Author Spotlight
Lyda Cosgrove
Maintain the pacing — not too fast, not too slow. Watch your skirt work. Tune in to the music. Let it all flow together. And whatever you do, don’t let your smile drop.
Junior May Valdez’s mind is a jumble of thoughts as she tightens the strap of her dance shoes and straightens each skirt ruffle, mounting the stage of that weekend’s Folklórico performance — a highly-choreographed, traditional Mexican dance style consisting of tap and ballet with an emphasis on local folk culture.
But May doesn’t consider herself a dancer. She’s a storyteller of her Hispanic heritage.
“Not a lot of people know our culture,” May said. “Every song, every dress movement, every step, every smile, every turn we do — it tells a story.”
May grew up tagging along with 2018 East alum and older sister Stacey Valdez to her Folklórico practices. Too young to join in on the dancing herself, May would watch in awe at the swirling colors, structured-but-artistic movements and undying passion and focus of the dancers. By the time she was 13, she couldn’t wait any longer. Having picked up the basics simply from watching all those years, she jumped right into dancing and performing alongside her sister.
“I was so intimidated [when I started],” May said. “I thought I was doing everything wrong. If you do one step wrong, the whole dance is wrong, but if you really listen and pay attention, it all flows together. Once the other girls were telling me that I was doing great and I had my own solo for the first time, I thought, ‘I can do this,’ and I’m very confident now, most definitely.”
After a few years of dancing with their former group, the Valdezes along with fellow performer and 2017 East alum Annel Alvarez were hoping for more creative freedom when it came to the instruction and style of their dancing. So, the trio formed Grupo Folklórico Izcalli in March 2021. For the first few months, rehearsals were spent in the Valdez family’s garage or backyard with four girls and a few pairs of character shoes.
The goal from the beginning was never to have the biggest number of dancers or most extravagant dresses — it was to share their Mexican culture with the community, and to fully immerse themselves in it through dance. As second generation immigrants, Mexico was a place they felt distant from. Folklórico has given May and her sister the opportunity to connect to their heritage and family members.
Through word of mouth and social media over the past year, the group has grown to a total of 15 women, from ages 14 to 30. They’ve upgraded from practices in random parks and garages to a rented-out studio in Shawnee, Kansas, where they spend every Tuesday and Thursday from 6-8 p.m. solidifying formations for the intricate partner dances and sharpening each spin of their solo dances.
Grupo Folklórico Izcalli accepts dancers at all levels. Whether they’ve grown up surrounded by Folklórico dancers in the family or are hoping to fully immerse themselves in their heritage for the first time, each girl in the group shares a bond over one goal — sharing their culture with the community.
May knows the Latina community in the KC Metro area is strong, with around seven other well-known Folklórico dance groups as occasional competition. However, what makes Grupo Folklórico Izcalli stand out is their strictly female ensemble and non-traditional all-black underdresses, and is what gets them recognized and invited to perform.
With September being Hispanic Heritage month, every weekend Friday through Sunday was spent at events in partnership with Hispanic-owned businesses and heritage festivals, sometimes with three performances each day. The group even performed at the Chiefs Halftime show for Latinx Heritage — a moment that stands out as their proudest.
Annel, who’s taken on the role of the group’s coach, mentor and all things management, credits their quick success and recognition to the group’s persistence — reaching out to Chiefs management, players and anyone with connections to the team every day via social media, email and phone calls for two weeks straight.
“This was a long shot,” Annel said. “[I thought] ‘they’re not gonna respond to me,’ you know? But, two and a half weeks went by, and they finally responded that they were interested. Some could say it was luck, but I think we really tried our hardest to be chosen for that role.”
On Sept. 26, Grupo Folklórico Izcalli became the first-ever Folklórico group to dance on the Chiefs football field. Annel and May both remember the powerful emotions of the 90-second performance — they’d made it.
“We’re the youngest group in Kansas, and we are the first and only group that has ever set foot on the Chiefs football field, which was insane,” Annel said. “During our performance, I think we all cried. I turned around to look at my dancers and it was just an emotional feeling, sort of relief that we did it. And like all that pressure was off and that we accomplished a lot.”
Pulled muscles, blistered feet and sore bodies are nothing uncommon, but the pride that comes with a successful performance makes it all worth it to May. The up to 90-minute performances of constant stomping and twirling, with one five-minute break to catch a breath are strenuous, to say the least, according to May. The first 30 minutes of their two-hour rehearsals are dedicated strictly to stretching and footwork techniques. Many girls listen to the music outside of rehearsals to further engrain the rhythms of each song in their minds.
“Right now, it’s just dance, that’s all I have on my mind,” May said.
As the women of Grupo Folklórico Izcalli approach their one-year mark, May, Stacey and Annel are proud of all they’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time, being the youngest group in the area. They hope to someday open their own academy that can provide classes for both children and adults.
“You just project your culture in a way that you don’t really have to speak, like the music and our footwork and our skirt work and our smiling speaks for itself,” Annel said. “Putting our culture out there is what motivates me and showing people that Mexico is a lot more than what you’re gonna see on the news, or what you’re gonna hear. We have a beautiful culture.”
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