STORY AND PHOTOS BY HANNAH KAMPITAN, DIGITAL EDITOR
Cypress College’s Spanish Club hosted a Bachata and Tango Workshop on Nov. 20 in the Fine Arts Swing Space, directed by the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) dance program and club.
The Spanish Club is one of the many cultural clubs on campus; it works closely with the Foreign Language Department. Karaoke and movie nights are some of the events they’ve hosted to celebrate the Spanish culture, but their recent dance workshop brought a new wave of engagement.
Maha Afra, the VAPA dance coordinator, led the workshop of roughly thirty participants. She split the two-hour workshop in half: one hour was dedicated to learning Bachata, and the other was spent on Tango. After providing historical context on both dances, she instructed participants to follow her dance demonstrations and vocalize the counts to get a feel for the rhythm. After individual practice, she set participants in pairs and rotated partners every few minutes to add to the learning process.
In an interview with Afra, she said she agreed to collaborate with the Spanish Club without hesitation.
“This is a chance for students I don’t see in the dance program to have a chance [to learn]. I could go on and on as to why dance is important; many students don’t even know there is a dance program in this institution […] It is important for self-confidence, [and] for identity. I believe each style [of dance] has a place in the universe and needs to be explored,” she said.
Both students and faculty participated in the workshop. Karen Le Cornet and Samantha de Frutos Garcia, language professors and co-advisors of the Spanish Club, joined students during the entirety of the workshop. To incentivize students to join, they offered extra credit for those in their respective Spanish and French classes.
“We had faculty staff and students attempt to learn the dances,” Cornet said. “It’s not just about the movement of your body, but there’s also cultural and social connections that are part of dance. It was amazing. We’re pretty happy [about the turnout].”
The Spanish Club’s Inter-Club Council Representative, Raul Jallorina, said that he’s grateful for the event’s turnout.
“The collaboration is a big help for the students because it encourages us to share our talent and energy through dance,” he said.
The Spanish Club aims to spread and celebrate Spanish culture through a variety of formats, dancing their way to more engagement. To find out more about their club and upcoming events, follow their social media site with more information: @cypress_spanishclub via Instagram.
