After a few fits and starts, George H.W. Bush New Tech Odessa has started its own Ballet Folklorico team.
Led by math facilitator Yoana Picazo and Spanish facilitator Maria Bustillos, it currently has six girls, but they are hoping to grow the squad.
About a month and a half ago, the two decided to try performing at the school’s culture day.
Picazo mentioned to Bustillos that she missed Folklorico dancing. Bustillos told her she had tried to have a group, but it didn’t take off. Picazo told her she had danced in high school and college and could teach students, if they were interested.
Bustillos had long been interested in connecting students to their culture. She calls herself the “instigator” as she doesn’t know how to teach Folklorico dancing, for example, so she works to get people involved who have special talents to help create a celebration or show.
She was glad to see the group perform.
“I saw how fast they learned just in that little time and I saw that they were really looking forward to it,” Bustillos said.
They didn’t have much time to prepare for the Nov. 18 culture day.
“Folklorico is really … intricate footwork. It takes a lot of knowledge on how to do it. It’s also very intricate skirt work and I thought okay, I don’t think that I could teach them the ins and outs of every bit of footwork in three weeks, but I do think that I could teach them the skirt work because I feel like that’s the most visual part,” Picazo said.
“The footwork you hear. … But the skirt work you do see, so I thought I’ve got to pick one or the other. So I picked the skirt work to work on. It’s still a lot of work because they have to learn to carry these heavy skirts. They have to keep their arms up. They have to learn to smile. They have to learn to be elegant and not look like they’re terrified out of their mind,” Picazo said.
She taught them about half a song because she didn’t think there was enough time to make it. Picazo thought of some steps she thought they could manage and taught them some skirt work.
“They picked it up quite decently … I think what we ended up doing was maybe about half of the song, which I still think was an accomplishment in and of itself. We focused on that minute and a half and we just kept practicing,” Picazo said.
There were girls that could attend and others that couldn’t. Finally, the last week she said they were going to practice every day, which is what they did.
Then a teacher next to her at school suggested she dance with the girls. Picazo wanted no part of it, but the teacher thought it would help the girls’ confidence.
Despite her reluctance, Picazo participated and she thought the performance turned out great.
“A lot of the parents were really proud of them, and even just other people that were there at the event kept coming up to us and saying thank you so much for expressing our culture. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen people dance Folklorico around here, so it was really nice,” Picazo said.
She added that each region has its own outfits and every dance has a storyline. Accessories like fans are also part of what sets an outfit apart.
Lizeth Villegas, a 16-year-old sophomore, said she decided to take part in the team because she had a lot of friends who were going to join.
“I was thinking that it would be really fun to join to learn how to actually dance because I didn’t know how to before. And it seemed really fun to get into that aspect of culture,” Villegas said.
This was her first time dancing Folklorico. She had seen the dancing before on social media and trips to Mexico.
“We did it a little bit more basic because it was almost everybody’s first time actually doing it. So it wasn’t necessarily the same, but we did a lot of the skirt movements,” Villegas said.
She practiced at home and played the music in her living room “a bunch of times.”
The practice skirts are somewhat lighter and plainer than the performance skirts. She said they would practice over and over again and the skirts got heavier.
Even with the preparation, Villegas was nervous when she got up to perform, but by the time they were done, she thought it was really fun.
“I would totally do it again,” she said.
Cassandra Carrasco, a 16-year-old junior, decided to join the group to get back in touch with her culture and also for her grandfather.
Carrasco said she had not done Folklorico dancing before, but had done other types of dancing.
“It was really fun. Honestly, it was a little difficult at first since it was something new to learn. And honestly, I’m as stiff as a log when I dance, so I was like, yes, finally something I can get down,” Carrasco said.
The dancing was easier in some ways compared to contemporary dances. Keeping her arms up was comparable to the cheerleading she had done.
“There was some parts that were challenging, like keeping your arms up all the time (because of) the weight of the skirt, but I found it a bit easier; funner,” Carrasco said.
Before the performance, she told herself she could do it and the day of the performance she was “so excited, but nervous at the same time.”
“I was like okay, I can do this; I’ve just got to do my best and everything will be A-OK; so I think mostly excited. Afterwards, I felt proud of myself; proud of myself for pushing myself to complete something and perform it,” Carrasco said.
Her family was very supportive. She added that her mother had danced when she was younger.
Carrasco added that Picazo is an “awesome teacher.”
“Thanks to her, I learned all this, so it was really fun, and I can’t wait to continue,” Carrasco said.
Fifteen-year-old sophomore Evelyn Santana said she knows how to dance Nortenas and Cumbias, but growing up she never did anything like Ballet Folklorico.
Seeing Picazo dance, she thought it was so difficult.
“I thought it was so hard and so intricate and beautiful like the skirt movements and everything. But once we actually started getting it and starting little by little” it got easier, Santana said.
She was nervous when she saw the NTO cafeteria full of families and classmates.
“I was scared of … messing up in front of everybody,” Santana said.
But the performance went really well.
“We were all really excited. Once we went off to the side, we were … really happy; smiling (and) laughing. It was really cool; it was like the rush of excitement,” she said.
Like the other girls, Santana practiced at home. She used her phone for music and her dad’s phone to record. Her family was very supportive of her joining the team.
“The first day I went home with the skirt, they were proud. They were excited to see me moving the skirt, or dancing around,” Santana said.
“I really hope this goes on to the next few years while I’m in high school and even beyond that because it was a really fun experience. It was an unforgettable experience,” she added.
