By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Junior Camila Gutiérrez loves it all: dancing with Ball High School’s Ballet Folklórico and serving as one of the group’s makeup artists. Asked if she enjoys both equally, she smiled and said yes. From the smiles behind the Día de los Muertos makeup, it seems the entire team of 54 students loves what they do as they showcase Mexico’s traditional dances.
Swirling dresses and boots snapping on concrete have been a Ball High School tradition for 30 years. Anna Olivares, head of the foreign language department and the folklorico teacher, has been proud of the team’s accomplishments throughout that time.
The team recently performed at the State Capitol in Austin. Olivares has led the group to international acclaim, including a performance in Norway, and the team has also been recognized regionally, winning a dance competition at Lamar University.
“Ballet Folklórico gives them a sense of pride in themselves and in their heritage,” Olivares said. In addition to leading the foreign language department and teaching Spanish, she drafted the Ballet Folklórico curriculum and presented it to the school board, which approved it as a class option at Ball High School.
“In order to participate, they must be getting good grades in all of their other classes, and they must be attending classes,” Olivares said. “Not only are they learning the dances, but their confidence is also developed as they perform in front of audiences.”
Students learn the dance styles of Mexico’s different regions, from those that originated in Chiapas, at the country’s southern tip, to the traditions of Northern Mexico.
Olivares hopes a middle school class will soon be added. For now, students come up through the elementary program taught at Burnett. In some cases, she teaches the children of former students, and some former students are now Ballet Folklórico teachers themselves.
The dancers were one of several performing groups invited to share their talents at Galveston’s annual Día de los Muertos fiesta, hosted by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council 151. The council was recently named Council of the Year at the state convention and is celebrating its 75th anniversary. I was there to watch, and I wasn’t prepared for what the music would stir up.
Young dancers from Burnett Elementary and Austin Middle School also performed. The Austin students not only danced but also narrated the significance of Día de los Muertos. It is about love, they explained, and about honoring the memories of those they have lost.
Watching the girls’ dresses swirl, the boys’ hands clasped behind their backs, and their boots clicking both on the ground and in the air, I thought of a crisp November afternoon many years ago when I visited my then-grandmother-in-law’s gravesite in Northern Mexico. As the dancers continued, I remembered her sweet smile and the loving embrace she gave me the day we met.
In those moments of music and dance, the world and its problems, mine included, seemed to stop for a while, allowing me and others to relive happy times.
The Austin Middle School students had explained that Día de los Muertos is about love and about honoring those we have lost. As the dancers spun, I realized I was doing exactly that, honoring a woman whose smile I still remembered.
