College hosts sixth Fiesta Latina

Orange Coast College will stage its sixth annual Fiesta Latina celebration Thursday and Friday on campus.

Fiesta Latina is an OCC dance and cultural heritage outreach to Orange County’s elementary schools and high schools ? and to local adults. It’s a colorful and energetic educational presentation, offering striking examples of Latin American culture, dance and music.

Free one-hour public performances are scheduled for at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and at 11 a.m. Friday in the Robert B. Moore Theatre.

Artistic director of Fiesta Latina is OCC dance professor Jose Costas, a native of Puerto Rico who spent nine years as principal dancer with Ballet Hispanico of New York City. Ballet Hispanico has been widely recognized as the foremost dance interpreter of Hispanic culture in the United States.

The Fiesta Latina Company features more than a dozen student dancers. Thursday and Friday’s performances will showcase dances of 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 says. “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.”

This week’s 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 says Fiesta Latina performances offer unusual insight into Latino culture.

“The goal of our concerts is to show audiences the relationships between dance and everyday life in Latino culture, and to demonstrate the rich diversity of Latin American cultural heritage,” Costas said.

A graduate of Catholic University in Puerto Rico, Costas earned a master’s degree in dance from New York University. As a principal dancer with Ballet Hispanico, he created lead roles in many ballets, and performed with the company throughout the U.S., Europe and South America.

For information about Fiesta Latina, phone (714) 432-5506, ext. 4.