Hispanic Awareness Dance Seminar Always Draws a Crowd

Karen Veliz Santos, J1 Staff Writer

Hispanic heritage month started on September 15 and Paint Branch High School are hosted a dance seminar where students from any grade could come out and dance  Hispanic dances like Bachata, Kumbia and Mambo.

In addition to this special day, September 15, Hispanic Awareness celebrates heritage each Friday with  dance seminars that are held  during lunch in room 1316. On this particular Friday, they had their second dance seminar of the school year. One student who attended was Marcela Galvez, a tenth grader  who came out and enjoyed the event. Galvez said, “If there is one thing to change about the dance seminar, it is the amount of people that are ‘spectators’ because they get in the way of people who try to dance. The dance seminar makes me feel like my culture is still inside even though I’m not at home.”  

The classroom becomes very crowded within the first five minutes, so the majority of the students stack up the desks on one another. The diversity among participants in the dance seminar is very impressive, as there are many different cultures dancing along with the music. There are even people doing their own cultural  dances. Another student who attended, Ann Marie Akpan, a twelfth grader, said she did not feel comfortable right away because she thought it was only for Hispanics, but then when she saw other minorities there she felt “comfortable to enjoy myself.” She also noted that, “my friends are their to support me.”

At the end of the day, everyone comes together no matter what race they are. They have fun meeting new people because the group does a strong job of making  it a safe and comfortable environment for everybody to enjoy. Diversity is key.