Ballet Folklórico de la Raza celebrates 30 years of Mexican dance and hand-sewn dresses
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Tucked in the back of a small fabric store lodged between a bridal gown shop and what used to be a Burlingtons, the members of Ballet Folklórico de la Raza break the silence of the Citadel Mall with their rhythmic tapping as they rehearse a new number.
The Ballet Folklórico, a nonprofit dance group specializing in the traditional Mexican ballet folklórico, turned 30 this year. It has about 20 members.
The dancers refine complicated footwork while wearing traditional folk dresses hand-sewn by the group’s founder, Connie Benavidez, who at 86 continues to craft the garments.
“She’s everyone’s grandma,” said Danae Torres, a near-lifelong dancer-turned-instructor with Ballet Folklórico de la Raza. “She’s a community grandma.”
Benavidez was born in Colorado and bounced around small towns in southern Colorado before eventually settling in the Springs. Her father, a Mexican immigrant, raised her to develop a deep appreciation for her Mexican roots.
“Why is [Ballet Folklórico] important? Because it’s who I am,” said Benavidez.
The art known as Ballet Folklórico de Mexico — which could be loosely translated to “folk dancing” in English — emerged most prominently in the 1920s through Amalia Hernandez, a renowned Mexican dancer and choreographer who helped pioneer the folkloric dance movement in 20th-century Mexico.
Hernandez worked with the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP), a newly-formed government department dedicated to re-establishing Mexican identity through public education, to build Ballet Folklórico de Mexico into “‘a collective symbol of identity’” for the country following the Mexican Revolution.
As Ballet Folklórico spread throughout the public education system, the 32 different states of Mexico began introducing elements to the dance and the dresses from their respective regions, sewing in intricate lacing in the Spanish-influenced state of Veracruz or adding colorful flowers to represent the flora of Chiapas.
Benivadez first became involved with the dance form after her four daughters began dancing.
Yet age, capacity and financial constraints limited the young girls’ ambitions. Dresses were prohibitively expensive, and some groups turned them away for being too young or claiming they did not have enough space.
So, she started her own.
“We knew how to dance, we had been dancing already,” said Benavidez. “But we needed dresses, so I just started sewing everything.”
Benavidez was an amateur crocheter and could sew well enough to mend her daughters’ clothes, but she had never created anything from scratch, much less a full, patterned dress.
From 1994 through to only a few years ago, Benavidez spent hours toiling away at a small sewing machine located at the foot of her bed, sometimes spending as much as 15 hours across multiple nights to complete a single dress.
She frequently worked nights after shifts as a typist and administrative assistant at a government agency in Colorado Springs.
There, she regularly experienced racial harassment from co-workers, mostly male, who commented on her accent and her Mexican roots.
“They would say, ‘Oh, how’s the hot tamale today?’” said Benavidez. “So I would go home with tears in my eyes every day.”
“I learned the hard way. But I got over it.”
Benavidez studied the designs, fabrics and other materials that composed the traditional Mexican dresses specific to each of the 32 regions of Mexico (31 states and one government district).
She proudly stated that she has never used a pattern book, everything is by sight and memory.
Ballet Folklórico de la Raza officially formed in 1994. Anyone could join for $10, just enough to cover the price of the instruction space. The rate remains the same today, even when tuition can run as high as $100-$200 for other dance groups. All instructors, including Danae, work as volunteers.
The Ballet waives fees for those who are unable to afford it.
Dancers are asked to buy their own shoes if possible, but the dresses — which also run into the hundreds of dollars — are all loaned from Benavidez’s expansive folklórico dress closet.
“I wanted to make sure that [kids’] parents would see their kids dance and not have to spend hundreds of dollars on outfits,” said Benavidez. “That’s how we started, and we’re still that way.”
Danae Torres joined as a teenager around 2000. She danced under the instruction of Gloria Benavidez, one of Connie’s daughters, until she left to study at UCCS.
Torres said that if it weren’t for the guidance and support of the Benavidez’s and Ballet Folklórico de la Raza, she may never have studied Spanish at the college level.
She returned a few years later with a bachelors degree in Spanish and rejoined the troupe as an instructor.
Torres first instructed on a volunteer basis while working full-time as a middle school teacher. Her experience in the classroom, matched with the Mexican history and culture she studied in college, inspired Torres to incorporate more cultural lessons into her dance classes.
“I want them to understand why they’re doing what they’re doing,” Torres said. “Understanding the concepts behind these dances, the dresses, the footwork.”
“And I think that’s what makes Mexico so special, is that each state has its own definition. Each Mexican is so proud of the state they come from.”
The United Mexican States is made up of 31 states and one federal district, Mexico City.
Ballet Folklórico has evolved differently in each as it was shaped by regional climates and cultures.
For example, in the east coast state of Heroica Veracruz (also known as Veracruz), dresses are traditionally light and white to account for the region's high temperatures. ‘The patterned lace designs are Spanish-influenced since Veracruz was one of the first ports reached by Spanish colonizers in the 1500s.
Meanwhile in Chiapas, located along Mexico’s southwest border with Guatemala, dresses are traditionally darker and decorated with colorful floral patterns resembling the fauna of the jungles that define the area.
Torres now teaches with her daughter, Fabiana, who has been dancing since she was only one.
Full families have sometimes participated in the Ballet Folklórico de la Raza, adding to the multi-generational impact that Torres said the group has had on Colorado Springs’ growing appreciation for Ballet Folklórico.
Benavidez doesn’t make many dresses anymore. She’s already burned through four sewing machines across her dress-making career.
One of her earliest dresses is now on display in the Pioneers Museum in downtown Colorado Springs, and her dresses were showcased nationwide when the Ballet performed in President Obama’s 2013 Inauguration Parade.
Benavidez hopes that young dancers will continue to join and use her dresses to deliver the joy that Ballet Folklórico de la Raza has brought her and her community.
“‘De la Raza’” means “‘of the people,’” said Benavidez, “and that’s what we wanted the dance group to be.”
“So when [audiences] clap for us, it makes us all feel good, because we’re doing our job by learning and dancing for them.”