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Local folklorico group places second at national competition
| Thursday, Aug 14 2008 1:47 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Aug 12 2008 3:40 PM
Taking second in a recent national folklorico dance competition felt like winning the gold to local group SoLuna Mexican Folk Ballet, whose 16 members twirled and stepped against adult category rivals from Houston, Chicago and Las Vegas.
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See upcoming performances by SoLuna Mexican Folk Ballet:
• From 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Albertsons, 1520 Brundage Lane. Event is free.
• From 4 to 5 p.m. Sept. 20 and 5 to 6 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Mexican-themed La Villa Festiva stage at the Kern County Fair, 1142 South P St. Fair admission prices apply.
An added treat to the fair performances will be a longer, formal presentation of SoLunita Children's Folklorico Ballet. The group of dancers ages 6 to 11 grew out of popular demand and are directed by Dario and Ana Fonseca.
To learn more about SoLuna Mexican Folk Ballet, visit solunaballet.org.
Photos:
The female dancers of Bakersfield's SoLuna Mexican Folk Ballet pose for a photo during the Folklorico Challenge USA Nationals held in Las Vegas on Saturday. Proudly representing Bakersfield, SoLuna took second place to host city Las Vegas' first in the adult category. Also competing were dance teams from Houston and Chicago.(Photo courtesy of SoLuna)
Manuel Fonseca, left, and his brother Dario, pictured in this file photo, are the founders of SoLuna Mexican Folk Ballet.
“In my heart we placed first with our unique approach. We went against the grain,” said general director Manuel Fonseca, who co-founded SoLuna in 2005 with identical twin brother Dario.
SoLuna chose slow waltzes from the largely indigenous Mexican region of Oaxaca and a dramatic storyline to showcase a melancholy three-song dance suite about lost love, against the mostly norteńa numbers from opponents that were homogeneously upbeat and “common,” according to Fonseca.
“Our presentation felt very electric,” said Fonseca, who was proud to represent Bakersfield against larger cities. He said a veteran dance teacher came up to him after SoLuna’s performance and said, “Wow, this is different.”
The dance drama unfolded at the Folklorico Challenge USA Nationals held in Las Vegas on Saturday. The host city’s team took first place.
SoLuna qualified for the nationals by winning the Folklorico Challenge’s southwest regional competition in Hollywood in October.
“Everybody that was at the event were champions. They all had to win at some point to get there,” said Jim Sullivan, executive director of Latino Literacy Now, the Carlsbad-based nonprofit that hosted the Las Vegas event as a yearly fundraiser. Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actor Edward James Olmos is chairman of the board for Latino Literacy Now.
Sullivan said the Mexican folklorico tradition is rich enough to accommodate a wide range of influences.
OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
In April, SoLuna also won the Best Performance of the Year award in the first Sabor Latino Dance Competition held in Redondo Beach, Fonseca said. This recognition was followed by “a busy Cinco de Mayo season.”
SoLuna’s particular style fuses classical ballet techniques and concepts with traditional folklorico dance moves and costuming for elegant and dramatic effects in staging and choreography. The group has several local performances coming up, including some with its children’s folklorico dance arm, SoLunita, which in Spanish means “Little SoLuna.”