third grade at Balderas Elementary in Fresno Unified. Ana is also pursuing her Master's Degree in Educational Leadership.
ANA BUSTOS-PONCE - DANCE HISTORY
In 1986, Ana followed her older brothers Julio, Jose, Hubert, Carlos and her sisters Elsa and Lupita's footsteps of joining the folklorico dance classes at Sequoia and Roosevelt High schools. Her parents Bertha and Celso proudly supported and watched the whole "familia" dance show after show and year after year. Since then, Ana has acquired over 22 years of folklorico dance experience. During these last 22 years, Ana has developed education and dance leadership skills as she embraces diversity, family roots, culture, language, and children's background through educational, community volunteer work, and love of our Mexican culture.
In 1991 Ana was a children's Folkloric dance instructor for four years at Calwa Recreation Park in Fresno, CA. In 1991-1993 Ana danced through community adult dance group El Sol Company. Then in 1995-1999 Ana joined professional adult Grupo Folklorico TEOCALLI as a founding dance member. As a result of her experiences with folklorico dancing, in 1996, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, and 2008 Ana has continuously been invited as an instructor in the California statewide 1,000 participant Danzantes Unidos annual conference. In the summer of August 2006 Ana joined Escuela TEOCALLI as one of three professional children's dance instructors teaching TEOCALLI's Mexican Culture Class. Ana has the pleasure of choreographing Escuela TEOCALLI's performance at the annual Fresno Christmas Parade which was awarded 1st place in 2006 and 3rd place in 2008 under International Cultures - City of Fresno.
As Ana proudly promotes the Mexican culture through its music and dance and educational activities at Escuela TEOCALLI, her joy and pride includes watching her own children dance as they too embrace family roots, diversity, language and love of our Mexican culture.
Rudy Figueroa: Folklorico Fun
Movement, rhythm, music & games. Must have parent participation. Students are asked to bring a pillow and blanket for "pollito" nap-time. Only student needs to register and one parent/guardian is admitted to class. However, we recommend parents purchase the chaperone package if you wish to attend the concerts.
Rudy Figueroa was born and raised in Tulare , CA and has been dancing various regional Mexican styles since 1971. He has taught at the University of California at San Diego as well as summer programs in Guadalajara. He has been a member of Los Cenzontles since 2004. He is a lead instructor for the early childhood program PeeWee Mariachi produced by the Mexican Heritage Corporation.
RED Cultural - Resources for Emerging Directors (Group Administrators)
Danzantes Unidos DUF 2009 is proud to partner with host group Alegria de San Jose to present RED Cultural, a series of workshops aimed at the multicultural dance community. The workshops will take place in conjunction with the Danzantes Unidos Festival in San Jose, CA on April 3, 4 & 5, 2009
Arising directly from the needs expressed by group directors at previous Director Dialogue's, the first series will address the business end of running a cultural entity and will include the topics of: organizational structure, supporting the organization and image development. RED Cultural will offer resources for emerging directors of multicultural organizations. These workshops are made possible by the Multicultural Arts Leadership Initiative - an initiative of 1stACT Silicon Valley with funding from the Knight Foundation.
OJO - this class starts on Friday, April 3 at 2pm.
Friday, April 3, 2:00 - 4:30pm
"Organizational Structure" summary:
- Mission statement: What do you want to do with the organization?
- Nonprofit Status: To Be or Not To Be, Pros/Cons of incorporating & alternatives
- Professional staff, salaries, reporting, taxes and financial structure
- The Business End: Contracts, Insurance and Compliance
Saturday, April 4, 9:00 - 11:30 am
"Supporting the Organization" summary:
- Board of directors and fundraising
- Performances & Touring
- Grantsmanship & fiscal receivers
Saturday, April 4, 1:00 - 3:30pm
"Image Development" summary:
- Marketing Your Cultural Organization
- Image Development: Who does your public think you are?
- Internet tools for promoting your work
Faculty for RED Cultural to include:
Ron Evans is the founder of GroupOfMinds and is a leading developer and researcher of arts marketing and audience development using technology. His primary area of interest is the exploration of emerging technologies and their impact on patron behavior in expanding arts audiences. He has a history in the field of social interactions using technology, and is known for his work as the user experience and functionality designer behind the Artsopolis.com calendaring software, which has become a national model for collaborative arts marketing. He is a frequent speaker at regional and national conferences, including the National Arts Marketing Project (NAMP), the Association for Performing Arts Service Organizations (APASO) and Arts Reach. He is currently studying the uses and best practices of social networking applications such as Facebook and MySpace, and their potential to communicate with cultural audiences.
Marcela Davison Avilés
President and CEO, Mexican Heritage Corporation
A first generation Mexican-American, Marcela is a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford Law School. She has served as counsel in the areas of banking, motion pictures, television and stage production, with specific experience in the areas of corporate, copyrights, contracts, and bank regulatory law. Prior to her current position, she served as Executive Director of the Latino Community Foundation in San Francisco. Formerly, she served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Blackboard Entertainment. Her background also includes consulting and corporate legal experience in the bank regulatory area with both Federal and state agencies, law firm practice, non-profit Board membership in arts and education and extensive press and public speaking experience. She is also the Hispanic cultural consultant to the Walt Disney Company production of "Handy Manny", a children's educational program on the Disney cable channel.
