On May 7, students from the Horace Mann Elementary performed a Mexican traditional dance called Folklorico. The dancers performed the dance at South in front of the students.

“They have this latin, folkloric dance team that travels and performs and they do it all around the city in Wichita, [usually] for certain holidays and certain events,” Rachel Delzer, spanish, said. “I was trying to get them to come perform for my classes and it didn’t really hit me until last week that I thought that why not just come during mav time so that anyone that wants to go can go.”

Delzer had been trying to get the folkloric dance team to perform for her class for a long time and finally got them to come after discussing it with a friend acquainted with the dancers.

“Marlem Rios is our tech guy and he’s also the soccer coach here,” Delzer said. “His son and daughter are both at that school on the team as far as the dance team part of the group and he and I have been talking for years. He shows me videos all the time and I’ve been trying to get them to come.”

Delzer thought it was suiting for the dancers to come perform since her class had just wrapped up their celebrations of Cinco de Mayo.

“He really liked the idea and talked to his wife who helps lead the dance troupe and he chose today [May 7] and I said that it was perfect because we had Cinco de Mayo this last weekend,” Delzer said. “It was kind of a fun way to put an end to all the celebrations we’ve been having in our spanish classes.”

There were many formations to the dance and students got to experience something new.

“I thought it was really cool to see the different dancing and the different cultures being presented in such a unique way,” Holly Price, 10, said. “My favorite part I liked was when the two boys with their masks on couldn’t tell who’s stick was who’s and fought over it.”

Horace Mann Elementary students performing traditional Mexican dance, Folklorico. The dance was performed in the Maize South cafeteria on May 7, 2018. Photo by B Jones-Rupp.