Folklorico ballet classes at the Ramona Library connect some dancers to their cultural heritage

Geniss Duran, 3, is the smallest dancer in Aida Perez’s Ballet Folklorico classes.

Her mother, Yesenia Flores, said the weekly dance lessons are a good way to involve her daughter in activities where she can socialize and make friends.

The lessons also connect her to her culture, said Flores, a native of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Her husband, Geraldo Duran, is from Oaxaca.

“It’s a family tradition,” she says of the dances. “It’s really good to keep her connected to her roots.”

Classes, held at 4 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Ramona Community Library, attract 30 or more students each week. Girls of varying ages practice their dance moves while following the lead of an instructor, flapping their skirts to the beat of traditional Mexican tunes.

Sometimes they repeat choreographed steps with partners, other times in rows.

Aida Perez, who has run Ballet Folklorico dance classes at the Ramona Library for nearly three decades, said she is offering them for free so more students have the opportunity to attend. She even sews bright and colorful dresses with voluminous skirts to encourage their participation.

Perez, 79, started dancing at the age of 7. While living in San Ysidro and later Chula Vista, she traveled to Tijuana, where her grandmother lived, to take her classes. Even after she stopped taking lessons, she continued to practice folk dancing, tap dancing and ballroom dancing at home, she said.

While raising her family in Orange County, she taught her two eldest daughters, namesakes Aida and Diana, to dance so they could perform at an international dance festival.

“I taught some neighbors and my girls to play,” Perez said. “I used to have a whole group there too.”

When she and her husband, Robert, moved to Ramona in 1980, Aida and Diana continued to perform as teenagers at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. Their mother continued her dance lessons in the parking lot of the old Ramona Library. When the current Ramona Community Library was built a decade ago, Aida Perez was able to move her dances into the library’s assembly hall.

“I love dancing and music,” said Aida Perez. “I am grateful to the parents who have trusted me for all these years. When I see the parents taking care of the children, it makes me so happy.

The dancers have fun swinging their skirts during certain dance routines.

(Julie Gallant)

From October through Nov. 2, folk ballet classes will temporarily be held at regular time at the home of Ramona resident Iris Heyer at 619 Alice Street, Perez said. Beginning Nov. 9, classes are expected to resume in the library’s community room, Perez said. Library officials said they needed the community hall for training until Election Day on Nov. 8.

Ramona resident Lydia Dukes loves seeing her 10-year-old daughter, Leah Cosio, carry on the cultural tradition. Dukes has always lived in the San Diego area and in Ramona for the past five years, but her parents are from Baja California, she said.

Dukes said Ballet Folklorico classes teach Leah historical Latin music that comes from Mexico and gives him the opportunity to interact with friends. The lessons also help Leah understand dance style and learn how to follow the steps, she said.

“I used to do that when I was a lot younger,” Dukes said. “At first it was my idea to have her do something like an activity, but over the years she started looking forward to it and now she’s the one who wants to go.”

Leah, who started taking Folklorico classes in 2018 but took a two-year hiatus during COVID, said she enjoyed the performances more than the weekly rehearsals in the library’s large meeting room. She looks forward to performing with the dance class at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church’s Oktoberfest celebration on Sunday, October 2, and the Ramona Chamber of Commerce’s annual Christmas tree lighting. on Main Street.

Leah Cosio, 10, is thrilled to perform Ballet Folklorico at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church’s October 2 Oktoberfest.

(Julie Gallant)

Aida Perez teaches free folk ballet classes and sews skirts for some of her students.

(Julie Gallant)

Eight-year-old Katelyn Heyer started taking folk ballet lessons at Perez about two months ago. She had briefly taken the classes before, but they were cut short by the COVID pandemic.

“I love the music, the dance moves and the skirts,” Heyer said. “It’s fun to do because it’s beautiful when everyone moves their skirt.”

Ramona resident Katelyn Heyer, 8, prepares for her folk ballet lesson at the Ramona Library with her mother, Iris Heyer.

(Julie Gallant)

His mother, Iris Heyer, had become familiar with the Folklorico tradition while living in Tijuana years ago.

“Katelyn has family in Guadalajara and they’re super proud that she’s dancing Folklorico,” Heyer said. “And they’re proud that she doesn’t forget where she came from.”

Katelyn told her friends at the Ramona Community Montessori school about the free classes, hoping they would also participate, her mother said. Eventually, the family plans to bring Katelyn’s sister, Kendra, 4, to class when she’s ready.

Six-year-old Kloe Karkosh is new to Ballet Folklorico, having only taken her first lesson. She said she once had fun dancing hip hop.

“I’m excited to learn a different type of dance,” Kloe said.

Ramona resident Kloe Karkosh looks forward to her folk ballet lessons with her grandmother, Rosa Vasquez.

(Julie Gallant)

Her mother, Diana Vasquez, said Kloe was half-Mexican. Vasquez is a first-generation Mexican American; his mother is from Guerrero and his father from Oaxaca. Kloe’s father, family of Luke Karkosh, is from Germany.

Vasquez also encourages Kloe to learn to speak Spanish.

“It’s important to me that she identifies with her culture, traditional dances and folk music,” said Vasquez, who herself took folk ballet lessons as a child. “She loves to dance. She loves music, she loves to sing and dance. It’s one of the things she really, really loves.

For more information, call the library at 760-788-5270.

Students from the Ballet Folklorico dance in pairs during a recent rehearsal.

(Julie Gallant)