Dance Fiesta

Ballet Folklórico appears at the New Jersey Folk Festival as part of a celebration of Mexican-American traditions.

By: Matt Smith

"Kathleen

TimeOFF/Frank Wojciechowski
Above, Kathleen Molnar (left) and Melissa Bermúdez of Ballet Folklórico de Princeton rehearse for the dance ensemble’s performance at the New Jersey Folk Festival in New Brunswick April 26.


   Many little girls dream of becoming ballerinas. For a time, so did Melissa Bermúdez. The Princeton University senior got her first tutu at age 3 and trained for more than a decade, but decided to hang up her pointe shoes for good at age 14.
   "There comes a point where they’re like, ‘You either go professional or you’re going to stop dancing, because it’s not worth my time or yours — and I never wanted to be a professional ballet dancer," Ms. Bermúdez says. "And they say ‘You’re going to need to lose about 20 pounds and go to ballet class six hours a day.’"
   During her sophomore year in college, Ms. Bermúdez made an unexpected return to dance, albeit in a much different form. A classmate asked her to take photographs at a performance of Ballet Folklórico de Princeton, the school’s traditional Mexican troupe, and she was mesmerized.
   "It was amazing," says Ms. Bermúdez, now the group’s president. "I was completely blown away."
   While her classical training is an asset, the politics major from Northern Virginia says Mexican folk dancing is drastically different from ballet.
   "It’s not similar at all," says Ms. Bermúdez, who is considering attending graduate school at UCLA or Johns Hopkins. "Having a general sense of rhythm and being able to watch someone do a step and do it yourself makes a difference, but we have a lot of freshman and sophomores who have never seen or heard of Folklórico and just decide that it looks cool and come to practice. It’s easier if you have some general idea of what it means when I say ‘point your toe,’ but in other ways it’s completely different."
   Ballet Folklórico appears at the New Jersey Folk Festival in New Brunswick April 26, part of the 29th annual event’s celebration of Mexican-American traditions, and will also headline the Arts Council of Princeton’s Cinco de Mayo celebration May 3.
   Formed in 1991 by student Isela Ocegueda, the group performs dances from the Mexican states of Jalisco and Veracrúz. The Jalisco dances are the most recognizable to gringo audiences, with their energetic Mariachi accompaniment and colorful costumes, while the Veracruz dances are more subtle.
   "The dances from Jalisco have that Mariachi music, and the men wear big sombreros and the pant suits with medallions," Ms. Bermúdez says. "The women’s costumes are really colorful, and have ribbons on the bottom and black lace. The distinctive motion is the woman doing a lot of twirling with the skirts.

"Benito

TimeOFF/Frank Wojciechowski
Benito San Miguel, above, rehearses for his performance with Ballet Folklórico.


   "For the other region, Veracruz, the costumes are white, and it’s focused on intricate footwork, not skirt twirling. It’s more subdued and ethereal."
   The core group, which includes five women and three men, rehearses twice a week on the Princeton campus. At Saturday rehearsals, a professional comes down from New York City to teach new dances.
   "It’s a traditional art form," Ms. Bermúdez says, "so you can’t just make it up, saying, ‘Oh, I’m going to make a new dance today.’ You have to have an instructor. Otherwise, you’d be frozen with the songs you know.
   In addition to the intense physical demands of the dances, Mexican folk dancing can tend to get expensive for a student organization, Ms. Bermúdez says, particularly the sizeable costume budget required.
   "A woman’s dress costs $150 or $200, and you have to buy your own shoes," she says. "And we spent $500 on dry cleaning at the beginning of the year."
   The group’s coffers were aided by two recent performances for Sovereign Bank. Ballet Folklórico danced at a pair of Mexican-themed company banquets, which rewarded top employees with trips to Cancun. The troupe also added six new members recently, who, like Ms. Bermúdez, were entranced by a performance at the Frist Campus Center.
   Ballet Folklórico is open to any Princeton University student, notes Ms. Bermúdez, regardless of family heritage.
   "Not by any stretch of the imagination is everyone in the group Mexican," she says. "Right now there are four who are Mexican-American, and the rest are all kinds of things. My dad’s family is Puerto Rican, we have a girl who’s Peruvian, and another girl from Colombia — and those who are just interested have no Hispanic family relation at all. We really try to emphasize that it doesn’t matter. Anyone can come to the practices and just try it out."
Ballet Folklórico de Princeton performs at the New Jersey Folk Festival, Eagleton Institute, Rutgers University Douglass campus, George Street and Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, April 26. The group appears on the Skylands Stage at approximately 10:15 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Free admission. For information, call (732) 932-5775. On the Web: njfolkfest.rutgers.edu
Ballet Folklórico also performs at the third annual Cinco de Mayo celebration at the Arts Council of Princeton, 102 Witherspoon St., Princeton, May 3, 1:30 p.m. Free admission. For information, call (609) 924-8777. On the Web: www.artscouncilofprinceton.org