Marisol Pineda '08

Over the past few weeks, the everyday life of Marisol Pineda ’08 has often demanded as much agility and grace as the traditional Mexican dance she considers her art. While Ballet Folklórico is “very fast paced and demands a lot of synchronization,” Pineda has also had to perform a tripartite role as co-director, choreographer, and dancer in preparation for the April 22 “Presencia Latina” show.

“I find myself running from one rehearsal to another and when I finally sit down, I’m sending out e-mail regarding the music, the program order, or any of the different aspects that go into performing the show.”

Pineda grew up in Los Angeles, where Ballet Folklórico was always performed at family parties, elementary school talent shows, and church celebrations. She had a particular fondness for women’s dances from the region of Jalisco. “I always remember those particular dances for their particular costumes. The dresses were very colorful with lots of ribbons and the dancers wore ribbons in their hair. I always looked up to the women who performed Ballet Folklórico because they presented the beauty of women to the audience by dancing in their beautiful costumes.

Yet while Pineda describes Ballet Folklórico in Los Angeles as something that was “taken up similarly to jazz or hip hop elsewhere,” her realization that she wanted to be a performer rather than spectator occurred upon coming to Harvard.

“From pre-frosh weekend, I remember seeing Harvard Ballet Folklórico de Aztlán (BFA) at the activities fair. Growing up, I had never been in any sort of dance performance. Yet realizing that there was a student group here that didn’t require any prior experience, I decided to join.”

While joining was simple, learning to become a proficient Ballet Folklórico dancer was an endeavor that required perseverance.

“My membership in BFA started out with a really long practice. I must give credit to Martha Casillas ’05 and Raudel Yanez ’06 who were the co-directors last year. They stuck with me from the get go, repeated steps for me, and had one-on-one sessions with me when I couldn’t quite get the right beat. It was definitely a learning experience as a whole. I think that dancing with BFA was one of the best experiences of my freshman year,” she says.

“It was one of the first times that I saw a lot of people interested in Latino culture. From then I knew that I also wanted to take on a leadership role. I feel that Presencia Latina is the one event where Latinos are really shown in a very positive light, and I want to share that with everybody.”

Pineda has answered her calling to leadership this year, assuming co-directorship of both BFA and Presencia Latina, as well as choreographing two pieces—“Jesusita” and “La Bamba”—which BFA will perform in the show. In choreographing “Jesusita,” a traditional Mexican piece from the era of the Mexican Revolution, Pinada has been able to return to the women’s dancing she loved so much as a child. She emphasizes the presence of “several twirls for the girls, who are definitely the center focus of the dance.”

While Pineda’s role as co-director will preclude her participation onstage in the BFA pieces—since she is managing the show from backstage she won’t be able to spare the hour and a half necessary to create the traditional updo and makeup required of a Ballet Folklórico dancer—she will perform in the Danza Azteca piece “El Águila.” Wearing feathers and dancing as an eagle as a performance for the Aztec gods she will take part in a “tradition carried over for generations and generations.”

Indeed, in each role Pineda plays in this weekend’s production, she will be steeped in a strong tradition. As she concludes, “I hope to showcase the beauty and richness that Mexican culture has and offers through dance.”