taller de danza

When I arrived in my community, many of the kids in the high school expressed interest in having dance workshops and learning different dances. Because this has been one of my ideas since I decided to join the Peace Corps, and I have some background in dance, I was thrilled! It brought me back to the days of WAHS Dance Team. We decided to start with a dance to prepare for the school's anniversary in mid-July. I let the kids pick out a song they wanted to dance to and then I choreographed a routine. It was definitely a lot harder than I thought it would be, considering the fact that none of the kids had any experience in learning choreography, the difficulty of yelling out moves and steps in Spanish, and the pure cultural contrast in discipline. When I said we would have dance classes two days a week at 3 o'clock, everyone needed to come prepared, and if you want to participate in the anniversary show, attendance was mandatory, I was going by my North American customs and expectations. But I soon had to learn that I would be forced to adapt to the customs and expectations of these teenagers. So the 3 o'clock classes started no earlier than 3:45pm (sometimes 4:30pm), kids would often skip or show up for just half of the class, and I often left the classes with a little bit of a headache.

Before the big show, I was a bit frustrated because not everything had gone according to my plan. But I took a step back, and saw how much fun these kids were having. They rarely have opportunities to learn and dedicate themselves to something outside of the classroom. I thought back to how much I enjoyed all of my extracurricular activities in high school, and probably took them for granted. These kids had a fun after school activity and had worked hard to learn something very new and different. I could see in their faces how excited they were to show off what they had learned to their peers and community. It was very rewarding to see the kids perform. It also felt great to share my passion of dance with these kids; because I could tell that they were having as much fun and were as anxious/excited before the show as I was when I was in my high school dance shows. Hopefully we will continue with our dance workshops and continue to improve and have fun dancing!
Here's a clip of the anniversary show: