WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (WGHP) – At six years old a plie or a tendu can be tough, but for some new dancers it’s now how they learn the moves but who teaches them.
Alejandra Dore is one of the people pushing to diversify dance. She’s an instructor with the Preparatory Dance Program at UNC School of the Arts. She’s also from the Dominican Republic and is a native Spanish speaker.
“After my first class, the joy that I felt after that class, I still have it, that joy,” said Dore.
She practiced her skills and joined professional companies in the Dominican Republic and Ecuador. Then she moved to the United States and decided she wanted to teach and joined UNCSA.
“When I came here, that was six years ago, I thought we have to do something because we have a lot of Hispanic kids, a lot and why are they not having the same opportunities,” said Dore.
She wanted to find kids like six-year-old Zoe. Zoe’s mom Larissa Morales tells FOX 8 she’s been dancing around the house since she was little. Morales didn’t know there were opportunities for her daughter, until she saw a flier posted by Dore in a grocery store catering to the Latinx community in Winston-Salem.