Latin dance club to perform first spring concert

Richmond dance club Ritmo Latino will be hosting its first spring concert in The Pier of the Tyler Haynes Commons tonight.

The show will start at 9 p.m. and is expected to last an hour, said Beverly Duran, president of Ritmo Latino.

According to member Blanca Flores, Ritmo Latino was founded in the fall of 2011 by sophomores Rubi Escalona and Beverly Duran.

"My love of salsa, belly dance and culture immersion really motivated me to form the club," Duran said. "I wanted to keep dancing and promote the Latin culture in a positive light."

Duran said there had not been any official clubs for Latin dancing on campus when she and Escalona had discussed forming the club.

"We wanted to show that there is a lot more variety to Latin dancing and culture," Escalona said.

The performance will feature cultural and modern dances from Latin America including bachata, merengue, cumbia colombiana and sonidera, belly dance, mambo, punta and salsa.

"Latin dance is an extremely lively and happy style, which is primarily learned dancing to the music, not to counts," Escalona said. "It creates a free atmosphere that allows the dancers to put their own unique flavor into the dances."

Flores said the dances the members chose to perform were widely known throughout Latin America and each dance had a specific origin within the region.

"I'm really looking forward to the belly dance," Duran said. "It's an underrepresented dance style that gets a bad rap and, although it isn't technically from a Latin country, it shows how universal the dances are and how they bridge cultural barriers."

The concert comprises eight dances to a variety of music, both modern and traditional, said Duran, who suspected the opening number would draw the audience into the rhythm and expressionism that Latin American dance represented.

"The first dance is extremely upbeat and a remake of an old popular song," she said.

There are 13 female dancers and six male dancers performing in the concert. The club members have been practicing twice a week for the concert since the beginning of the semester.

Flores, Duran and Escalona choreographed most of the dances, with assistance from other members of the club, they said.

Escalona said none of the dancers were classically trained in Latin dance, but the majority of the members had been exposed to Latin American culture from family and friends.

"Not all of our members are of Hispanic descent, but many of us were raised in Latin American households," Escalona said. "We are very excited to showcase just another unique aspect of Latin American culture."

Contact staff writer Nabila Khouri at nabila.khouri@richmond.edu