Professional areas of concentration include:
- Creating and executing development and brand strategy in community-based philanthropy
- Outreach and advocacy in emerging Latino philanthropy, including donor development
and social entrepreneurship
- Venture capital, commercial bank finance including seed, start-up, and mezzanine
fundraising in both private and public sector
- Strategic mergers and acquisitions; joint ventures, co-financing arrangements, joint
production agreements, licensing
- Ethnic consumer marketing (Hispanic and Urban communities)
- Franchise development for entertainment and education markets
- Brand development and promotion
Leadership in the Arts
As President and CEO of the Mexican Heritage Corporation, Ms. Aviles' leadership has been immediate, impactful and results oriented. Under her leadership, MHC has made the successful transition from near insolvency to financial stability, and is poised to launch a new season of vibrant visual and performing arts programming that illuminates and explores both the cultural diversity within Mexico and the influence of Mexican culture on other communities worldwide. MHC's capacity as a resident arts partner of the Mexican Heritage Plaza, the largest Hispanic and multi-cultural arts facility in the state of California, has significantly improved through the utilization of an innovative operations plan introduced under Ms. Aviles stewardship, that combines traditional presenting and producing activities with new strategic content partnerships in each area of MHC's programmatic activities. These new partnerships have resulted in record- breaking attendance from the western United States for the Plaza's signature festival event, the San Jose Mariachi and Latin Music Festival. MHC's collaborative strategy has also expanded the Plaza's core Hispanic audience to include new multi-cultural audiences and deepened the Plaza's traditional audience by presenting arts programming that is
directly relevant to disparate communities and conducting outreach that is language specific. In the area of arts education, Ms. Aviles innovation has resulted in direct grant support to create a sequential curriculum for mariachi music instruction that adheres to State of California Performing Arts Curriculum Frameworks.
Leadership in Latino Philanthropy
As Executive Director the Latino Community Foundation, Ms. Aviles led the organization's restructuring and positioned the foundation to achieve financial stability and valuable "high impact" strategic relationships with non-profit and corporate leaders in the areas of education and economic development, including Scholastic, the country's largest educational publisher, several money center banks, and The Milken Institute. Milestones in LCF's start-up phase during Ms. Aviles tenure include the development and distribution of a leading edge literacy program in response to the community's desire for an innovative approach to improve the reading and literacy development of Latino children. Co-partnered with Scholastic, the global children's publishing and media company, this program convened a broad-based partnership which includes a National Latino Advisory Committee, the Latino Community Foundation (a supporting organization of the San Francisco Foundation), KDTV Univision 14, Verizon Communications and Weston Woods Institute to develop Lee y serás (Read and you will be), a multi-faceted, multi-year reading initiative. The project informs, engages, and helps prepare families and communities to support the reading development of Latino children. Lee y serás was created by researchers, community leaders and educators in the Latino community and employs a wide array of materials and outlets to deliver the messages that children's language and reading development begins at home, and the community has a responsibility to help address the reading needs of Latino children.
With the Milken Institute and the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Aviles co- authored a white paper entitled "The Isabela Project: Closing the Latino Capital Parity and Procurement Gap." (
www.milkeninstitute.org) This innovative concept paper presents an in-depth discussion of the challenges the multicultural business community continues to experience in accessing working capital and fair opportunities to compete for procurement contracts. Following the publication of the paper, a national pilot initiative was launched to address these issues. Ms. Aviles is the co-chair of the national Isabela Project Initative.
Business Experience
As CEO of Blackboard Entertainment, Aviles led the company's growth to become a leading independent producer and distributor of proprietary and licensed multi-platform, quality entertainment and education-related products for children. The Company targeted the underserved Latino and Urban markets as well as the overall children's market, creating and distributing children's programming over several different markets and across many different product lines. Under her stewardship, Blackboard's catalog of premium, award-winning children's videos grew from seven titles in 1998 to over 400 titles in 2000. Its distribution and production activities covered a broad range of revenue channels including home video, broadcast, publishing, and audio.
As a distributor of independently produced children's video properties, Blackboard secured a reputation as a source of high-quality, non-violent, educational and empowering video programs for children. The Blackboard catalog of titles was distinguished by a breadth of national media recognition, garnering numerous awards such as the National Association of Parenting Publication Gold and Silver medals; Kids First! Honors awards; the Oppenheimer Platinum award; numerous Parent's Choice Gold and Honor awards; the Andrew Carnegie Gold award; numerous awards from Parenting Magazine; 1999 Video Magic award and Numerous National Film Advisory Board awards.
Through its television development activities, Blackboard was one of the first minority-owned and managed studios to enter into active development with the Disney Channel on a bilingual preschool series. Aviles was also instrumental in securing for Blackboard an agreement with Zorro Productions, creators and rights-holders of the well-known Zorro franchise, to co-develop a more culturally relevant kid's version of Zorro for the Latino and general consumer markets. Finally, in home entertainment, Blackboard's commitment to the Latino consumer market was executed through a product launch of "
El Sofa de Mi Imaginacion" (Big Comfy Couch).
Ms. Aviles is the mother of two children, Alejandra, 17, and Maximiliano, 11. She is an emeritus Trustee of San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and current Trustee for the Coalition for Quality Children's Media, and the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Ms. Aviles is also an advisor to the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and emeritus regional Director of the California Hispanic Chamber. She and her life partner, Pamela Fulmer, reside with their children in Northern California.
