(natural sound: The Latin American Music Ensemble playing)
Around 40 students filled Harris Hall last week Wednesday to dance to the sounds of Live Latin music by the Northwestern Latin American Music Ensemble.
(natural sound: The Latin American Music Ensemble playing)
Students were dancing Bachata, Salsa, Merengue and Cumbia as Misael Juarez, student and member, of the Latin American Music Ensemble taught the steps.
MISAEL JUAREZ: So, so let’s go. Right foot back, one, two, three. Back to the beginning. Now do our left foot, and hit your heel on the floor.
Attendee Jacky Maya, a Radio Television and Film freshman, appreciated not just participating but being taught the steps to each dance.
JACKY MAYA: I appreciate a lot of the music, and like, they also like, taught people how to dance, especially since like, there’s some people that probably don’t know or didn’t grow up with it. I kind of didn’t grow up with it. I used to go to parties, but I used to be like, really hesitant with dancing because nobody taught me. I also went to like, this past year where like, my friends taught me, but again, like, I haven’t practiced that much, so it’s really nice. They taught people how to do the basic steps, and I was like, oh, I remember this. Like, I got this.
The event was hosted by the Northwestern Spanish club but, fellow event organizer and assistant professor, Estilita Kasyani wanted it to be open to all Northwestern students to showcase Northwestern’s Latin Music Ensemble and to allow students to explore different styles of Latin Music.
ESTILITA KASYANI: So basically for tonight we want the students to have an amazing time. But also to dance Latin music and we also wanted to showcase the band. Because they are a group of students that are here at Northwestern who are Latinx. So we wanted, what we wanted was that, all Northwestern students, you know come together to dance. Connect with others, but also listen and dance Latin music.
Weinberg freshman and a pianist in the Latin American Music Ensemble, Adrian Negri says that as a musician he appreciated that people were dancing.
ADRIAN NEGRI: I definitely loved seeing everyone move. You know, it’s we’re a music band, right? But we usually we’re not dancing, we’re just playing. But because we have so many people right now, we keep switching in between like instrumentalists. And so it was fun seeing everyone, you know, move, move around a little bit.
[natural sound: The Latin American Music Ensemble playing]
Students not only got to learn the steps to various dances but they learned brief histories of some of them.
JUAREZ: Bachata comes from the Dominican Republic. Um, I don’t know as much history about it, but, it came, oh, it, it came from the 1950s. It started on the Cochise side of the Dominican Republic. It usually was the first outcast, but, you know, as things are, you know, you’re outcast, lower class, and then eventually the upper class takes it, and then it becomes a national genre. So it’s kind of like the history of bachata.
Maya, said that she felt seen by the event as her Hispanic culture is underrepresented in her radio television and film courses.
MAYA: Being in my major, there really isn’t that many Hispanics.
I think I might be the only Hispanic in my year, so it’s very like, there’s a lot of lack of my own culture, which I was like, it’s very different where I came from. Yeah, I’m from like, I was born in the U.S., but where I like, where I live is very Hispanic heavy, so even though I am still in the U.S., it’s a lot of the Mexican culture, the Hispanic culture, everywhere I go, and not having it here feels very kind of barren without it, in a way. So I just felt that coming here is very, you know, it’s gonna bring up a little bit more joy from where I came from.”
Negri said events like these are important to him because they allow him to connect with his culture.
NEGRI: I think they’re important because it helps us, it helps us, at least me personally, it helps me reminisce of my country and my traditions and how I used to be like, you know, I used to be a kid at family parties, or like any party really.
And this would be what it would be like. And I’ve been here for eight years in the US. And it’s hard to find that, you know, there’s not that many Hispanic people here, obviously, and it’s not the tradition. And so having this kind of remembering back where you’re coming from, it’s just amazing for me.”
The ensemble is just over a year old but has gained about ten to fifteen new members since it began. Negri says they are looking to raise money for instruments.
NEGRI: I think last year, they had less than 20 members. Now we have like 30-35 members. And then we’re also trying to raise money to buy instruments. And it’s been going well, it’s been going well. We’ve played like four times already, or like four or five times already this quarter. And I think that’s a good number.
Kasyani says that more students showed up than she anticipated and they would like to attend more campus Latin American music events like this one, so she is hoping for a bigger space next time.
KASYANI: Please and many of the students were like, can we please do it again? Not just this quarter, but also spring quarter, for example And I think in the future we will have to have like a big Classroom or a big room.
To stay up to date on future events like this you can follow nuspanishclub and nu.lme on Instagram for more live Latin American Music performances.
[natural sound: The Latin American Music Ensemble playing]
For WNUR News I’m Moriah Pettway.
