San Jose State University’s Folklorico dance group Luna Y Sol took more than 400 audience members on an adventure filled with traditional dances from various regions of Mexico at Noche Folklorico on Saturday in the Morris Dailey Auditorium.
Folklorico dance, refers to the English term “folk dance,” meaning dances of the people, according to a March 28, 2014 research published by Vanderbilt University.
This type of dance reflects the traditions, cultures and beliefs of people in a particular region, according to the same research.
The SJSU student-run Folklorico group Luna Y Sol has been promoting the education and preservation of Mexican culture through their dances since 2004, according to its website.
The name of the group comes from the shapes created when they dance, said Odalys Alvarez, group member and business administration senior.
“The person dancing with the skirt, when they do the half turn it creates a kind of a moon shape,” Alvarez said. “And the [sun] represents the guys… and how he’s kind of just around the female.”
The symbolism in the group’s name and logo represents the bonds between the males and females in the group, Alvarez said.
Luna Y Sol’s logo is a woman colored in soft blues and whites, whose skirt creates the shape of a crescent moon, leaning into her male partner who is displayed above a bright, yellow sun.
Starting off the evening, the Aztec dance group Movimiento Cultural Anahuac blessed the night as two performers delivered a sacred dance and bathed the room in sweet scents of burning sage.
Movimiento Cultural Anahuac is a non-profit organization based in San Jose whose mission is to teach the community about Azetec culture, according to the group's Instagram.
Once the sage burned and a conch shell was blown, eight Aztec dancers energetically burst onto the stage.
“I wanted to start off with the indigenous roots of Mexico first because I wanted to acknowledge the presence of the indigenous culture in Mexico,” said Monika Angeles, art director for Luna Y Sol and co-choreographer.
The members, dressed in warrior attire, split into groups of four and faced each other.
Their feather headdresses shook as they took turns side stepping in place to the beat while the other set looked up from a kneeling position to their partners.
“Also [I wanted to] give land acknowledgement to the place that we occupy right now at San Jose state and know that it's land that was taken,” Angeles said in a phone interview.
SJSU is seated on the land of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, according to the university’s land acknowledgement.
Following the Aztec commencement ceremony, Luna Y Sol started off its show by performing Las Amarillas and La Iguana, two dances that come from the Guerrero region of Mexico.
The dance was added to the show in honor of the group’s late dance member Jennifer Ramirez, who recently died of cancer, and whose family was from Guerrero.
“Yellow was described as [Jennifer’s] color, bright and filled with light eager to make the day better after fallen rain,” Angeles said in a speech develived at Noche Folklorico. “She spent hours before and after practice building community with peers, helping them with dance steps and building confidence for their performances.”
The other dance from that region, La Iguana is a flirtatious dance in which both male and female dancers wave red handkerchiefs in the air culminating in the male dancers throwing their handkerchiefs into the air before pouncing on the floor with both hands to pick it up with their mouths.
“It's really physically tiring, but it's also mentally rewarding,” said Damian Hernandez, group member and aviation sophomore.
After Guerrero, the group performed three dances from the regions of Sinaloa, Veracruz-Jarocho and Tamaulipas before a brief intermission.
Sinaloa, located on the west coast of Mexico, is known for its lively Banda music, according to the event program.
In relation to the Sinaloa dance, the women made a grand appearance on the stage dressed in bright floral dresses in shades of green, blue, red and orange.
The dancers moved and swished their dresses in Flamenco style movements so that all the colors appeared to merge into a kaleidoscope.
Once the men came out to the stage, outfitted in bright colorful shirts, the auditorium turned into a festival of fun as the women whipped their skirts around and began dancing with the men.
The next four dances performed were from the various regions including Tamaulipas, Nayarit, Aguascalientes and Jalisco.
In between the dances from Aguascalientes and Jalisco, a guest performance from a Floreador, Saul Langarica and his seven year old son Mateo Langarica Bernal riveted the crowd.
A Floreador is a person who performs rope tricks known as Floreador De Soga, according to the same event program.
Langarica said being able to pass on this tradition to his son, which he has been practicing his whole life, fills him with joy.
“I'm glad… we were able to share it. Especially at this type of stage, [o]ne of the prestigious universities here in California,” said Langarica. “It’s important to have these performances, especially here in the states, where Mexican families that weren't raised in Mexico get to learn about the culture and traditions.”
