[Music] [Jay] I guess you can say I have it in my blood, but I myself have been dancing since I was about six years old in the dance group.

[Music] [Open Music] Los Bailadores del Sol was originally established in 1981 by a group of educators.

In 1984, it was taken over by a gentleman by the name of Basilio Rodriguez, who basically took it up all the way until 2009, where my niece and nephew and then I came along as directors shortly after.

My name is Cynthia Deloza, co-director of Los Bailadores del Sol.

So I collaborate with Jay and we get together to talk about what we would like to teach, what our vision is for the group.

I also help break down the steps.

I model a lot with Jay.

[Jay] And see how shes looking at me and Im looking at her?

So we teach dances from all across Mexico, from different regions and different states, and so we have a variety of of different dances that we that we're able to perform.

Some dancers from the state of Jalisco, which is what weve been teaching our beginners class and some from the state of Veracruz as well.

Two completely different region, two completely different states.

Ah, Jalisco is on the Pacific side, kind of central part of Mexico, where Veracruz is on the eastern side of Mexico and more towards the peninsula.

So it's a lot more humid.

And so the costumes actually reflect that, and they represent that because in Veracruz, our customers are all white, you know, lightweight, just a lot cooler based on the area that they're from.

Where for Jalisco, it's big, traditional sombreros for the men and the ladies have the big colorful dresses.

And the men, are more of a, um, masculine, I guess, you know, when they come out in their charro suits, theyre representing basically a Mexican cowboy, if you will.

You know, the women with the dresses they just they bring all the color and the elegance into it.

[Music] It can be a little bit...um, I guess I would say, just difficult, [laughs] for the girls just because they're not just thinking about footwork anymore.

It's footwork and skirt work, [laughs].

Yeah, so.

When you have that skirt on though, its.

it can be very heavy.

You get a total body workout when you have a skirt on.

At practice, it might be a little bit on the stressful side, you know, getting off the kids to like pay attention or want to do it one more time or so.

We really just teach the girls, you know, it's hard right now, but when you're performing it, you just feel beautiful.

But the day of the show, that's where, you know, we see the kids really shine, really get excited.

You might have some hiccups here and there, but you just feel this sense of pride knowing that they worked so hard to even just perform the one dance that they've, you know, that they're doing or two dances that they're doing.

But seeing some growth from when they first started to being on that stage, at that point, it's, it's very rewarding.

[Eva] My favorite thing about it is doing performances.

I do get some butterflies because sometimes I worry that Im going to forget the dance.

But then once I am out there and I hear the music then its like all fine.

You know, when you're in front of a crowd, at first it's a little scary, of course, you know, but then your adrenaline kind of kicks in and the music starts going.

And yeah, you just know, like for me, I just know this is my culture and this is what I want to be able to share with people.

And there is a difference between the dance styles.

For example, in the state of Jalisco, the ladies dresses are flowing and there is a lot of movement, where in the state of Veracruz, there are a lot more still.

They're not moving them quite as much.

The guys in Jalisco dancing will have their hands behind their back.

Veracruz, they have them straight down to their sides.

[Music] The music is different.

There's a different style.

[Music] For Jalisco, it's kind of a traditional mariachi, where you hear the trumpets and you hear some of the traditional music that you might think of when you think of Mexican dancing.

[Jalisco Music] In Veracruz, There's a lot of smaller guitars.

They have harps and things like that.

And so the music is a lot softer.

[Veracruz Music] If you can think of more of a Caribbean feel to the state of Veracruz versus Jalisco, which is more of the mariachi band.

So yeah, so they're both a little bit different, but very unique and very, very beautiful [Sounds of the fair.]

And I really enjoy the whole of preparing for a show, just getting together with, you know, some of the other female dancers and helping each other put, you know, our hair pieces on or you know, getting all the extra fluff, I guess that, you know, the lashes, the makeup, the, you know, all that good stuff, getting them all that together and really just bonding with some of the kids in our group or with our own family members.

That's my favorite part, I guess, is all the backstage stuff.

You know, where we're not just performing.

We're you know, we're making memories.

We're spending time with our families, our friends and just knowing that we're creating those memories.

It's it's very heartwarming.

[Cynthia] I just feel as being a Mexican-American, it can be difficult.

You know, sometimes we just lose our sense of culture.

You know, we kind of develop our new culture, you know, being around whatever community you live in, you develop that culture, which is 100% okay.

But we should always, always be tied to where our history came from, where, you know, our family members have come from.

[Sounds of the fair] We don't charge anything to our students.

We're just teaching it.

We're out here, we're doing it for free, and we're trying to pass that culture and those traditions on to the next generation.

In the way that I see it is that our culture, our tradition, the beauty of the traditional Mexican dancing, it kind of lives and dies with each generation, right?

So if we don't pass that along, then that's it.

That's as far as it goes.

And I feel like it's, it's our duty and our responsibility to be able to pass that on to the next generation.