Mexican dancers work for peace
Donald L Ferrt
Mexican dancers work for peace
CULTURE: Children learn about the arts in the two-year-old group.
By S. JANE SZABO
Anchorage Daily News
When Ana del Real teaches Mexican dancing, the skirt has a leading
role. During a practice last Saturday, she wore a traditional black
dancing skirt: 16 yards of material, queenly enough to sweep the
floor, formidable.
She held it up and faced a group of young girls wearing similar
skirts. All lifted their folds fanlike, with bent elbows, in
preparation for the dance.
Ana Gutierrez-Scholl, director of the Xochiquetzal-Tiqun dance group,
queued up the music, and a group of junior gauchos waited stage right.
When the traditional tit-for-tat of trumpets and violins started, the
dancers worked their skirts into a coordinated undulation punctuated
by del Real's exclamation: "Vuelta!"
And turn the dancers did, to the right ("Vuelta!"), to the left
("Vuelta!"), their skirts circling and spiraling. Meanwhile, in
shuffled the lads, each holding two plastic swords behind his back.
The dance "Los Machetes" ("The Machetes") continued, with the girls
turning and swirling their skirts behind the line of boys who hopped
and kicked, clapping their swords, now front, now back.
"Vuelta siete!" called del Real as the lighthearted point-counterpoint
of violins and trumpets continued and the lines wove together
exchanging positions. The dance leaders consulted in rapid Spanish,
then began to call out the beat again: "Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco,
seis, siete!"
"Vuelta!"
After a while, del Real untied the famous skirt and gave it to
Gutierrez-Scholl. She picked up her 4-year-old son, kissed him and
tied his shoelaces while the practice continued at Crosspoint
Community Church.
It's been a couple of years since these two women, along with Maggie
Lopez Ayala and Sonia Barajas, started Xochiquetzal-Tiqun in
Anchorage. They remain the core of the group, along with Lupita
Villasenor, who leads the sewing team.
"Our mission is to open the eyes of children to the world of arts and
culture," said Gutierrez-Scholl. "Our hope is that, knowing each other
better, we can promote global peace."
The idea began when the women were reminiscing about their own
upbringing and how they had received the tradition. They brainstormed
and let their idea simmer a few months. Then, Gutierrez-Scholl called
del Real to discuss the idea again. "She said, 'I didn't know if you
were serious,' Gutierrez-Scholl recalled. "I said, 'I am very
serious.' "
Thus began Xochiquetzal-Tiqun, pronounced so-chee-kat-sal-tee-koon.
It's an Aztec/Alaska blend name referring to the Aztec goddess for
arts and culture coupled with the Athabascan word for "wolf."
Only a handful of children and parents attended the first meeting in
July 2002 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Now there's a waiting list,
a business plan in the formative stages, a full schedule of
performances and a seemingly interminable sewing bee involving miles
of ruffles and ribbon. "It's a really exciting time for us,"
Gutierrez-Scholl said. "It's a time of growth."
Twenty-two children ages 6-12 practice regularly at Crosspoint
Community Church in the Dimond Fred Meyer mall, supported by their
parents and leaders in this all-volunteer group. Most members are
bilingual and of Mexican heritage, with Inupiat and Albanians also
included. They've been learning the folkloric dances from the various
regions of Mexico: Jalisco, Michoacan, Sinaloa and northern Mexico.
But more than a dance troupe, Xochiquetzal-Tiqun promotes Hispanic
arts and culture overall, through music, drama, fine arts, folk crafts
and seminars.
With their colorful costumes and happy choreography, the group quickly
rose in demand on the multicultural performance circuit.
Xochiquetzal-Tiqun is counting upward of 40 performances, from the
mayor's inauguration to the public television feature "Zoom." The
group is looking forward to a big gig in 2005, the Danzantes Unidos
Folk Dancers Festival in April in Hayward, Calif.
"We teach them that they're doing something good," Gutierrez-Scholl
said. "And in the future, maybe they'll do something similar."
Daily News reporter S. Jane Szabo can be reached at jsz...@adn.com.
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XOCHIQUETZAL-TIQUN will be among the local groups performing at the
Mayor's Diversity Week event "Youth in Harmony: A Celebration of
Diversity," 1 p.m. Saturday at the Anchorage Museum of History and
Art, 121 W. Seventh Ave. Free. The group's two-year anniversary show
will be held at 1 p.m. Oct. 16 in the Wilda Marston Theatre at Loussac
Library. The free event will include a 20-minute play "Aztec Days,
Aztec Nights," a dozen dances and cake and punch. The group's Web site
is www.anadenmar.com/xochiquetzal-tiqun.
UPCOMING HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH EVENTS INCLUDE:
Saturday -- Anchorage Neighborhood Police and Firefighters Applicant
School, 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Fairview Recreation Center, 1121 E. 10th
Ave. Participants must be legal residents and have good command of the
English language. Must be age 21 to qualify for police jobs and age 18
for firefighter jobs. Open to all but especially targeting the
Hispanic community. Call the Municipality of Anchorage to preregister
at 343-4344 or 343-4342.
Oct. 5-28 -- "Comenzando Bien" ("A Good Beginning"), a free pregnancy
and childbirth workshop in Spanish, offered Tuesdays and Thursdays at
Alaska Family Practice Residency, 1201 E. 36th Ave. Limited to 20.
(273-9372)
Oct. 8 -- Hispanic Heritage Month celebration at Elmendorf Air Force
Base. For information, call Rey Andrade at 552-3775. Oct. 15 --
National Latino HIV/AIDS Prevention Awareness Day, 6:30 p.m. at Holy
Family Cathedral, 800 W. Fifth Ave. (Carmen Rosa, 345-4174)
Oct. 18 -- La Procesion del Senor de los Milagros, the annual Peruvian
ritual of prayer to the Lord of Miracles, 6 p.m., Our Lady of
Guadalupe Parish, 3900 Wisconsin St. (Denise, 522-0238) Ongoing --
Distribution of the 2004 edition of the Alaska Hispanic Business and
Resource Directory ("Las Paginitas Amarillas") at all events.
(345-4174)