New Mexico State University’s Dance Program hosted ‘Celebracion de la Danza y la Cultura’ on Sunday, Sept 15. The event consisted of five dance acts and featured work from guest choreographer Ruben Abraham Quintero Gomez from Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua in Mexico.
Ryan McMullen, an assistant professor and dance coordinator at NMSU organized the event. He said the event aimed to showcase the dance program offerings at NMSU. Additionally, he hoped that the diverse identities among these students would be represented, through dance, which was his inspiration for putting this program together. He expressed his hope that students could express their identities through dance.
“I wanted just to give them a chance to express themselves in forms that felt interconnected to them,” McMullen said.
Among the dance acts were ‘Herencia Latina’ choreographed by Geroge Torres Jr, and ‘Pelea de Gallos’ choreographed by Sophie Ostos. ‘Sevillanas’ followed traditional choreography, adopted by Applehelen Kirby. Ruben Abraham Quintero Gomez choreographed ‘Danza del Venado’ and ‘El Rodeo.’
This event was the first of its kind, says NMSU student Sebastian Rodriguez, who performed in the event. Rodriguez is a junior minoring in dance and said he sees dance as a part of his identity.
“This event was a reflection of Hispanic culture through dance, and since it is Hispanic Heritage Month, it tied in together,” Rodriguez said.
McMullen said he hopes to make this dance program an annually recurring event. He further said he would like to expand the event, not keep it exclusive to NMSU.
“We would love to continue with this event, but it’d be great if we could make it more community-based. So it’s not just NMSU as the host, and we feature our different ensembles and different dances that we have to offer. I’d love to get some of our local dance studios involved.” McMullen said.
McMullen said he tries to base anything he does on education. Hispanic Heritage Month focuses on appreciation and celebrating Hispanic history. Showing that history and appreciation through dance and music fulfills that goal.
“I always try to base anything that we do from an educational perspective. We are lucky that with a form such as dance that we can bring out different audiences of all kinds,” McMullen said.
Samantha Hernandez is a junior at NMSU majoring in dance. She wants the audience to know how much effort was put into putting this event together.
“The audience does not see all the hard work we do behind the scenes, because it is a lot. But even though it’s a lot of work, we as dancers we just love what we do. We love to perform on stage, we do it because it gives us that special feeling of doing it for audiences and for people who love to see dance being represented,” Hernandez said.
September 15, the day of the event, marked the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month. “I feel that I wanted them to really shine here and make it more about them. I wanted to feature them in a way that they felt connected to the community but also their culture.” McMullen said.
