Anaya Latin Dance Cultivates Community in Students Through Dance

Anchorage Concert Association created the Community Artist Project to partner with local artists to create short-term projects that will utilize arts events or activities to connect communities and are designed between artists and a community partner (or organization) to make a meaningful impact on our community.

Working at West High School and Steller Secondary School, Anaya Latin Dance will host a series of classes to provide an opportunity for social contact and physical connection that has been lacking after a year of Covid-related restrictions, while building not only dance and cultural knowledge, but also mutual respect, healthy boundaries, kindness, good etiquette, and self-assured enjoyment among the participants.

All Anchorage School District secondary students are invited to join Anaya Latin Dance for this series of fun and free dance classes. Students will be learning rueda de casino, a fun way of dancing Cuban salsa as a group of interchanging partners. This is to say that while students will dance with pairs, everyone will also dance together. Participants can expect a little bit of mambo, a little rumba, a little reggaeton, and a lot of laughter and tons of fun!

Classes will meet from 2:30 to 3:30 pm on Mondays (West) and Wednesdays (Steller) from September 20th through November 10th. A special after school party will be held for the participants on Monday, November 15th incorporating members from the wider social dance community. Students will need to sign up in advance to reserve their spots as leaders and followers in the series, with each week building upon the next. Young men are strongly encouraged to join!

Ciro Anaya and Liz Anaya have been teaching in Alaska since 2018, their dance classes, courses, and workshops mainly focus on Cuban salsa (casino, timba) for individual dancers ("salsa suelta"), for partners/couples, and for groups of partners/couples ("rueda de casino"). They also teach other Cuban social and popular dances, including the genres of son, mambo, and chachachá, incorporating other Cuban and Afro-Cuban elements to the extent of their collective knowledge and capacity.

Anchorage Concert Association is the largest arts and entertainment presenter in Alaska. As a nonprofit organization with the mission to inspire and enhance community through the performing arts, Anchorage Concert Association connects people through performance and presents internationally acclaimed artists from the entire spectrum of the performing arts. Learn more at anchorageconcerts.org.

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