If you happen to wander into the Gateway Neighborhood Center in Sunnyvale on a Monday or Wednesday evening, in the far back corner on the dance floor you may catch flashes of bright colors and even brighter smiles.
The facility adjacent to Trinity Church on N. Mathilda Avenue is home to the newly formed Baile Folklorico group for children and adults, which practices twice a week.
Girls as young as 3 years old fan out their red, orange or yellow skirts, while boys stomp their feet to the beat of the music.
In the center of it all, the group is led by Leticia Ceja, teacher of Mexican folk dance for 20 years and niece of Ramón Morones, co-founder of Los Lupeños de San Jose, a Mexican dance performance group founded 45 years ago.
Ceja has taught all over the Bay Area at all levels and ages, but it wasn’t until she connected with Christy Tonge, program director of Reach Potential Movement, that the two saw the potential of starting a group in Sunnyvale.
The two met at Castro Elementary School in Mountain View, where Ceja taught Tonge’s children. The dance program at the school has been growing for seven years and served as the inspiration for the Sunnyvale group.
The two women paired up with several interested parents who wanted to create something in Sunnyvale and had the opportunity to build at the Gateway Neighborhood Center.
Just over two years ago, parents and volunteers came together with Ceja to develop the program. The class provides practice skirts, or girls can bring their own. Both boys and girls are asked to wear dress shoes with heels to click along to the music.
It was only a month ago that the practice skirts were available to the class, after a year’s worth of fundraising. Before, students had to practice in their street clothes.
While the class is still getting off the ground, Ceja hopes it will continue to expand.
“I’ve been teaching for a long time, and I can really see a difference in their self-esteem,” Ceja said of her students. “Any kind of performance, I think, it really builds confidence, and it’s a really positive activity; it’s healthy and it really connects them with their culture because a lot of them are second generation and a lot of them lose their roots.
“Even though their parents are still Spanish speakers, half of them don’t speak the language really well or don’t know anything about their culture or have even been to Mexico. For me, it’s a link.”
Ceja said she teaches traditional folk dances from several different regions of Mexico, but noted that Jalisco is the most popular.
“And it happens to be where I’m from,” she said with a smile.
Different regions feature variances in technique, including speed and tone of the dance.
While the local dance group celebrates Mexican heritage, students of all cultural backgrounds are welcome to join.
Isabel Valdivias of Sunnyvale enrolled her son, Damian Sainz, 9, and daughter, Giselle Sainz, 7, over a year ago after learning about it through her children’s boxing class at the center.
“Mexico is so far away, but they have this at least that they can take with them. It’s important to maintain that Mexican tradition,” Valdivias said. “It’s really emotional watching them perform. We go to the store, and everywhere we go, he’s dancing. They both really like it.”
Giselle Sainz ran over to her mother during one practice in March to take off her pink boxing gloves before putting on her practice skirt.
“My favorite part is the dresses,” Giselle said with a smile. “Also, we make a basket, and everybody likes it.”
After their routine warm-ups, the students get in a circle to perform different kinds of dances. At one point, the boys and girls form an inner circle surrounded by an outer circle and interlock arms, forming a “basket” and weave in and out of each other.
Volunteers come from Fremont and Homestead high schools in Sunnyvale and Wilcox High School in Santa Clara to assist Ceja with prepping the youth for their day’s lesson, helping girls put on their practice skirts and warm up.
The lively dancing is just one of the many activities inside the Gateway Neighborhood Center coordinated by Reach Potential Movement, a local nonprofit that has offered tutoring and youth leadership programs, as well as parent leadership programs for the past seven years.
“At Reach Potential, it is our hope and mission to equip youth in our community with life skills by developing leaders and helping them reach their highest potential in education,” said Aimee Lopez, Reach Potential director of leadership development. “And we do that by creating programs like Baile or Zumba, and coordinating with PAL boxing and doing several other activities as well.
“Gateway Neighborhood Center proves to be a true neighborhood location with a wide range and mix of different backgrounds. But we all come to this place to do several activities.”
Reach Potential child development intern Amadeni Guzman, 19, of Sunnyvale, went from being a student taking advantage of the boxing program at Gateway to coordinating youth volunteers to work at the center.
A recent graduate of Fremont High School, Guzman is studying child development at National Hispanic University in San Jose with the hopes of becoming a family counselor. Guzman said she has seen the benefits of having such an active center for local youth and teens and as a young woman who grew up in Sunnyvale, she said it was important to her to give back.
“I felt like I needed to help my community because they helped me in so many ways, so it was my time to give back,” Guzman said. “This place helps in so many ways. It’s a great place for little kids and volunteers to have a connection together. We started out very, very small, and now we’re huge and we’re still growing.”
To learn more about Baile Folklorico, visit reachpotential.org or call 408.475.4794.
