Fort Worth ballet folklórico workshop gives culture lessons on the dance floor

FORT WORTH -- Silvia Lozano aspires to open a school in Fort Worth where students can study ballet folklórico.

Lozano, founder of the national ballet folklórico company in Mexico, has been conducting workshops in Fort Worth for 12 years and said establishing a school would give students a better understanding of the colorful dance's cultural significance.

"I danced many years," Lozano said through an interpreter. "I created the company to make something real without losing the richness of the culture."

But for now, she's content to continue teaching students at the Ballet Folclórico Nacional de México Aztlán summer workshop in Fort Worth.

"It's the high energy and the passion. They work so well together," she said. "You can feel it and you see it, and it's a good thing. That's why I do it."

The two-week workshop, featuring dozens of dancers from across the Southwest and Mexico, began Monday and is hosted by the Ballet Folklorico Azteca de Fort Worth.

Carol Alvarado, artistic director of the Fort Worth group, said folklórico dancing has grown in popularity since the organization formed in 1975 with 15 to 20 students. It now has 100 to 110 dancers.

"It is very popular," Alvarado said. "One of Silvia's goals is to extend the culture, history and awareness of folklórico to the U.S."

Ballet folklórico represents folklore from different regions of Mexico, and each dance movement tells a different story.

"It represents the cultures of each state of the country," Alvarado said. "You have variations from state to state, different footwork, different instruments to play the music, and costumes are all different."

Every detail of the dance is important, Alvarado said, from the braids in the dancers' hair to the intricate colors of their costumes. Movements also play a huge part.

"Even the way you hold your dress, the way you move," Alvarado said. "It's all different."

Rafael Espitia, 32, has been dancing for 13 years and operates a nonprofit dance group in Tulsa. He is a longtime friend and student of Lozano's and has attended the workshops for seven years.

"When I started to come over here for her dance camp is when I began to know what folklórico really means," Espitia said. "Every single song and every single dance means something. It all comes together. I have only two vacation weeks from my job, and I spend them here."

Krystle Cantu, 817-390-7531