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Traditional Music, Dance Take Center Stage At Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center

The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's event on Saturday night is all about tradition.

The night is called Celebrando Tradiciones"which means Celebrating Traditions, is our annual Folklorico Dance  performance, presented by the Guadalupe Dance Company," Belinda Menchaca says.

They will be dancing folklorico and of course to dance, they will need music.

"We are going to be accompanied by music performed by the Mariachi Azteca De America, under the direction of Gino Rivera, so we will have incredible musicians onstage, along with the Guadalupe Dance Company," Menchaca says.

The dancing isn't from just one of Mexico's many states, but from several.

"Including Oaxaca, Queretero, Yucatan. And all these dances are performed in Mexico.  One of the regions that we do, which is called Nuevo Leon, very fast-paced, very vibrant dances, and a lot of partnering. The styles and costumes vary from state-to-state," she explains.

Menchaca went on to describe what some of those differences were.

"Some of the other dances are very intricate in the footwork, what we call zapatiado, or footwork.  A little bit different character in each state. And of course, the music varies," she says.

The Guadalupe Theater's Celebrando Tradiciones event has a two-day run: Saturday, September 30 at 8 p.m., and then we have a Sunday matinee, Sunday, October 1 at 3 p.m. 

"It is child appropriate, and we have children who are mesmerized by the costumes and by the performances," Menchaca says. " It's so beautiful to watch, to see the whole ensemble."

Find more on the Celebrando Tradiciones here

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii