Chavalos Dance Program: Chavalos Danzas por Nicaragua was established in the Latinx Cultural district of San Francisco, we felt the need to display and showcase the multidimensions of the Latinx identity specifically from a Central American point of view and what that experience is like here in the Mission District. Our Nicaraguan community is large here in San Francisco, Nicaragua is rich in culture and rooted in traditions. Our group is dedicated to highlight these traditions through our folkloric dances. Our dance program gives a glimpse into the Nicaraguan and Central American which also relates to the Latinx community and all the nuances within it. Although we have been organizing cultural events since 2010, it took six years to build our core group of dancers and instructors ultimately leading to the creation of our dance program in an effort to align with our mission of sharing our identity with in the community and helping immigrants preserve their cultural as well as second generation Central Americans find and identify their unknown roots.
Our Dance Program teaches Nicaragua’s main regional dances and also dances from the Atlantic coast, each section of the country has different music, rhythm and choreographies for Folklore dances. We hold rehearsals twice a week, and before bigger events like Carnival San Francisco held in May in the Mission district each year or our own main production ‘El Güegüense’ hosted at Brava Theater in the Mission district every October the rehearsals become more frequent and oftentimes daily leading up to the event. Our dancers come from all walks of life, and all over the city of San Francisco, we have some children that were born here and have never been to Nicaragua and we have some children that just moved here from Nicaragua and other Central American countries.