At their June concert, Así Danzan Los Niños – This Is the Way the Children Dance – Sonoma Valley’s folkloric dance group Quetzalén celebrated its accomplishments for the 2024-25 school year. The group comprises almost 100 Sonoma Valley Unified School district students, from kinder through graduating seniors.
Director Víctor Ferrer made the decision in 2019 to make children the focus of the Quetzalén dance group, which had begun as a senior project at Sonoma High, and had continued as a young adult group. Ferrer says his decision “has been very successful, with so many children and young people performing dances from all over México – places I lived while growing up. They are learning about their cultural heritage.”
Funds from the Quetzalén annual family food and activities fundraiser in April, run by parents of the group, had made possible the purchase of new costumes. The costumes represent the typical folkloric dance costume for the states or regions of Mexico whose dances the students were learning and performing for the first time…