The first time I became interested in dancing was when my mother took me to see a popular dance performance. I was 13 years old at the time and I practiced boxing like most kids my age… and I didn’t like it. I remember that presentation well. What I liked the most was the joy reflected in the faces of the dancers. You could tell they were having a lot of fun. I also liked that there were couples dancing and there were many women, which was not in boxing. All that was what motivated me to dance!
I felt and to this day I feel that it is a very beautiful form of expression. When dancing, nothing matters more than feeling good and enjoying yourself even if you have thousands of problems in your day to day life. It is a magical moment in which you and the rest of the dancers are transported to a wonderful place where once you are there you do not want to return.
I want to share this part of my culture with the community because I feel that through Afro-Cuban dance I am not only teaching a dance, I am also telling a story; the history of the Orishas in the case of the Yoruba culture and the history of enslaved blacks in Cuba in the case of Palo (Congo).
My goal, and I think that of any artist, is to touch people’s hearts with my art, which in this case is dance. I feel that dancing changed my life for the better and that just as it helped me, it can help many people. My dream is for my culture to be increasingly recognized and to be able to inspire more people every day to cultivate it so that it does not die. Personally, what keeps me motivated is the thirst to learn from the people around me. That makes me prepare myself more every day and learn to be able to transmit that knowledge to my students.
As a Cuban I feel very proud to be able to contribute my grain of sand to allow our culture to transcend. There are many of us out there supporting, educating and uniting communities with art. Some do it with music, others through cinema or plays; I’m doing it through dance!
