Serrano 1 Wendy Serrano Eng 1102 Ms.

Caruso 7/25/12 Foreign Dance Training Dance training in foreign countries is a very rigid process; a dancer would have to start their career in a very early age in order to be able to have a full career as a dancer. Most dancers begin training before adolescence and start auditioning for full-time work by the age of 18. Even after a dancer finds employment, training continues throughout the dancer's entire career which could be between 25 years of career or longer depending on how well you take care of yourself as a dancer. The comparison in training here in the United States is so different when training in another country, based on my experience and my research I have found that the training one receive in another country makes you a much more complete dancer versus the training you receive in the United States.

Countries such as China Known for their folkloric and Story Telling interpretation dances, Cuba for their Afro-Cuban, Ballet and Modern, Russia for their Ballet, Folklore, Gypsy Russian, and Ballroom, and France for their Ballet, are examples of some of the top countries that offer the best quality dance training today. Most Ballrooms in the United States, invest a lot of money in order to employ dancers from any of this

Serrano 2 four countries. Charlotte North Carolina can proudly recognize one of the top schools in the South North Carolina Dance Theater under the Artistic Direction of Jean- Pierre Bonnefoux trains and employs dancers from all over the country and world wide. In the words of Alicia Alonso Director of Nacional Ballet de Cuba "If you're given everything, you don't know
what to choose. Here we are given very little, but we're so hungry we eat it all up. In Cuba, we talk about art as if it were food and water, It is essential to train in all

styles of dance in order to consider yourself a complete dancer one must be able to train in all Afro-Cuban and Guanganco (traditional Cuban dances) dances in addition to Ballet and Modern, all for $65 dollars a month once you become a professional dancer. In China kids were
picked out their school classes chosen and taken by the government to private schools and trained them in ballet and other dances, in order for this kids to succeed they were not allow to visit or have communications with their families, everything they were learning was everything they needed to know. Here in the United States this country offers so much and facilitates the opportunities that maybe this is why only very few dancers can achieve such level.

In the United States for most people dance is an outlet, and escape from real life duties, one can find beginner Latin, Ballroom, Ballet, Jazz or Hiphop classes everyday of the week, In a typical ballroom dance studio, students are given the opportunity to learn and feel as if you are a professional dancers, for a Cost of course. Because it is a business in most ballroom dance schools an Instructor and studio director sells the

Serrano 3 idea of dance life style, training their students in different styles of dance and taking them to a competition, this process along can cost between $6,000 to $15,000 depending on the studio. T.V shows such as dancing with the Stars have made ballroom even more desirable, partnering up a professional dancer with a regular famous person giving the idea that anybody can do it, winning base on popularity instead of talent. On the other hand in the Latin community classes such as Salsa, Mambo, bachata, Flamenco, Kizomba to name a few it is not unusual that students come and learn the basic steps, dance for a few months and then they open their own classes, charging money for teaching something that they are not fully trained in. In the past three years I know of Five different students that now hold their own classes teaching people to dance Salsa, and Bachata, they have created mediocre dancers, that get surprise when they attend a dance social and are not able to really dance with more trained dancers, this type of instructors teach a sloppy step without any history or feeling of the dance and yet they succeed, they would never be able to do this in any of the countries mention above, in Latin dance events our main audience is a general middle age and older public that are new to dance, making any class or performance an exquisite experience in their lives. In the United States only twenty-three percent of people attend any type of Opera or Musical-Theater event according to the New York Times (Yarrow), so when an Inexperience instructor/performer goes in-

Serrano 4 front of the other seventy-seven percent, this people think they are experiencing some really high quality performance when in fact they are not qualified to even touch a dance stage. Our country tends to baby its people, making it difficult to realize that sometimes if we really want to do something we must work extremely hard to achieve the best results, at the end of the day there is no Tenth place winner, it is only First place. We must sacrifice our time, our bodies and our minds in order to go all the way, it is as simple as Black and White.

I have been dancing for Six years professionally, training under the direction of Rodrigo Jimenez, (Two-time National Champion), Abel Pea and Zulmara Torres (Three-Time ESPN Salsa Champion), Ana Llorente graduate of the National Ballet in Cuba (Two-Time Ballroom and Cabaret World Champion), Alien Ramirez graduate of the National Ballet in Cuba (Six-Time World Champion in Salsa, Cabaret and Bachata). All of this dancers are very well trained in different styles of dance and they all have one thing in common, they have sacrificed so much to be where they are now, for example Rodrigo Jimenez originally from Chile is trained in Flamenco, Chilean dances and Mexican Folk, Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Argentine Tango, Capoeira, Samba, Kizomba, Gipsy Russian, Indian dances, Caporales and Cueca, dancing for one of the Top folkloric dance companies from Salt Lake City UHDAtraveling all over Europe, South and North America, his dance training comes with a high price of

Serrano 5 sacrifices and broken bones, but a complete dancer, you can not call yourself a professional dancer if you only know one style of dance, as a dancer you must maintain an open mind to learn and appreciate different styles of dance. Ana Llorente, trained in all styles of Afro-cuban, ballet, modern, Cabaret and ballroom had to travel to Dominican Republic to escape from Cuba in order to come to the United States and actually make it as a dancer. Although I live here in the United States my desire to receive training from such instructors is so important if I want to exceed in my career. I have been able to travel doing what I love, Dance to me is not about impressing but Expressing. I dance Argentine Tango, Salsa, Bachata, Flamenco, and Kizomba, I have trained and performed Gypsy Russian, traditional Indian Dances, Caporales and Mexican Folk in addition to my specialty dances. The passion and its history of each dance is Amazing and as a dancer one must become each character. It is so important to train and become a presentable artist, and always striving to become a leading, humble artist. Dance is the air that I breathe, the taste in mouth, the urges in my body, I dance because words can no longer express my feelings. My mission is to teach and educate as many people as I can, I have the opportunity to work with schools and universities, I believe dance heals our soul. Working with kids of all social status providing them with an outlet to something better, teaching them to challenge themselves, to

Serrano 6 respect others, to create art, and to be an inspiration to others. Dance training might be better in other countries but one person at a time can make dance better here in the USA.