Fiesta Latina returns to OCC

Jim Carnett

Fiesta Latina returns to Orange Coast College next Tuesday morning

and evening, May 3. The popular event is being offered for the fifth

time on campus.

A dance and cultural heritage outreach to the local community,

Fiesta Latina will be staged in OCC’s Robert B. Moore Theatre, free

of charge. The colorful and energetic production offers striking

examples of Latin American culture, dance and music.

OCC students will present a pair of one-hour public performances,

at 10 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., in the Moore Theatre. The public is invited

to attend.

Jose Costas, an OCC professor of dance, is Fiesta Latina’s

artistic director. Costas is a native of Puerto Rico and spent nine

years as principal dancer with Ballet Hispanico of New York. He

joined OCC’s faculty in 1999.

Orange Coast’s Fiesta Latina Company features more than a dozen

student dancers. Tuesday’s performances will showcase dances from

Cuba, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Brazil and the

Dominican Republic.

“When you learn about our dances, you learn something about who we

(Latinos) are,” Costas said. “The Latino community is a tapestry of

culturally diverse people who share deep historical roots. Their

social, cultural and spiritual values and myths are integrated into

some of the world’s greatest traditions of dance and music.

“These traditions, which emanate from European, Indian, African

and other indigenous influences, reach far back into time -- and far

across the globe -- to blend into a vivid kaleidoscope of dance and

music.”

The morning and evening concerts will include elaborately costumed

performances of the bomba, the salsa and the Spanish danza from

Puerto Rico; the mambo from Cuba; the samba from Brazil; the cumbia

from Colombia and Venezuela; the jarocho from Mexico; and the

meringue, the national dance of the Dominican Republic.

Costas said Fiesta Latina performances provide unusual insight

into Latino culture.

“The goal of our concerts -- which are open to school children,

high school and college students and adults -- is always to

demonstrate the relationship that exists between dance and everyday

life in Latino culture and to display the rich diversity of Latin

American cultural heritage.”

Costas says it’s important to note that there’s no single

definitive Latino culture.

“When you look at Central and South America on a map, it’s a huge

region with many different geographical influences, cultures and

ethnic groups,” he said. “We attempt to depict this diversity in our

OCC performances.”

A graduate of Catholic University of Puerto Rico, with a

bachelor’s degree. in biology, Costas turned his back on a career in

medicine to embrace the world of dance. He earned an master’s degree

in dance from NYU’s Tish School of the Arts in 1986 and was signed to

a contract by Ballet Hispanico.

Costas became the company’s principal dancer and remained for

nearly a decade. He created lead roles in many ballets and performed

with the company as it toured throughout the United States, Europe

and Latin America. He was special project assistant for Ballet

Hispanico’s outreach program and taught dance workshops in the New

York City public schools.

The OCC professor left Ballet Hispanico in 1995 to become a full-time lecturer in dance at California State University, Dominguez

Hills. He joined the Orange Coast College faculty six years ago.

Costas teaches classes in ballet, Latin dance styles, jazz dance,

rehearsal and performance and performing ensemble.

For information about Fiesta Latina, call (714) 432-5123, ext. 2.

PROMINENT KENYAN SCHOLAR TO SPEAK AT OCC

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, one of Africa’s most prominent and accomplished

writers and scholars, will speak Wednesday, April 27, at OCC.

Thiong’o will deliver an 80-minute address at 11:10 a.m. in Fine

Arts Hall 119. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

His presentation is titled “Cultural and Political Imperialism.”

A prominent Kenyan scholar and world-famous writer of African

literature, Thiong’o is currently a distinguished professor of

English and comparative literature and the director of the

International Center for Writing and Translation at UC Irvine.

He is a prolific novelist, playwright, essayist and critic and is

author of such works as “I Will Marry When I Want,” “Moving the

Centre; Struggle for Cultural Freedoms,” “Writers in Politics,”

“Pinpoints, Gunpoints and Dreams” and “The Trial of Dedan Kimathi.”

In 2003, Thiong’o delivered the Steven Biko Memorial Lecture in

Johannesburg, South Africa. He has lectured at Oxford and Cambridge

and in 2002 was elected an honorary member of the American Academy of

Arts and Letters.

CLASSIC CAR SHOW SUPPORTS SYMPHONY

OCC’s Foundation will host its Custom Classic Car Show on campus

this Sunday to raise funds for the college Symphony Orchestra and

Chorale.

The car show, presented by Off the Street Promotions, will run

from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the athletic field adjacent to LeBard

Stadium.

Admission is $5. For more information, call (714) 403-0359.

OCC’s Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Ricardo Soto, is

in the midst of its 44th season of public concerts. The Symphony

offers four perform- ances a year. The 100-voice Chorale, also

directed by Soto, presents four concerts annually.

* JIM CARNETT is senior director of community relations at Orange

Coast College. He writes the biweekly On Campus at OCC Column. Reach

him at jcarnettocc.cccd.edu or by calling (714) 432-5725.