Compañía de Danza El Sol making a comeback against pandemic

The mariachi, hobbled by COVID-19 positive tests, played without its violinists.

The dancers wore face masks, which made it difficult to see their smiles.

The near-capacity audience had to leave an empty seat between family members for extra caution.

Yet, the show went on Feb. 5 at the Audra McDonald Theater at Roosevelt School of the Arts when Compañía de Danza El Sol presented ‘¡Qué Siga la Tradición!’ (Let the Tradition Continue!) to celebrate its 35th anniversary.

“I was so impressed! It was amazing because the kids have been on and off not practicing because of COVID,” said El Sol director Jaime Morales. “Last week, I was hoping everything would turn out OK.”’

That the show went on is the latest sign that, slowly but surely, the coronavirus is losing its grip that canceled two years worth of the popular Danzantes Unidos Festival and similar performances from the High School Showoffs to Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day showcases.

Saturday evening’s audience was rewarded.

▪ Mariachi Alas de Jalisco, based in Visalia, performed at intermission and later provided the life music for the show-ending dances from Jalisco.

▪ The 57-year-old Morales, who is in his 43rd year of folkloric dancing, introduced the choreography for the Juan Gabriel hit ‘El Hijo de Mi Comadre’ (My Buddy’s Son). The adult class, including Morales, performed the dance.

▪ The all-female performance of ‘Flor de Piña’ (Pineapple Flower), a dance from the Tuxtepec region of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, was introduced by request of several dancers with roots from Oaxaca.

The dance group was founded as El Sol Dance Company in 1987 by the late Irene Palacios González and rehearsed at city parks and school cafeterias until it could afford its own studio. Morales, who has directed the folkloric program at Roosevelt High, took over and the group’s name was changed to Compañía de Danza El Sol.

It has more than 150 dancers.

Morales is more than the director. The Roosevelt High graduate, who also learned from Ernesto Martínez and Los Danzantes de Aztlán, has gone to México almost every summer to learn folkloric dances from various regions.

“I want to see the more traditional dancing, to see their culture and where it comes from, where it originates,” said Morales.

Many Mexican folkloric dancers in the United States, he said, don’t perform the traditional dances.

“We try to follow the style of Amalia Hernández because it’s the one we all know and it’s a well-known group,” he said. “I respect it a lot … but it’s a little bit more like ballet. They don’t do the traditional footwork.”

Morales recently graduated from Escuela Superior de Danza Folklórica Zitlalkiauitl A.C. He wants to travel to regions with dances that are not that well known in the U.S.

“Not many other directors from the U.S. go there,” said Morales, who wants to incorporate more music from well-known Mexican artists in his group’s dance.

“I want to use music like that of Lola Beltrán because there is so much music there but we forget about them,” he said.

Morales has a contact in Guadalajara, Jalisco to help him put together the choreography for dances to the music of Vicente Fernández, Juan Gabriel, Joan Sebastián, and Lucha Villa.

Folkloric dancing, said Morales, is the right panacea for the pandemic.

“Especially for the kids. It’s a way to keep their culture and keep them away from bad things,” said Morales. “They come to the studio and say their parents are getting sick, or their grandparents.

“They are a bit stressed, but once they start dancing, that are just smiling.”