While sitting on the floor waiting for their rehearsal to start, a group of nine girls helped each other stretch. After a few minutes, they got up one by one and started putting on mid ankle length skirts. Soon enough they were standing in rows, waiting for the music to start. The sound of trumpets and violins from "Son de la Negra" by Mariachi Vargas filled the room, and so did the tapping of their shoes.
Andrea Lopez Garza, an anthropology major at the University of North Texas, says she started a group for baile folklórico at school because dancing helps her connect with her culture and she wanted to create a place to seek friendships with others.
"I kind of wanted to provide that for other people at UNT who either didn't have an access to [baile folklórico] when they were growing up," Garza said. "Or they were able to participate when they were younger, but now that they are in college, our school didn't have one."
Baile folklórico, or folkloric dancing, is a traditional Mexican dance that has been around for many years. In this particular style of dance girls wear colorful dresses and short heels while boys usually wear a single colored attire.
Someone who is not familiar with the traditional dance may think it is always danced to the same kind of music. The truth is, baile folklórico is danced in many different ways to different types of songs. It all just depends on the region and style the dancers are trying to represent. Each of the different regions in Mexico have different cultures and because of that, different music is associated with each those cultures. For example, Vera Cruz, Azteca and Norteño are all different styles you can represent through dance.
With sweat on her forehead and heavy breathing, Garza said although she may like the feeling she gets from the music, she also gets tired of hearing the same song repeatedly during the groups two hour practices.
"[My feeling] ranges right? From a sense of nostalgia, or I get chills, to like annoyance. Like 'I heard too much of that'," she said.
Twenty-one year old, Ana Jurado who was born in Mexico, says she likes watching this type of dance and wishes she had more time so could join the organization. She says she enjoys listening to the music they dance to because of the variety and different sounds.
“Well I really like to listen to folkloric music because there’s a million ways to listen to," Jurado said. "For example there’s mariachi. They use the same kind of music folkloric dancers dance to.”
Although folkloric music it self may have many different influences, UNT senior, Adriana Solis, says she hears influences from folkloric music in today's music.
"It may not be exactly the same, but i feel like certain rhythms and stuff like that might have lead to current music's evolution," Solis said.
With Hispanic Heritage Month coming to an end, UNT's baile folklórico organization will perform at 2 p.m. on Friday Oct. 12 in front of the school's language building.